204 CYCLOPEDIA OF LIVE STOCK AND COMPLETE STOCK DOCTOR. 



V. Longevity of the Mule. 



The longevity of the mule is proverbial. It was a commoii saying dur- 

 ing the civil war that "mules never died;" they might sometimes be 

 knocked over by a shot, but if one ever died a natural death the army 

 wags refused to credit or record the fact. Pliny gives an account of one, 

 taken from Grecian history, that was eighty j^ears old ; and though i)iist 

 labor, followed others, that were carrying materials to build the temple 

 of IMinerva at Athens, and seemed to wish to assist them ; which so 

 pleased the people, that they ordered he should have free egress to the 

 gi-ain market. Dr. Rees mentions two that were seventy years old in 

 England. Mr. P. S. Skinner says, "I saw myself, in the West Indies, a 

 mule perform his task in a cane mill, that his owner assured me was forty 

 years old ;" and adds, writing nearly twenty years ago,"Inow own a mare 

 mule twenty-five years old, that I have had in constant work twenty-one 

 years, and can discover no diminution of her 2:)owers ; she has within a 

 year past often taken upwards of a ton weight in a wagon to Boston, a 

 distance of more than five miles. A gentleman in my neighborhood has 

 owned a very large mule about fourteen years, that cannot be less than 

 twenty-eight years old. He informed me, a few day since, that he could 

 not perceive the least failure in him, and would not exchange him for any 

 farm horse in the country. And I am just informed, from a source enti- 

 tled to perfect confidence, that a highly respectable gentleman and eminent 

 agriculturist, near Centerville, on the eastern shore of Maryland, owns a 

 mule that is thirty-five years old, as capable of labor as at any form«!i 

 period." 



VT. Value of Mules for Labor. 



It is beyond dispute that mules will continue to labor for at least dou- 

 ble the period of the usefulness of the horse. They endure extreme) 

 heat better, but are pinched with cold. It is a mistake to suppose that 

 the mule will subsist on far less food than the horse. In proportion to 

 size, they require a])Out the same quantit}' ; but, weight for weight, they 

 will draw a heavier load ; and, for the reason, that they take little notice 

 of what is going on about them, do not fret and seldom scare. As pack- 

 animals, they are far superior to the horse ; while, in sure-f ootedness and 

 freedom from disease, no farm animal, except the goat, can compete with 

 them. The impression that mules can get along with little or no care- and 

 that they may be turned out in the winter to shift for themselves, has led 

 many people to be disappointed in their use. In summer, when a horse 

 would seek the shade, we luive seen mules lie prone in the sun and enjoy 

 the heat. For ordmary farm labor and all teaming purposes, nmles 

 become more and more valuable as we go south of 40 degrees. As we 



