510 Types and Market Classes of Live Stock 



more uniform in form and color than horses, and are easier to match 

 into teams. 



Anderson and Hooper state: ^ "The mule holds his place and is 

 gradually extending his influence as a work animal because he can do 

 more work, on less feed, and keep in better condition, with less care, 

 than any breed of horses. He stands the heat well in the South, 

 resists the flies as the horse cannot, and fits in with the farm labor of 

 that section much better than any horse." 



Sir John Moore, Director of the British Army Veterinary Services 

 in France, states 2 that 80,524 mules were purchased by the British 

 government during the South African War, and he estimates that over 

 250,000 were purchased for the World War, including over 90,000 used 

 in France alone. He further states: "As a rider, a mule is of little 

 value; a supreme will and an iron mouth, as a rule, prove the drawback. 

 * * * Their endurance, their comparative freedom from sickness, their 

 pluck and stout-heartedness when properly treated, their ability to 

 perform work in adverse circumstances and when short commons are 

 necessitated, are their usual attributes; and their employment in war 

 is a great economic factor." He states that the well-fed mule thrives 

 on work and quickly gets fat when idle. He states also that in the 

 Somme operations in 1916, there were 16,074 debility (poor condition) 

 cases sent to the veterinary hospitals, of which only 404 were mules. 

 The percentage of inefficiency was 4.42 for horses and 0.61 for mules, 

 or seven times as many horses as mules in comparison to numbers in 

 service. In winter they gave far less trouble than horses from skin 

 disease, and there were practically no cases of respiratory disease 

 among the mules. 



An editorial writer in the Chicago Evening Post ^ states that 

 though tanks, tractors, airplanes, etc., have displaced time-honored 

 material of warfare, "the army mule stands fast in his tracks." He 

 says, "The mule will go on serving until the end of time and will con- 

 tinue to do little more than to flick an ear when in its awful hollow 

 there sounds the equally awful language of teamster tradition. The 

 American army has sworn at the American mule for much more than 

 a century of time, but it swears by him as often as it swears at him." 

 Again he says, "The mule is the only muzzle-loader likely to survive 

 the mutations of time." 



On the other hand, the mule has some shortcomings as compared 

 to the horse. He has not the weight for the heaviest draft work. 

 Because of the small size of his foot he is more apt to slip on pavements 



iKy. Bui. 212, p. 287. 



2N. S. Mayo, Cook Co., 111., in the Breeder's Gazette, Nov. 23, 1922. 



3 Quoted in the Breeder's Gazette, Apr. 5, 1923, p. 472. 



