CHAPTER XXII 



THE MULE 



The mule is a hybrid, having for sire a jackass, commonly 

 termed a jack, and a mare for dam. If a stallion be bred to a 

 female ass, known as a jennet or jenny, the result is the hybrid 

 known as a hinny. The latter cross has a tendency to produce an 

 offspring inferior to the mule in size and draft character. 



However, mules occupy a most important place in the economy 

 of farm work and in many phases of business requiring limited 

 draft power. The importance of this hybrid is shown in a measure, 

 when we learn that according to the estimates of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture on January i, 1919, there were 

 4,925,000 mules in this country. 



The sterility of the mule has always been regarded as an abso- 

 lute fact, and the word " mule," as applied to quadruped or bird, 

 indicates a nonbreeder. However, a number of cases have been 

 reported of mare mules dropping foals. Years ago the author 

 had a photograph of a mare mule and foal sent him by the late 

 George A. Brown of Australia, in which the evidence as submitted 

 by him indicated this to be a fertile mule. Occasional statements 

 are made giving information of mules that are supposed to have 

 reproduced. In an interesting study of this subject l Orren Lloyd- 

 Jones shows that from a physiological point of view reproduction 

 with the mule is impossible, owing to " a deep-seated derangement 

 of the cell divisions which would, in normal, fertile animals, give 

 rise to the fully developed germ cells." 



The sex of the mule has a bearing on its salability. Mare 

 mules are preferred by buyers, feeders, and dealers generally, 

 and sell more easily than horse mules. The females assume a 

 matured form at an earlier age and fatten best for the market. 

 The horse or male mules have a more angular and leggy form 

 and cannot be fattened so early as the mares. One dealer in 



1 " Mules that Breed," Journal of Heredity, November, 1916, Vol. VII, p. 11. 



192 



