422 THE ASS AND THE MULE. 



nas immense power the other breeds are often clumsy anc sluggish. It is th' 

 against Conestoga. In Minorca the farmers were extremely anxious to breed from Jacks 

 which our officers of the navy had brought from Malta, and confessed their superiority. 

 There are two hinds at Malta, the black and the grey. The former is always most esteemed. 

 I paid for Peter Simple two hundred and fifty Spanish dollars, and he cost me five hundred 

 here. It was considered a high price, but he was known to be the best Jack of his age in 

 Ihe Island. His sire was carried to England for Admiral Rowley." The Jack here spoken 

 of, Peter Simple, is one of, if not the finest we have ever seen. Mr. II. adds in a 

 familiar letter in answer to one addressed to him on the subjects of this memoir gen- 

 erally, some interesting facts which we take the liberty to transcribe in the unstudied lan- 

 guage (and the better for that) in which they are written by one friend to another. As to 

 the well-known indifference, not to say antipathy, evinced by some Jacks to cohabit with a 

 mare, she being of a "diverse kind," he says, "I have heard that it was common for jacks 

 kO refuse mares in Spain, and hence the risk of buying them untried. They do not like to 

 Bell their breeders, and ask high prices for them. In Majorca I have heard of some th?t 

 were held as high as $1000. I sent in two from Gibraltar which came from Ronda, in An 

 dalusia : one was a grey, and the other milk-white with a sorrel belly. I was told that he, 

 the white, was of an excellent strain, originally from Barbary. He was short-legged, very 

 broad over the back, and compactly made ; and took on fat like a pig. He was not clumsy, 

 and was thejinest ambler I ever saw. Unfortunately he was very slack, and on that account 

 of little value. His colts are good, but have not the spirit of those of Ptter Simple. Some 

 of the latter from good mares can compare with the Kentucky mules in size." 



We shall now bind all that has been asserted in support of the fact that Jacks are of dif- 

 ferent races and tempers, and that the Maltese, among those within our reach and with which 

 we are familiar, is the best, by the following quotation from a friendly letter, written, to use 

 his own expressive phrase, currente calamo, "just as if we were sitting under a tree along 

 shore," from Col. N. Goldborough of Maryland, whose attention to all such matters is known 

 to be as critical as his judgment in them is allowed to be sound and superior. 



Of Asses and Mules, says the Col., " I know but little of the natural history of the former, 

 but have an experience of some thirty years of the hatter. The Maltese Jack in the pro 

 duction of mules holds the same rank with the Arabian as to horses. I have never seen 

 a dull mule got by the Jack I purchased of you, even from notoriously sluggish mares. I 

 have often wondered that the mule had so much spirit, when the usual qualities attributed to 

 the ass are taken into consideration. I have bred the same mare at different periods to the 

 ass, and to the blood-horse the horse of fine spirit too, and the progeny of the ass has pos- 

 sessed as much spirit, and in one instance far more than that of the horse." It would be 

 superfluous to multiply authorities or opinions in proof or in description of different races 

 of Jacks, possessing distinct qualities as to conformation and temper: than those already 

 quoted, none can be higher or more conclusive. It was, however, deemed necessary to say 

 thus much, because if, as we expect to show, the mule be highly worthy of more genera! 

 regard, as an animal whose employment is attended with great economy, is it not essential 

 that those who may be led to breed or purchase, should understand that their value, no less 

 than that of the horse, is affected ^y and depends in a great measure upon breed ? and tha* 

 if this fact be not kept constantly in mind, both animals are liable to deterioration, leading 

 in time, as with respect to the mule it has already done, to disparagement and rejection 

 Having indicated, by the opinion of the most competent judges, how much the progeny de- 

 pends for its value on the quality of the sire, it will be seen in the sequel that the influence 

 of the mare is no less than that of the Jack we have heard large mule traders contend that 

 it was greater and more obvious. It is doubtless the greater prevalence of blood in the Ken- 

 tucky mares, for example, which stamps the mules of that state with a blood-like look and 

 air of superiority, which so plainly distinguish them from the coarser mules of Ohio where 

 racing, until very lately, has been considered almost an " abomination in the sight of the Lord." 



We proceed now to view the mule as he i., in a practical point of view that is in respect 

 f the cost and mode of roaring him his capacities and uses : to this end we shall lake 

 leave to publish, without stopping to separate and systematise the facts they contain, and the 

 Vguments they advance, some portions of letters from the friends already spoken of, as well 

 IB further quotations from respectable writers who have given their attention to this subject, 

 than which, it is not easy to think of one more interesting to the American husbandman. 



The great nurseries of the mule, for the supply of Maryland and the yet greater demand 

 for the Southern plantations, have for years past been Kentucky, and more recently Ohic 

 Befoie the commencement of this century, the breeding of the mule for sale in our own 

 eonntry, and for the plantations in the West Indies, had been confined to New-England ; of 

 its history there the sort of jack employed, and kind of mule then and there pn duced, the 

 following account is given in the prize essay already spoken of, and which we commend to 

 the reader for proof at once of the eagerness and the accuracy of the writer's inquiries into 

 the qualities of the mule. 



