THE AMERICAN MULE. 115 



intercourse witli their own kind, as tliey often become entirely 

 useless for cross-breeding when allowed contact with their own 

 species. 



" Whether it arise from a greatly -increased demand for these 

 beasts in our country, which is now swollen by the enlarged 

 wants of the army and its immense transportation, or whether 

 it has come from a higher appreciation of the mule, it is certain 

 that the number produced at the present time is vastly greater 

 than at any former period of our history. Some shrewd 

 agriculturist may have made the discovery that it costs less to 

 breed and raise a mule to a suitable size than a horse ; that less 

 time is required to prepare a lot of mules than a lot of colts for 

 the market ; that young mules may be sold readily at any 

 period, and in any amount ; and more than this, that they 

 uniformly command a higher price than a drove of horse colts of 

 similar relative quahty and value. Moreover, it may have 

 become apparent that mules are subject to fewer diseases, that 

 they are less liable to serious accidents, and that they are 

 altogether more certain of producing satisfactory results from 

 their production than horses. All of which may be set down as 

 well-established axioms. The fact remains (whether explained 

 or not is immaterial) that the mules of the United States have 

 greatly increased in numbers. 



" The census tables show that the number of mules produced 

 has increased in a greater ratio than those of any other kind of 

 farm stock, and that from 1850 to 1860 the total number of 

 these animals had more than doubled." 



The most complete as well as the most recent article on 

 the mule, as utilised in the United States^ has been 

 published in the last volume of the Annual Reports of the 

 Bureau of Animal Industry, printed by order of the Senate. 

 This account is exceedingly exhaustive, and of a most 

 practical and useful character, so much so that it has been 

 thought desirable to reproduce it in extenso, with the 

 exception of a few references and paragraphs applicable to 



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