THE UTILIZATION OF MULES. 77 



To those interested in the subject and therefore desirous 

 of making themselves acquainted with the facts bearing on 

 the advantages of mule labour^ the value of the mule has 

 been long known. Mr. John Chalmers Morton, writing* 

 nearly twenty years since, speaks of the draught Poitou 

 mules in the following terms : — 



" They are hardy, willing workers, of great power, and good- 

 tempered ; they will produce and put in exercise more force per 

 shilhng of their daily cost than horses ; they are less liable to 

 injury or illness ; and they are longer lived. This is ' the case ' 

 in favour of the mule as compared with the horse for farm work. 

 It has long since been proved and known in other countries, and 

 the powerful mules of Poitou, and mules similarly bred in 

 America, accordingly command higher prices than are given for 

 horses of corresponding size or for corresponding uses. It is 

 not yet kno^m in this country." 



Col. Langhorne Wister, of Philadelphia, U.S., a great 

 ^^ raiser" of mules, gives the following account of the 

 value of these animals in a private letter to a friend : 



" I have made a good many inquiries about mules for work 

 of all sorts, but especially for farm work, and find that all who 

 have used them think them more valuable than horses. In 

 York County, Pennsylvania, they have almost entirely taken the 

 place of horses for farm work, and the farmers say that they 

 can stand more work, can get along on more inferior food, and 

 can endure infinitely more hardship than horses, and are fully 

 as tractable. It is a very well-known fact that mules live on 

 an average much longer than horses, and I never saw a mule,, 

 no matter how old, that could not do his ordinary work. I will 

 not assert, what was frequently assci'ted before our war, that no 

 one ever saw a dead mule, for many died during the war ; but 

 they supplanted horses entirely for draught purposes, and stood 

 all the hardships of campaigns better. The York County mules 

 are of large size, and usually brought in from Kentucky, the- 



