HOKSES AND MULES. 337 



been fully appreciated, in some of the middle and border States, 

 but there seems to be an unaccountable prejudice against tbeni 

 in the eastern and western States. We regard tnera as more 

 desirable than horses or oxen on tbe farm. They are mucli 

 quicker in their movements than the ox, and are as tractable 

 when rightly trained. 



Mules, on an average, are more valuable than horses, are 

 easier raised, are not as subject to disease and accident, are not 

 likely to run, and are longer lived ; but to make them thus 

 valuable, just as much care must be taken in breeding them, 

 for " any kind of a jack," " or any kind of a mare," is not 

 " good enough," to breed a mule from. The same points in 

 breeding must be observed as in breeding horses. 



The following comparison instituted by a writer in the Agri- 

 cultural Annual is, in the main, true : 



" Cost of getting horse colt or mule colt, the same. Cost of 

 raising the iirst two years, a little against the mule. The third 

 year the mule will do light work enough about the farm to pay 

 for his keep, and after he is three years old will do any 

 ordinary farm work. But the horse colt must be kept until he 

 is four years old before he is worked at all, and when he is 

 four must be a first-rate colt to bring as much as the mule 

 will at two years old. 



"But assume the animals are both required for the farm 

 work, see what a diflerence there is in favor of the mule. The 

 working life of the mule can be as safely estimated at thirty 

 years, as that for a horse at ten years, so while a mule is working 

 its life out, three horses will be required to do equal service. 

 But these are not the only items; the saving of feed is at 

 least one-fourth, or not less than five hundred and forty-seven 

 bushels of corn, and twenty-seven and a half tons of hay. 

 These amounts added to the original saving in purchase of 



