FARM ANIMALS 81 



ually increasing to six pounds which should be the 

 maximum. The meal should always be yellow 

 and unfermented. Occasionally it is noticed that 

 mules do not relish cotton seed meal. 



In fattening mules for market slightly different 

 methods are practiced, depending on the class of 

 the mule. The two market classes of mules are 

 sugar mules and cotton mules,, the sugar mules 

 being larger and the cotton mules smaller, but both 

 of the same conformation. The sugar mule is put 

 on a fattening ration in November and brought to 

 a weight of 1150 to 1350 pounds by the first of 

 September, after it reaches the age of two years. 

 The feed during this time should consist of mature 

 corn in the ear, clover and alfalfa, sheaf oats, bran 

 and other green forage. Oats and bran are con- 

 sidered as essential in producing the proper market 

 finish. Cotton mules are put in the stable during 

 the August after they reach two years of age and 

 fed in about the same manner as sugar mules with 

 the idea of getting them in the market by the first 

 of January, when the cotton mule market opens. 



As an example of what may be expected from 

 mules in the way of work and in feeding require- 

 ments, we may mention a team of mules in Okla- 

 homa which was worked seven hours per day. 

 During the year this team ate forty-one bushels 

 of Kafir corn, seventy-three bushels of corn, forty- 

 three and one-half bushels of oats and four hundred 

 and forty-five pounds of bran, at a total cost for the 

 grain of $36.40. At the same time the mules con- 

 sumed four tons of Kafir corn stover and four and a 

 half tons of hay worth $26.00. The whole cost for 

 the year was therefore $62. 40 or seventeen cents per 

 day for the team of mules. In spring the mules drank 

 one hundred and seven pounds of water per day, 



