292 PRODUCTIVE FEEDING OF FARM ANIMALS 



be kept on the best in the land because of his beauty and style, but 

 the mule is fed that he may labor." 22 



It is commonly stated that mules make more economical use 

 of the feed they eat than horses, and that their cost of keep is, 

 therefore, smaller. Careful investigations have failed to show, 

 however, that there is a sound basis for this claim. After a long 

 experience with thousands of army mules, Riley maintains 23 that a 

 mule requires just as much feed as a horse of similar dimensions; 

 in fact, at hard work, he says that the mule will eat more than a 

 horse will or ever can. In general, an animal that eats little is a 

 poor animal, regardless of its class or kind. The mule will manage 

 to get along on poor feed given at irregular intervals, but this 

 neglect is manifested by its condition and efficiency (Burkett). 



A number of stations have conducted experiments with the two 

 classes of animals which furnish data for a study of this question. 

 The following summary figures were obtained at the Missouri and 

 Ohio stations, the animals being fed oats and hay in one series of 

 experiments, and corn and hay in another series, and the hay being 

 figured at $10 a ton, oats at 40 cents a bushel, and shelled corn 

 50 cents a bushel. 



Average 

 yearly cost 

 Average daily work of feed 



Average for mules 4 hours 42 minutes $58.11 



Average for horses 4 hours 34% minutes 58.01 



Summarizing all available data on this point, the Breeders' Ga- 

 zette 24 arrived at the average cost of feed for all the horses per 

 1000 pounds as $75.66 per year, and for the mules, $76.76. " These 

 figures indicate that the mule has no constitutional advantage over 

 the horse in cheapness of maintenance. In fact, the horse has a 

 slight lead in the data presented, but the difference is so small as to 

 be negligible. In actual practice it is probable that the mule is 

 maintained a little more cheaply than the horse, because oats are fed 

 to horses more commonly than to mules. The practice of feeding 

 oats to work horses, however, is largely a whim of the feeder, since 

 numerous tests have shown that corn may be entirely substituted 

 with satisfactory results. The difference between the two is, thus 

 largely a matter of custom, so far as light is shed on the problem 

 by the tests mentioned." 



22 Kentucky Bulletin 176. 



23 Burkett, " Feeding Farm Animals," p. 170. 



24 Sept. 10, 1914, p. 390. 



