California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



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Good Things About Mules. 



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fjTULES are easier kept thau horses, be- 



jlll caUBO they eat less and will keep in 

 ^l| good condition on poorer food. They 

 \M^X, are by fur less liable to disease. They 

 i'^W are more hardy, and will eudnre de- 

 gi-ees of heat and cold that would greatly in- 

 jure horses. If they sometimes refuse to go, 

 they are rarely known to run away, and, ac- 

 cordingly, they do not break harness, wagons 

 and carts, not to speak of legs and arms. 

 They are not naturally vicious, and most of 

 their bad characteristics may be ascribed to 

 defective education and to bad examples. 



The power of endurance of mules is much 

 beyond that of horses. They are also surer 

 footed. They are, accordingly, better adapt- 

 ed as beasts of burden to travel in a warm 

 climate, to endure fatigue, and to make trips 

 over mountains. Mules are almost the only 

 reliance of the inhabitants of Central and 

 South America. Thej' are used for drawing 

 plows, harrows and haiwesters, and for taking 

 produce to market, and for all purposes of 

 traveling. In the Southern States they per- 

 form nearly as many useful purposes, and 

 there is hardly a cotton, cane or tobacco rais- 

 er who would think that he could raise one of 

 these crops without the use of mules. 



For plowing between the rows of cultivated 

 crops the mule is in many respects the supe- 

 rior of the horse. His feet are .smaller, and, 

 accordingly, do less damage in stepping upon 

 plants. His skin is tougher, and therefore 

 is not so liable to be injured by defective har- 

 ness. The gait is more uniform and accord- 

 ingly the driver is not so likely to become 

 wearied. As a rule, mules are less liable to 

 become irritable and fr.actious on account of 

 the jiresence or bites of insects, and conse- 

 quently, do less damage to crops among which 

 they work. 



Mules may be jiut to work much earlier 

 than horses. There is in this resi^ect at least 

 the advantage of one year in the favor of the 

 mule. In other words, the mule will do as 

 much work when three years old as the horse 

 will when four. The mule not only begins to 

 pay his way much earlier but continues to be 

 useful much later in life. AVe have rei^eated 

 accounts of mules continuing to do good ser- 

 vice after they were forty years old. A mule, 

 the property of the late Prof. Mapes, of New 

 Jersey, was healthy, active and fit for labor 

 when it was si.\ty years old. 



It is urged that the mule is slow and awk- 

 ward, but these faults are largely the results 

 of bad breeding. As a rule, no care is taken 

 in breeding mules. The dams of most mules 

 are animals that no farmer would want to 

 raise colts from. They are themselves slow 

 and awkward and oftentimes lame and dis- 

 eased. It is not to be wondered at that these 

 defects reappear in the offsju-ing of these ani- 

 mals. Horses would be slow and awkward if 

 they were raised from animals of this sort.and 

 we can expect nothing different in the ease of 

 mules. — X. 



Horses vs. Mules. — Much has been said in 

 agricultural papers about the advantage of 

 mules. I have raised some of the best I ever 

 saw, and have had some means of comparing 

 them with the horse. It is very true that the 

 mule will climb a steep hill, if it is free from 

 mud, with a bigger load according to his 

 weight than a horse. It is true that he will 

 rough it through a hard Winter better than a 

 horse, and it may be also that ho is less liable 

 to disease than a horse, but ho is slow and 

 lacks spirit. In deep mud ha is almost worth- 

 loss. 



Ho seems to have but little power to draw 

 his feet out of sticky soil, and the exertion 

 tires him and he loses heart. In a slough 

 whore the spirit of the horse prompts him to 

 a gallant struggle to regain the solid ground, 



the mule gives up and lies contentedly down 

 in the mud. Of course some mules are worse 

 than others in this respect, but none are 

 equal in mud to the most average horse. 



For ver.y hard, heavy work, where there is 

 no mud, the mule will always be valuable, but 

 as long as it remains true that time is money 

 we must prefer the horse to the mule. 



The rage for mules commenced in the 

 United States about seventy-five years ago 

 and has been revived at different periods since ; 

 but the horse still continues to bear sway, and 

 falsify the oft repeated predictions made many 

 years ago that the mule would eventually 

 supersede the horse in the general work of 

 the farm. For heavy hauling and rough us- 

 age on the hard streets of cities I havs no 

 doubt but that the mule is the most econom- 

 ical. For this sort of work there is a demand 

 for him, and he may be raised for the market 

 with profit; but it is simple folly for any one 

 now, after seventy-five years of experience 

 with mules in the United States, to talk about 

 their taking the place of horses. — Cor. Iowa 

 Fine Stock Gazelle. 



Windows ik Hokse Stables. — A German 

 paper states some curious facts relating to 

 the position of windows in horse stables, and 

 their power to effect the eyes of horses of a 

 farmer — fine animals, celebrated for their ex- 

 cellent condition, were kept in a stable lighted 

 only by a small window at one side. When 

 light was needed for work, the door was tem- 

 porarily left open; the result was that nearly 

 all of these animals had eyes of unequal 

 strength, and in time a number of them be- 

 came blind on the side toward the window. 



Strong light directed in the horses' faces 

 has been found to weaken the sight. The 

 worst position of all for a stable window is in 

 front of the horses and much higher than 

 their heads. An officer had bought a perfectly 

 sound mare from a gentleman whose stable 

 was lighted by windows at the rear of the 

 stalls. The animal was sound and perfectly 

 satisfactory. After three months she became 

 suddenly "ground shy;" on examining her 

 eyes they were found directed upward, and 

 this was explained by the fact that the win- 

 dows of the officer's stable were situated above 

 the head of the stalls, the eyes being gener- 

 ally drawn in that direction. She w^as re- 

 moved to another stall, where the light was 

 admitted from all sides, and in three mouths' 

 time the difficulty had disappeared. 



Social Moeals in HonsE-Br.EEDiNa. — A 

 horse breeder says: In selecting breeders, 

 great care should be taken relative to the so- 

 cial morals of both horse and mare. Like 

 begets like, and in no case more so than that 

 of the horse. A b.ad and vicious temper in a 

 horse may be checked, but never eradicated, 

 and he will be unpleasant, dangerous, and 

 his fretting and fuming will unnecessarily 

 waste his strength. 



A man bought a horse. It was the first one 

 he ever owned. He saw in a newspaper that 

 side windows in a stable make a horse's eye 

 weak on that side; a window in front hurts 

 his eyes by the glare; a window behind makes 

 him squint-eyed; a window in a diagonal line 

 makes him shy when he travels; a stable with- 

 out a window makes him blind. Ho sold his 

 horse. 



A horse is never vicious or intractable with- 

 out cause. Cruelty makes a horse wild. 

 Good men make good horses. — Ex. 



Following the startling frauds in the whis- 

 ky business comes the unearthing of gigantic 

 swiudling in the im])iirtations of silk. Ju 

 two years, it is currently believed that the 

 OovorTiment has been cheated out of at least 

 $1,000,0011 at Now York alone. How much 

 at otlier points is unknown. Of course, moro 

 or loss of the custom house officers are con- 

 corned in the nuitter. In what direction shall 

 we look for the next steal? 



mmxt. 



The Berkshire Hog. 



If T a late state fair in the East, there was 

 X not one white hog exhibited. All were 



•tV. black, and either Berkshire of Essex. 

 At the largest of the Western state fairs, 



c)" that of Illinois, nearly all the hoga 

 were black, or black and white. This would 

 seem to indicate the rapid growth of the black 

 breeds in public favor, and of these the Berk- 

 shire takes the lead. As well indirectly as 

 directly, for in the Poland Chinas of the West 

 is seen, in the majority of cases, the Berk- 

 shire blood greatly predominating. The 

 Berkshire has been most carefully bred for 

 many years, starting from what was originally 

 a largo breed, possessing many good points, 

 and of a black and white and yellowish sjiot- 

 ted color. The improvement of the old Berk- 

 shire hog was begun in England by Lord 

 Barringtou, who died in 1829, and most of 

 the best herds now trace back to this original 

 improved herd. By careful breeding the yel- 

 lowish color has been gotten rid of, and the 

 white has been confined to the feet, a spot 

 between the eyes, and in some cases a few 

 white hairs near the shoulders, although 

 there are herds in which these last white 

 marks are entirely bred out. The Berkshire, 

 as we now know him, is a moderately large 

 hog, with a smooth, round carcass, broad 

 across the shoulders, -nuth well developed and 

 round hams, a long, deep flitch, very fine, 

 small, bony legs and feet, short face and 

 snout, and covered with a good coat of long, 

 silky, black hair. In many good Berkshires, 

 the bluish or slate colored tint and thin hair 

 of the Neapolitan hog, which has been crossed 

 ujjon it, is very conspicuous; but it is a ques- 

 tion if the black, well-haired animal is not 

 the more vigorous and thrifty sort. One of 

 the chief characteristics of the Berkshire is 

 the evenness with which it breeds. At the 

 exhibitions and in the breeders' yard, whole 

 litters may be seen that sciu-eely vary from 

 each other, and hardly to be distinguished 

 one from another in appearance, and pen after 

 I^en may be examined without any marked 

 variation, excepting in those cases in which, 

 as already noted, the Neapolitan cross is ap- 

 parent. After fifty years of careful breeding, 

 this is not more than might be expected, and 

 the result appears in an animal which, on the 

 whole, is probably the most profitable to the 

 breeder, the feeder, the butcher and the pack- 

 er. There is no pig that is more useful to the 

 man who keeps but one, and more to the far- 

 mer who feeds a hundred, if the amount of 

 meat in proportion to feed consumed is con- 

 sidered. There is more lean in proportion to 

 fat than in most other, if not in all other 

 breeds, and the bone and offal are very light. 

 The black color is not only skin deep, but the 

 color lies in the outer skin, which is all re- 

 moved by scalding, and a Berkshire ham is 

 not to be distinguished from that of a white 

 hog, if the hair has not been left on to tell 

 the story. It is no little evidence of its good 

 qualities that the Berkshire h.as become so 

 rapidly popular, in spite of the prejudice 

 against its color, as to supplant, along with 

 the Essex, all the white breeds, at one of the 

 most prominent Eastern state fairs. — Boitie 

 Journal. 



The following experiment is vouched for by 

 the K(tn.'<ns Rd-fHcras coming from a good and 

 reliable farmer. As showing the relative 

 value of corn and wheat for fattening hogs, it 

 is valuable: Ho took one hunihed hogs and 

 put fifty in pens and fed corn, and fifty and 

 fed wheat, with the following result: Those 

 with corn made eleven pounds per bushel; 

 the fifty with wheat made seventeen pounds 

 of good solid pork per bushel of wheat. The 

 wheat was ground like meal, boiling water 

 poured over it, and then let stand forty-two 

 hours. 



