Jo. 



Review of the Premiums. 



65 



y mules, and taking only ten dollars as the 

 lear saving for each, here would be a re- 

 uction of annual expenditure — in other 

 rords, an increase of income amounting to 

 100,000 dollars, equal to the interest on the 

 State debt. 



In all steady continued draft, as in thresh- 

 ng, grinding, and other machinery, now so 

 nuch in vogue, the excellence of the mule 

 3 most remarkable, and especially in his 

 ess liability to gall — an evil to which the 

 lorse is peculiarly subject, where his loco- 

 notion in harness is circular. On their 

 'alue in service that consists of constant, 

 teady hauling, an extract may here be 

 nade from some editorial remarks in an old 

 'olume of the American Farmer, then con- 

 lucted by Mr. Skinner, now of Washington. 

 Speaking on the decided preference given 

 >y the late General Ridgely, of Hampton, 

 o mules in the heavy hauling connected 

 vith his iron works, it is observed : " For 

 ,ome time the general indulged an old ser- 

 vant in keeping a single team of horses, 

 >ut it was found that the mule teams per- 

 brmed their day's journey, hauling equal 

 weight, sooner than the horses by one hour; 

 ind the greater value of the mules has been 

 :o well established, in the course of his am- 

 )le experience, that they have superseded 

 lorses, with entire conviction of the great 

 laving accomplished by the change. This 

 nformation first derived from his manager, 

 Mr. Green, was fully confirmed by the Gen- 

 jral himself." 



Why then, let it be repeated, in reference 

 ;o these two animals, make fish of one and 

 lesh of the other? Offering $76 in premi- 

 ums for the horse and $ 15 only for " Jack, 

 renny and mules;" and that too under the 

 mthority and sanction of gentlemen, who 

 ;annot be too much admired for their public 

 spirit and honourable intentions; nor too 

 closely imitated in their individual practice 

 md general management. 



As to the more general use of the mule in 

 light harness for the road, the common im- 

 pression is, that he can't be made to travel 

 fast enough. Nobody likes rapid motion 

 more than the writer of these crude but well 

 meant and respectful strictures; and he 

 would take leave to inquire, who has given to 

 this neglected hybrid, a patient and fair trial, 

 to see how much his speed may be improved? 

 Let it be considered how long it takes to 

 bring a crack trotter, such as Ripton or Con 

 fidence to his best! Hiram Woodruff, or 

 Bill Wheeling, the American Chifheys, 

 among trotting jockies, never think of taking 

 a horse in hand, to train him for this pace, 

 until after he reaches his sixth or seventh 

 year ; and they can hardly be said to get to 



their best work until they fall into their 

 teens. Old Top Gallant performed his chef 

 (T auvres alter he was twenty ! When the 

 mule has been in like manner taken up, and 

 systematically trained for the trot, and it is 

 found that he cannot be driven at the rate 

 of eight miles an hour, it will be tune enough 

 to pronounce him impracticable in that pace; 

 but the writer knows him to be master of 

 that rate, for he has ridden with two others 

 besides General James Shelby, who drives 

 nothing else in his private carriage, from 

 Lexington out to his magnificent blue grass 

 farm, eight miles, behind two mules of about 

 15 hands, within the hour, and without a touch 

 of the whip ; and learned from the General 

 that he had driven a pair to the Blue-lick, a 

 distance of forty miles, in six hours, stopping 

 one hour on the way. 



In lieu then of some of the premiums be- 

 stowed on breeding stock to give animals of 

 slow draft, and on sucking colts, would it 

 not be more politic to lend the countenance 

 of the society to the rearing and more gen- 

 eral adoption for the roads as well as for the 

 field, of a more economical and enduring 

 animal power? Might not a premium be 

 well offered in the shape of a set of knitting 

 needles in a silver case, or a butter cooler 

 of ground glass, with a cow reposing on its 

 silver lid, to the wife of the planter who shall 

 accompany him to the cattle show, in a plain 

 light carriage drawn by a pair of best 

 broke mules'? To the wife, because it is 

 doubtful whether, without her consent, this 

 great desideratum in rural economy ever 

 can, or perhaps, we should add, ever ought 

 to be achieved ! Were it to be imagined 

 that the fact would have any weight with 

 our republican house wives, it might be 

 added, that the medals struck in honour of 

 Agrippina, a heroine whose life was adorned 

 with the most noble virtues, bear on them 

 the image of a mule ; and a gentleman at 

 my elbow reminds me, that he has seen 

 Charles the X. setting out for his royal pal- 

 ace at Fountainbleau, 13 leagues from Paris, 

 driving six splendid black Spanish mules of 

 Andalusian blood ! But it would be a libel, 

 of which I should never be guilty, to suppose 

 that an American matron could be influenced 

 by any motive, so strong as her ambition to 

 promote the independence of her husband ; 

 and to set to her friends and neighbours an 

 example of economy and good sense. 



Improved Corn Bread. — Take corn meal, 

 a sufficient quantity to make a stiff batter, 

 with three pints of sour milk ; three eggs 

 well beaten ; two oz. shortening ; one gill 

 beet molasses; a little salt and saleratus; 

 grease a pan well, and bake quick. 



