MULES. 185 



p-roduct of twenty millions of highly cultivated acres !* 

 And what is the consequence ? consumption follows so 

 close upon supply, that at every season of harvest, let 

 the preceding one be never so abundant, fast sailing 

 vessels are found in the various ports, with their anchors 

 atrip, to convey intelligence of the result, to all parts 

 of the world v/here a surplus of bread corn is grown — 

 exciting such an interest in our own country, that the 

 farmer on the shores of Erie and Ontario, and on the 

 banks of the Ohio, may be seen reading bulletins of 

 British weather — the rain and sunshine of every day 

 in August and the two following months — often within 

 thirty days after the time of their publication in Londor; 

 or Liverpool. Can it be supposed that in a country 

 where an attachment to the horse borders so nearly 

 upon infatuation, that the question of the utility of the 

 mule as a substitute, w^ould be ' seriously agitated, or 

 encra2:e scarce a momentarv investi^-ation ? 



In no country is the mule better adapted to all the 

 purposes of husbandry, for which the horse is used, 

 than in every section of our own. And it would be 

 hio^hlv desirable to be able to exhibit a calculation ol 

 the actual saving, in dollars and cents, by his employ- 

 ment — but unfortunatelv no correct data can be had. 

 And as I consider such calculations, unless founded 

 upon experimental facts, and those multiplied, to be as 

 " tinkling cymbals," I shall merely submit a desultory 



* Mr. Pitt, in an al)le " Essay on the consumption of corn," 

 published by the Board of Agriculture, in 1806, estimates that 

 each draught horse, employed on roads, canals, and mines, in 

 pleasure carriages of all descriptions, and carts in cities, consume 

 the average product of four acres for oats and beans, and three 

 acres for hay. It is stated in the same essay, that "the aggregate 

 ©f oats imjiorted into England {only) for twenty years, ending in 

 1707, amounted to the enormous quantity of 8,655, 04G quarters^^—' 

 apwards of sixty-nine millions of bushels .' 



