THE ASS AND THE MULE, 



BY J. S. SKINNER. 



• " He would 



Have made them mules : who have their provender 

 Only for bearing burdens ; and sore blows 

 For sinkiog under them." 



Against these humble animals there seems with many, to be a prejudice, more ci.. , ., 

 not more inveterate, than that which prompts every son of Adam, whether he meet him on 

 che high-way or the bye-way, to " bruise the serpent's head !" Can it be that these 

 abiding antipathies to both, are perpetuated by the force of scriptural injunctions against the 

 life of the one and the procreation of the other ? " Thou shall not let thy cattle gender with 

 a diverse kind," saith the Scriptures : now, though this command may be admitted as binding 

 upon the Jews not to breed mules, docs it follow that a christian is forbidden the kind treat- 

 ment and judicious use of them? The same chapter and verse which denounces this 

 experiment upon the procreative faculties of God's creatures, also warns the husbandman not 

 to " sow mingled seed" — but what farmer, whether Jew or Gentile, refuses to reap a good 

 crop of mixed clover and .timothy ? and besides, did not King David, a man after God's own 

 heart, indicate his care for his son, and intend it as a complimerit for both him and the mule, 

 when he gave the order, " take with you the servants of your Lord, and cause Solomon my 

 son to ride upon mine own mule, and bring him down to Gihon?" Let me then invoke the 

 liberality of my readers to cast aside all prejudice against this useful and too often abused 

 hybrid, and impartially to hear me " for my cause." 



To all, and there are many, who entertain a scornful contempt for the whole asinine 

 family, might be commended Sterne's pathetic story of "The Dead Ass," for a touching 

 picture of faithful service, and of mutual friendship in the humblest walks of life — "Shame 

 on the world ! said I to myself. Did we love each other as this poor soul loved his 

 Ass — 't would be something." 



America, as to its Agriculture, may be likened to a gallant ship, moored in a beautiful 

 harbour, whose owners have no means to buy her cargo or hire sailors to man and send her 

 to sea. The mildew blights her sails, and worms eat out her bottom. So it is with our 

 lands ; with millions on millions of acres, the growth of our population and national wealth 

 is lamentably retarded for want of force to put them in good and profitable tillage. 

 There is no country where labour, and all labour-saving animals and contrivances, are so 

 much a desideratuvi as in ours ! Hence the necessity and the usefulness of every discussion 

 which shall teach the land-holder how and in what form — with what animal or implement, 

 he can with the least outlay, command the greatest amount of ■productive power applicable to 

 agriculture. That power, in a word, whether animate or inanimate, which will work the 

 longest and the cheapest and with most effect Among animals, is it not in the mule that 

 we find this power or machine ? This, reader, is the subject of our inquiry : and first it 

 seems proper to look into its natural history ana qualities, to see whether there be in fact 

 any ground of preference between one and another, or whether a mule is a mule I all being 

 alike, as too many seem to suppose ; and finally to inquire and explain in what the differ- 

 ence of quality, imparting difference of value, consists— such, reader, is the object of this 

 dissertation. 



Agriculturists, even those who have enjoyed opportunities of becoming more famili.ir 

 with the qualities and uses of this animal, seem to reason, as already hinted, or rather to 

 conclude without reason,<ithat all mules are alike ; with the name and the sight of all is alike 

 associated the idea of jumping and kicking and all sorts of devilment incarnate ! Hence 

 has arisen the difficulty, the limited employment and the slowness in realising the improve- 

 ments of which this animal is susceptible, like others, even the proud " lord of the creation," 

 by attention to breed and to education ! 



We must be allowed to premise that we have not taken the subject in hand in any vain 

 belief that we can add anything new to what has been written upon their natural history ; 



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