Asses and Mules 123 



the southern and western states. Since the war, with the break- 

 ing up of the great breeding studs, the industry has languished, 

 owing to the decreased demand for mules. A new impetus, how- 

 ever, has given rise to the breeding of jacks again in considerable 

 numbers in the South, and this branch of husbandry will un- 

 doubtedly again assume more than its original importance, for 

 the agricultural interests of that section are steadily growing, and 

 a constant improvement is noted in the quality and numbers of 

 the live stock. 



What the jacks should be may be seen in the illustration 

 (Fig. 49 ) of the Poitou ass, a modification of the best form of the 

 Spanish jack. Fig. 50 shows the best form of mule. Note the 

 manner of trimming (roaching) the mane and tail. 



LONGEVITY OF THE MULE 



The longevity of the mule is proverbial. It was a common say- 

 ing during the Civil War that "mules never died." They might 

 sometimes be knocked over by a shot, but if one ever died a 

 natural death the army wags refused to credit or record the fact. 



Pliny gives an account of one taken from Greacian histoiy 

 that was eighty years old, and, though past labor, followed others 

 that were carrying materials to build the temple of Minerva at 

 Athens, and seemed to' wish to assist them. This so pleased the 

 people that they permitted him to have free egress to the grain 

 market. Dr. Rees mentions two that were seventy years old in 

 England. ^Ir. P. S. Skinner says: ''I saw, myself, in the West 

 Indies, a mule whose owner assured me was forty years old, per- 

 form his task in a cane mill;"" and adds, "I now own a mare 

 mule twenty-five years old that I have had in constant work 

 twenty -one years, and can discover no diminution of her powers. 

 She has within a year past often taken upwards of a ton weight 

 in a wagon to Boston, a distance of more than five miles." 



A man in my neighborhood has owned a very large mule 

 about fourteen years that cannot be less than twenty-eight years 

 old. He informed me, a few days since, that he could not per- 

 ceive the least failure in him, and would not exchange him for 

 any farm horse in the country. And I have just been informed, 

 from a source entitled to perfect confidence, that a highly respec- 

 rablo iientlenian and eminent agricnlturist, near Centerville, on 



