A PLEASANT VISIT TO AN EMINENT FARMER. 181 



on this farm of 100 acres, (of which 80 only are under the plow or in permanent 

 pasture,) consists of about 20 hogs, little and big, 16 head of neat cattle, 3 horses^ 

 and 50 head of sheep. His sheep yield him an average clip of 3 pounds per 

 head, and the wool is exchanged at a neighboring factory fur, or made into clotfe 

 and casinet, for his own use ; so that there is no outlay on that score. "A penny 

 saved is two pence got," as Poor Richard says. His sheep are, for the most part,, 

 pastured on a lot of 10 or 12 acres. 



The Editor aforesaid was earnest in persuading him that he would find a great 

 savhig in the entire substitution of mules for horses; urging tiiat of all machines 

 on a farm, a horse, especially an idle one, was the ntoxt c.rpcnsivc, even worse 

 than an idle man or woman, except that thougli their mouth goes, their to7is;uc- 

 docs not ; but with tbe prejudice against this useful animal, which is universal 

 if not instinctive, throughout Pennsylvania, New- York, and perhaps all New- 

 England, Mr. C. intimated that his family umSt have a conveyance to meeting,, 

 and that neither they nor he would consider it comely or respectable to drive 

 mules'. Thus, after all, there are })oints on which you may touch the pride of 

 these northern people, and on which they are as ready as some others, to sacri- 

 fice pecuniary considerations for sake of appearances. In vain did the Editor,.. 

 who seemed very //o/Zfishly inclined, urge, that in some countries, as in Spain 

 and Portugal, and the Brazils, the use of mules is reserved as an aristocratic 

 privilege To noble and royal iamilies. This republican farmer, this American 

 Klyogg considered himself "as good as any nobleman of England." In vain 

 did the Editor tell him that in New-Orleans, where so many men make their 

 living by the use of the dray, they would not have a horse as a present — that h.*!- 

 had seen ladies driving mules in their carriages into Augusta, in Georgia, and 

 that he had iiimself ridden from the residence of the Farmer of Ashland to Gen. 

 Shelby's, in his private carriage, behind a pair of mules, 8 miles within the liour^ 

 and without the touch of whip. 



All would not convert the President of the Agricultural Society to the use of 

 this despised hybrid. You might as well "pour water on a goose's back," — 

 while the truth is that, especially with their light land in this county, millions 

 might be saved by using and driving the nmie, in place of the shorter lived, more- 

 luxurious, more sickly, and most expensive of all beasts — the horse. I could not. 

 myself help reflecting on the force of this prejudice, at the sight of a team of' 

 frail horses, every day hauling brick into Saratoga from Mr. Denton's, a very in- 

 dustrious and thrifty farmer in the neigh i)orhood ; knowing, as I do, how muck 

 mules are prized wherever their value is known, especially for that steady, er- 

 ery-day, measured drudgery — such as working in machinery, hauling iron ore^ 

 working on canals — where the labor is constant and steady, day in and day out, 

 from year's end to year's end. Ask the Ridgleys, the Ellicots, and the Patter- 

 sons, of Maryland, and they will tell you on this point, as General Ridgely, of 

 Hampton, once did the writer, (your spy on this occasion,) that if you would fit 

 them out, in the commencement of the iron business, with a set of horses, and 

 require them to keep them up by repairing wear and tear, for a series of years, 

 ihey would not accept them as a gracious gift. 



Mr. C. was of the connuon opinion among people who are not acquainted 

 with mules, that they are very difficult to break, and require to be " broken 

 over again " every once in a while. Pie seemed surprised when the Editor told 

 him they were much easier than a horse to !)e broken to the plow or the wagon;: 

 and yet more when the southern planter told him that, in the South, all they 

 had to do was to get them hitckcd to the wagon, and drive them off at once^ 

 For myself, there needed no argument in favor of oxen or mules, for I had read 

 all that had been written by this Editor himself, of tiie natural history and econ- 

 omy of both, amounting to more than has been said in their favor bv any (I was 

 going to say, friend) either living or dead, of these patient and speechless crea- 

 tures — even to the relation of the story from the writings of Rev. Dr. Sterne^, 

 where he recounts how two nuns, deserted by the muleteer, and getting be- 

 nighted in the mountains, could not persuade the mule to advance another siep> 

 until they bethought themselves to have recourse to a certain expedient. 



The fact is that; the prejudice against mules is like that against snakes — both,, 

 perhaps, deducible from scriptural injunctions, one of which says, tiie heel of 

 the son of Adam sbalt bruise the serpent's head, and the other that thou shall 

 not let l!iy cattle gender with divers kinds — meaning, perhaps, the horse and ilxe 



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