Sno. 8.] 



HORSES AXD MULES. 



117 



urally about as slow as oxen, trained to travel homeward without a load at 

 a rouiul trot. For working singly in the cultivation of crops, mules are far 

 superior to horses, and of course can do a great deal of work that could not 

 be done-Lj' oxen. We have seen mules that M-cre fair substitutes for saddle- 

 horses, having one good quality, that of sure-footedness. There is one ob- 

 jection to mules on a farm where the stock is generally pastured : there is 

 nothing short of a Mississippi fence that will hold them — that is, twelve rails 

 higli. and stake-and-ridered ; and we have heard planters declare that they 

 had often known the brutes to climb over sucli a fence as that. In advising 

 a Xorthern farmer to keep mules, wo therefore advise him 'to make his cal- 

 culation to kcc]) tlicm in a staldo all the time tiiey arc out of harness. 



IG!^. Breediii!^ of Horses and Hlnles. — There are certain universal laws of 

 lu-ceding which can not be ignored, except at the sacrifice of all success. In 

 Kentucky and Tennessee, a verj- large strain of mules have been obtained 

 by using jacks of immense size. AVe recollect seeing one at R. Cuckrill's, 

 near Nashville, over eighteen hands high. We have seen several mules of 

 that bight, and numerous ones of sixteen and seventeen hands high. It is 

 still a (jucstion whether such large mules are as economical as the smaller 

 sizes, which cost less at first and cost less for sustenance ; and some pei-sons 

 contend that at ordinary labor the small mule will do as much and last 

 longer. 



In breeding either horses or mules, a writer upon the subject says : " If we 

 would have sound stock, we rnii>if fatre constitutioniil soundncnii hi both dain 

 and sire. There are hundreds, ay, thousands, who will sc^nr the countiy ami 

 compare the merits of a dozen horses — will give time and money to secure 

 the services of a good stallion — and all with the exiiectation of i)rocuring a 

 fine colt from a miserable, puny, ill-shaped, broken-winded, spavined old 

 mare. How often do we hear it said, ' Oh, she will do to raise a colt 

 from ;' or — after hard service and cruel usage have left a mere wreck of 

 what, away back in the farmer's memory, was once a beast of power, activ- 

 ity, excellent temper, and noble bearing — 'wc must now turn the old mare 

 out to breed from.' The start is wrong, the foundation is defective — what 

 wonder should the structure tumble to the earth ? 



" In the marc wc need size and symmetry ; if there be blood, all the bet- 

 tor — it will tell. Without the first two, however— even though all the 

 lilood that has flowed through thorough-brcds, from the days of Godol]>liin 

 to the present, were in her veins — she is utterly unfit for a breeder. JIauy 

 animals possess some favorable peculiarity wliicii owners wish to transmit, 

 ami though there may be a structural deficiency in some other part, the 

 marc is brought to the breeding paddock in the hope that the desirable 

 features will be prominent in the colt, even if it be at the expense of other 

 points of strength and action. The breeder liero commits an error. It 

 would be better to let the marc go, tbr in the very large majority of cases 

 the deficiencies will be transmitted while the excellences will not. 



" In choosing a marc for breeding purposes, she should be so formed in. 



