80 MULES AND MULE BREEDING. 



be bred together in almost any manner so as to produce 

 fertile compound hybrids. 



Regarding the facts that more imraediatel}^ concern us, 

 the character of the hybrids between the horse and the ass, 

 much more has been ascertained, although little scientific 

 observation has been brought to bear upon the question. 

 The relative influence of the male and female parent in 

 these cases is now well known, and the distinction between 

 the mule (the offspring of the ass and the mare) and the 

 hinny (the result of the union of the horse and the she 

 ass) is well ascertained. Both offspring depend for their 

 size on that of the female parent. As far as is known from 

 accurate observation, male and female mules and hinnys are 

 absolutely sterile, althoug-h certain accounts of fertile female 

 mules have occasionally appeared in print. 



Captain Hayes, a very practical authority, writing on 

 this subject states : 



" Neither the mule (the produce of the jackass and mare) nor 

 the hinny or jennet (the cross between the horse and the she 

 ass) is fertile, either among themselves, or with other members 

 of the horse family. Those animals which have been mistaken 

 by superficial observers as fertile mules, have been, I venture to 

 say, in most eases the offspring of mares that have previously 

 bred to donkeys, and have endowed their young with some of 

 the characteristics of their former asinine lovers. Both the 

 mule and the jennet respectively ' take after ' their dam in size, 

 and their sire in aj^pearance and disposition." 



Those persons who have paid the greatest amount of 

 attention to mule production and mule industry know of no 

 instance of a female mule producing young, and M. Ayrault, 

 in his valuable treatise " De Tlndustrie Mulassiere,^^ the 

 standard work on mule breeding in France, says that in 

 Poitou, where 50,000 mares are annually employed in 



