684 THE PEOPLE 1 S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



twenty-one years, and he could see no diminution of her pow- 

 ers. Another mule is reported on the eastern shore of Mary- 

 land " to be thirty-five years old, and yet as capable of labor as 

 at any former period." 



Winter Care of Mules. We must not lose sight of the 

 fact that the ass is not able to endure cold, as can the horse. 

 The history of the mule in America shows that it succeeds 

 best in the milder latitudes. The business of rearing mules be- 

 gan with much spirit in the New England States soon after the 

 Revolutionary war. They were bred for shipment to the West 

 Indies and the South, for work on sugar and cotton plantations. 

 Though this trade was profitable for many years, it was soon 

 evident that the cost of wintering and feeding was so much less 

 in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri, where feed is cheaper and 

 winters shorter, that the New England farmer must give the 

 business over to the farmers of the West and South-west. 



The breeding of mules in New England did not lead to in- 

 crease of size. The cold weather, and the long winters, that 

 kept the animals from grass and exercise for several months, 

 had an influence to check growth, which the farmer's care did 

 not counteract. Another element in keeping down the size 

 was the fact that any thing of the mule kind could be sold for 

 the Southern laborer. 



The inferior class of mules at first produced a prejudice 

 against the race, and the ready sale of inferior mules did not 

 lead to great improvement. It was not many years, however, 

 after mule raising in Kentucky and Illinois, where grass and 

 grain were fed liberally and mules had range and exercise 

 abundant, until their greatly increased size and quality brought 

 the high prices which stimulated good breeding. These possi- 

 bilities of better growth and better prices led to the use of 

 better mares and high-priced jacks. Soon large, active mules, 

 handsomely matched, found fancy buyers among the merchants 

 and business men of cities, for trucks and delivery wagons. 

 Their excellence for such uses has kept a market for them 

 which has not yet been over-done. 



Mule-raising promises to be a more profitable business than 



