CHAPTER XYII. 

 REMARKS ON THE USE OF MULES. 



Considering that mule breeding is increasingly carried on 

 in most of our colonies^ as well as in India, it seems rather 

 an anomaly that the mother country should not be able to 

 supply the '' jack/' the chief factor in the business. We 

 are accustomed to supply our colonists with horses, bulls, 

 sheep, and pigs of the very best kinds, and such as meet 

 all requirements ; but when jacks are wanted, an order 

 is generally placed in the hands of a City firm, who at 

 once find themselves at their wits' end in regard to carrying 

 it out. Attempts are made to find out some mercantile 

 house which has connection with Spain, and the order is 

 mostly placed there in the hands of people who are not in 

 the slightest degree acquainted with the business or its 

 details. Animals are bought, shipped to England, and re- 

 shipped to their destination, and on arrival, after great 

 cost has been incurred, are found to be utterly useless for 

 the purpose required. If the order is sent to the South of 

 Spain, what are called by the Americans " off coloured '^ 

 (grey) jacks are bought. This is the first mistake. 

 Custom requires that mule-getting jacks shall be 

 '' black, with mealy points.^' The second mistake is — and 

 this remark applies specially to Andalusian jacks — 

 that fine- looking, big-boned animals, that the Spaniards 



