318 



The Mule. 



Vol. VIII. 



ba, die., thus treated, to grow twelve feet 

 the first season. The disadvantage of plant- 

 ing them in March, is that the ground inva- 

 riably becomes hard and sodden around the 

 cutting, and it is difficult to loosen it with- 

 out disturbing the stock, and vegetation is 

 so sluggish that the buds are apt to rot be- 

 fore there is warmth enough to germinate 

 them. This subject is so interesting, and I 

 hope becoming more so, that I should like 

 to make some further remarks in regard to 

 the subsequent management of the vines in 

 a future number of the Cabinet. Every 

 man, in city or country, whether he occu- 

 pies his land in fee-simple, or merely as a 

 tenant by the year, should stick down a few 

 grape cuttings at the proper season, and our 

 country would soon be stocked with this 

 healthy and delicious fruit. T. 



Woodbury, N. J., April 15th, 1844. 



The Mule. 



" My attention has been but lately directed 

 to breeding mules; and those intended only 

 for my own use. The system adopted is 

 to halter them at four months, and have the 

 males emasculated before six months old ; 

 which has great influence on their future 

 conduct, and is attended with much less haz- 

 ard and trouble, than if delayed until they 

 are one or two years old, as is the general 

 practice. If they are treated gently, and fed 

 occasionally out of the hand, with corn, po- 

 tatoes, &c., they soon become attached ; and 

 when they find that ' every man's hand is 

 not against them,' will have no propensity 

 to direct their heels against him, and soon 

 forget they have the power. In winter they 

 should be tied up in separate stalls, and often 

 rubbed down. By such treatment there is 

 not more danger of having a vicious mule 

 than a vicious horse — and I am decidedly of 

 opinion, that a high-spirited mule so man- 

 aged, and well broke, will not jeopard the 

 lives or limbs of men, women, or chil- 

 dren by any means so much as a high-spir- 

 ited horse, however well he may have been 

 trained. 



" The longevity of the mule has become 

 so proverbial, that a purchaser seldom in- 

 quires his age. Pliny gives an account of 

 one, taken from Grecian history, that was 

 eighty years old; and though past labour, 

 followed others that were carrying materials 

 to build the temple oi' Minerva at Athens, and 

 seemed to wish to assist them ; which so pleas- 

 ed the people, that they ordered he should 

 have free egress to the grain market. Dr. Rees 

 mentions two that were seventy years old in 

 England. I saw, myself, in the VVest Indies, 

 a mule perform his task in a cane mill, that 



his owner assured me was forty years old. I 

 now own a mare mule twenty-Jive years old, 

 that I have had in constant work twenty-one 

 years, and can dis-coverno diminution in her 

 powers ; she has witliin 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 neighbourhood has own- 

 ed a very large mule about fourteen years, 

 that cannot be less than tioenty-eight years 

 old. He informed me a few days 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 entitled to perfect 

 confidence, that a highly respectable gen- 

 tleman and eminent agriculturist, near Cen- 

 treville, on the eastern shore of Maryland, 

 owns a mule that is thirty-five years old, as 

 capable of labour as at any former period. 



" From what has been stated respecting 

 the longevity of the mule, I think it may be 

 fairly assumed, that he does not deteriorate 

 more rapidly after twenty years of age than 

 the horse after ten, allowing the same extent 

 of work and similar treatment to each. The 

 contrast in the mule's freedom from malady 

 or disease, compared with the horse, is not 

 less striking. Arthur Young, during his tour 

 in Ireland, was informed that a gentleman 

 had lost several fine mules, by feeding them 

 on wheat straw cut. And I have been in- 

 formed that a mule-dealer, in the western 

 part of New- York, attributed the loss of a 

 number of young mules, in a severe winter, 

 when his hay was exhausted, to feeding them 

 exclusively on cut straw and Indian-corn 

 meal. In no other instance have I ever 

 heard or known of a mule being attacked 

 with any disorder or complaint, except two 

 or three cases of inflammation of the intes- 

 tines, caused by gross neglect in permitting 

 them to remain exposed to cold and wet, 

 when in a high state of perspiration after 

 severe labour, and drinking to excess of cold 

 water. 



" From his light frame and more cautious 

 movements, the mule is less subject to casu- 

 alties than the horse. Indeed it is not im- 

 probable that a farmer may work the same 

 team of mules above licenty years, and never 

 be presented with a farrier^s bill, or find it 

 necessary to exercise the art himself. 



" Sir John Sinclair, in his ' Reports on the 

 Agriculture of Scotland,' remarks that ' if 

 the whole period of a horse's labour be fif- 

 teen years, the first six may bo equal in 

 value to the remaining nine ; therefore a horse 

 often years old, after working six years, may 

 be worth half of his original value.' He 

 estimates the annual decline of a horse to be 

 equal to fifty per cent, on his price every six 



