THE ASS AND MULE. 683 



twenty years without a farrier's bill coming in. He has used 

 mules in all work, and never had an accident from running 

 away or fright, while horses, in that time, had caused maiming 

 and death to themselves and human beings. The mule is more 

 steady at a draught, and less likely to waste strength than the 

 horse. In plowing among crops, the mule's feet being small, it 

 seldom treads on the crop. The mule will obey implicitly, as 

 he has plowed two tandem without lines, and done better plow- 

 ing than it was possible to do with horses. 



Mr. Elicott, of Patuxent Furnaces, testifies in the American 

 Farmer that out of one hundred mules at the works, they have 

 not lost on an average one in two years, and never had one 

 that was wind-broken. They are tougher in the hoof, and shoe- 

 ing is less expensive. Their skin is tougher, and they are not 

 annoyed so much with flies and do not suffer so much with heat 

 in summer. 



We might multiply similar testimony as to the economy in 

 using mules on the farm and at heavy work rather than horses 

 and cattle, but enough has been said to show their exceeding 

 great value and that the prejudice against the mule is not 

 founded in fact. 



The Longevity of the Mule. It was a common say- 

 ing during the late war, "that mules never died." One mule 

 has been in the service of the United States over twenty-five 

 years, and at the recommendation of General Sherman has been 

 retired and pensioned. Pliny gives an account of one that 

 Grecian history made eighty years old, and though no longer 

 used for labor, followed others that were carrying materials to 

 build the Temple of Minerva, at Athens, and seemed to wish to 

 assist them. The people were so pleased with his conduct, 

 that they ordered for him free egress to the public grain 

 market. 



Dr. Rees mentions two mules in England that were seventy 

 years old. Another writer states that he saw a mule in the 

 West Indies performing his task in a cane-mill that his owner 

 said was forty years old. He adds that he owns a mare mule, 

 twenty-five years old, that he has had in constant work for 



