426 THE ASS AND THE MULE. 



their size and spirit, wherever they could be found, one only had any vicious propensities, 

 and those mi^ht have been subdued by proper management when young. 1 have always 

 found tliem truer pullers and quicker travellers, witli a load, than horses. Their vision and 

 hearing is much more accurate. I have used them in my family carriage, in a gig, and 

 under the saddle ; and have never known one to start or run from any object or noise ; a 

 fault in the horse tliat continually causes the maiming and death of numbers of human 

 beings. Tiie mule is more steady in his draught, and less likely to waste his strength than 

 the horse; hence more suitable to work with oxen; and as he walks faster, will habituate 

 them to a quicker gait. But for none of the purposes of agriculture does his superiority 

 appear more conspicuous tlian ploughing among crops ; his feet being smaller, and follow 

 each other so much more in a line, that he seldom treads down the ridges or crops. The 

 facility of instructing him to obey implicitly the voice of his driver or the ploughman, is as- 

 tonishing. The best ploughed tillage land I ever saw, I have had performed by two mules 

 tandem without lines or driver. 



There is one plausible objection often urged against the mule, that "on deep soils and deep 

 roads, his feet being so much smaller than those of the horse, sink farther in :" but it should 

 be considered that he can extricate them with as much greater facility. 



Few can be ignorant of the capacity oftiie mule to endure labour in a temperature of Aeait 

 that would be destructive to the horse, who have any knowledge of the preference for him, 

 merely on that account, in the West Indies, and in the Southern States. 



It is full time to bring our comparison to a close; which I shall do by assuming the posi- 

 lion, that the farmer, who substitutes mules for horses, will have this portion of his animal 

 labour performed, with the expense of one spire of grass, instead of two ; which may be 

 equal, so far, to making " two spires grow where one grew before." For although a large- 

 sized mule will consume somewhat more than half the food necessary for a horse, as has 

 been observed, yet if we take into the account the saving in the expense o? shoeing, farriery, 

 and insurance against diseases and accidents, we may safely affirm, that a clear saving of 

 one-half can be fully substantiattd. But, in addition to this, the mule farmer may calculate, 

 with tolerable certainty, upon the continuation of liis capital for thirty years; whereas the 

 horse firmer, at the expiration o? Jifteen years, must look to his crops, to his acres, or a 

 Bank, for the renewal of his — or, periiaps, what is worse, he must commence horse-jockey at 

 an ea'ly period. 



I cannot resist the impulse to exhibit the mule in one other point of view. For the move- 

 ment of machinery, the employment of this animal, when judiciously selected, has met with 

 a most decided preference, in comparison with the horse, independent of the economy of using 

 him. And if we consider the rapid and probably progressive increase of labour-saving ma- 

 chines, in every dep;irtment where tliey can be made subservient to the requirements of so- 

 ciety, it is evident there will be a corresponding demand for animal power, as well as for that, 

 more potent, derived from the elements ; and although the latter may vastly predominate, yet 

 should the horse be employed, and his increase for other purposes continue, as it now does, 

 in the ratio of population, the number, at no very distant period, may become as alarming in 

 our own, as it is at present in our mother country. And notwithstanding we may feel secure, 

 from the extent of our territory, and extreme diversity of soil and climate, but, above all, 

 from being in possession o? Indian-corn, — the Golden Fleece, found by our "Pilgrim Fa- 

 thers," when they first landed on tliese shores; yet such peculiar advantages may not insure 

 us against the visitations of one of the most distressing calamities that a feeling community 

 can possibly be subjected to." 



The reader cannot fail to be struck with the strong corroborative proof which is brought 

 in support of the vievi's of this well-informed writer, after a lapse of seventeen years, in the 

 testimony which follows, from no less instructive and intelligent observers. On the pre- 

 ceding points generally, we now present the answers, of recent date, unstudied in style, but 

 deliberate as to facts ; received in reply to, and corresponding in order with interrogatories 

 propounded in desultory form to gentlemen whose names we hai'e already taken the freedom 

 to introduce to the reader — beginning with the letter from General Shelby, whose testimony 

 embraces the practical knowledge derived from many years of opportunity to view the subject 

 well in all its aspects. " As to mules,'" says the General, tiieir qualities may be greatly varied 

 from the same Jack, whether tlie diminutive donkej' of three feet, or the Jack of Spain of 

 sixteen hands, by reason of the great variety of mares bred to him. The Maltese Jack of 

 fourteen hands, I consider entitlc;d to the same rank and dignity in his race th-it is accorded 

 to the Arabian Horse in liis. A cross between him and the Spanish .Tack of sixteen hands, 

 will be found to comi)ine all the essential properties of size, form and action, and to facilitate 

 the breeding of mules possessing those requisites — I need only add that, in all respects, 

 whether in breeding, rearing, breaking, using and in selecting — the subject of tiie mule 

 should be considered as in the same ligiit precisely as that of the horse — therefore the grounds 

 •of preference between one Jack and another; in other words, their good and bad points, resul* 



