420 THE ASS AND THE MULE. 



but rather with the hope of making some impression on the public mind, and inducing a 

 higher appreciation of these animals, by presenting at one view tlie opinions, some of them 

 hillierto unpublished, and believed to be very striking, of gentlemen who have enjoyed rare 

 opportunities to judge of the different races of the Ass, and of the temper, habits and capa- 

 bilities of the Mule. True, the Editor professes to be himself not altogether without expe- 

 rience on some of these points; having often, when a boy, been mounted on the back of 

 one, and sent, on Saturday (always on Saturday) in spite of all pouting and sulking, to the 

 weaver, the shoemaker, the tailor, or the country store. On these mournful occasions, the 

 sense of hardship at being disappointed of some well-concerted scheme of rural sport, tbund 

 vent, it may be easily imagined, in acts of spitefulness (not always unretaliated) towards the 

 innocent mule — the poor beast being beaten and the rider sometimes thrown ovej- his head! 

 until now, that though near forty years have passed away since the close of this war of 

 puerile injustice and mulish resentment, it may yet be questioned whether it be exactly 

 fair, that one of the parties should assume to be the limner of the other ! We will en. 

 deavour, however, in weighing the subject, to hold the scales with even hand ; and here, 

 lest it be elsewhere omitted, let one acknowledgment be made, and noted by the advocates 

 of the more sightly and favoured horse, — that though the mule may, as already suggested, 

 be the cause of falls in others, no man ever yet saw a mule fall down ! but we must not 

 anticipate. 



As already staled, the first inquiry would seem to be as to the progenitors of the mule, 

 to decide how far, on these, depend the qualities and value of the progeny. This point being 

 discussed, the subject leads us to consider the question of rearing and breaking — his age, 

 strength and general usefulness compared with other animals. On all these points we shall 

 rely as before admitted on the views of intelligent writers, and of gentlemen of close obser- 

 vation and of the highest respectability with whom we have recently corresponded. Before 

 proceeding however to quote authorities on tiiese points, there is one proposition or conclusion 

 which reading and inquiry have led us to adopt, and which may as well be here expressed, 

 without stopping to trouble the reader with all the particular grounds of it. It is that the 

 best mules are produced by the union of the Jack with the mare, rather than from cohabita- 

 tion between the Stallion and the Jennet. Independently of any particular facts, and of the 

 few instances in which the Stallion is known to have been so employed, (that alone warrant- 

 ing the inference against its eligibility) we should form the conclusion here announced, that 

 the better produce would be, generally from the smaller sire and the larger dam ; on the clear 

 principles of breeding laid down by Professor Cline of London, in his essay on breeding 

 domestic animals, which is elsewhere referred to and quoted in our introduction to the work 

 on the Horse. 



In the annals of American agriculture at least, the essay on the mule, which may be 

 regarded as the most elaborate and of the highest authority, is one written by S. VV. Pomerov, 

 Esq., a gentleman who, whether farming, as then, near the " Literary Emporium," or as 

 now, more profitably employed, as we learn and hope, in heaving coal on the banks of the 

 Ohio ; brings light to every circle in which he moves. Of an essay so meritorious, we may be 

 justified in telling the history; and the more so as by so doing we shall give to the positions 

 it maintains more weight with the reader tlian would any dictum of ours. 



The writer of this, then the Editor of the old American Farmer, being himself bred on a 

 "plantation" where mules were bred and in constant use, and anxious to have the minds of 

 his numerous patrons disabused and enlightened as to the true qualities and value of this, as 

 compared with other and more favoured animals for the usual purposes of husbandry, with- 

 out difficulty persuaded the late venerable Charles Carroll of Carrollton to offer a premium 

 for the best essay on that subject. The competitors were numerous, but the award of the 

 plate, with its appropriate devices and inscriptions, was unanimously and without hesitation, 

 to S. VV. PoMERoY, then of Brighton Massachusetts. It is to that essay we shall now have 

 free recourse ; and first as to 



THE DIFFERENT RACES OF JACKS. 



It seems to be a well-established fact, that different races of the Ass exist with properties 

 as distinctly marked as those which characterise the various species of camel. According 

 to the learned Doctor Harris, author of the " Natural History of the Bible," four difTerent 

 races of asses are recognised in the original Hebrew Scriplurcs : viz. I'ara, Chamor, Aton, 

 and Orud. 



We find, says the author of tlie prize essay referred to, that at a very early period of sacred 

 history, the common domestic a.ss, Chamor, was employed in all the menial labours of a 

 patriarchal family, while a nobler and more estimable animal {Aton) was destined to carry 

 the patriarchs, the well-born, and those on whom marks of distinction were to be conferred. 

 They constituted an imporiant item in a schedule of pastoral wealth of those times. 

 David, we are told, had an officer of high dignity appointed expressly to superintend his stud 

 ^ high-hrcd asses ! Atonoth. 



