830 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



as easily as horses, and when frightened are not as liable to run away. A good mule-team 

 costs much less than a proportionately good horse-team, while a mule is raised to a working 

 age much more cheaply than a horse. 



Mules may be kept at less expense than horses, and are not subject to as many diseases, 

 while those they may have are more easily cured. On the other view of the subject, a horse 

 may be used for pleasure driving, or for all purposes, while a mule is suited only for heavy 

 work, and purposes of draft. Judge Hinckley, of Northampton, Mass., formerly a breeder of 

 mules, always kept a team of them for performing the drudgery of farm work, much prefer - 

 ing them, after an experience of fifty years, to horses for this purpose, although he kept his 

 stables full of horses besides. One pair thirty years old were particularly serviceable, having 

 outlived several generations of horses, and though the latter were often out of condition and 

 sick, the mules never were. One of his stock, forty-five years old, was perfectly able to per 

 form his share of labor. 



Another gentleman who used mules for over thirty years, says: &quot;From repeated 

 experiments I have found that three mules from fourteen and a half to sixteen hands high, 

 capable of performing any work a horse is usually put to, and which were kept constantly at 

 work, consumed about the same quantity of hay, and only one-half the provender which was 

 given to two middling sized coach horses, only moderately worked. I am satisfied that a 

 large-sized mule will not consume more than three-fifths to two-thirds the food to keep him 

 in good order, that will be necessary for a horse performing the same labor. The expense 

 of shoeing a mule the year round, does not exceed one-third that of the horse, his hoofs being 

 harder, more horny, and so slow in their growth, that shoes require no removal, and hold on 

 till worn out; and the wear, from the lightness of the animal, is much less. 



Mules have been lost by feeding on cut straw, and corn meal ; in no other instance have 

 I known disease in them, except by inflammation of the intestines, caused by the grossest 

 exposure to cold and wet, and excessive drinking cold water, after severe labor, and while in 

 a high state of perspiration. It is not improbable that a farmer may work the same team of 

 mules for twenty years without having a farrier s bill presented to him. In my experience 

 of thirty years, I have never found but one mule inclined to be vicious, and he might have 

 been easily subdued while young. I have always found them truer pullers, and quicker 

 travelers, with a load, than horses. Their vision and hearing are much more accurate. I 

 have used them in my family carriage, in a gig, and under the saddle, and have never known 

 one to start or run from any object or noise, a fault in the horse that continually causes the 

 maiming and death of numerous human beings. 



The mule is more steady in his draught and less likely to waste his strength than the 

 horse, hence more suitable to work with oxen, and as he walks faster, will habituate them to 

 a faster gait. In plowing among crops, his feet being small and following each other so 

 much more in a line, he seldom treads down the ridges or crops. The facility of instructing 

 him to obey implicitly the voice of the driver is astonishing. The best plowing of tillage land 

 that we ever saw, we have had performed by two mules tandem, without lines or driver.&quot; 



Mules have been driven eighty miles in a day without injury, although this is not to be 

 recommended, and it is too much to expect of any animal, yet it shows how much they are 

 capable of enduring. Mr. Ellicott, of Patuxent Furnaces, states that out of one hundred 

 mules in the works, they have not lost, on an average, one in two years, while he does not 

 recollect that they have ever had one that was wind-broken. They are rarely defective in 

 the hoof, and though kept shod, shoeing is not as necessary as with horses. Their skin is 

 tougher than that of a horse, and they are consequently not as much annoyed by the flies, 

 and do not suffer so much with the heat in summer. Mr. Morris, of Pennsylvania, says: 



&quot; Being a dealer in this class of live-stock, and coming in almost daily contact with their 

 muleships, I have learned their dispositions and habits pretty thoroughly, and having learned 



