142 MULES AND MULE BREEDING. 



■of a number of ^^smootli^^ Kentucky males witli shining 

 coats and in show condition is a thing that must be seen to 

 be appreciated. The original Maltese jack^ from Gozo, 

 formerly had a great name in the States as a mule getter, 

 iDut it was stated at one time that the island had been 

 •entirely depleted of the old breed by the Americans. 

 The Maltese jack has been much used in the West Indies, 

 especially in the breeding "pens '^ in Jamaica. 



At a time when many eyes are turned towards South Africa 

 :and its requirements, and when the difficulty attaching to 

 transport in this part of the world on account of horse 

 sickness and the tsetse fly threatens to baffle all efforts in 

 this direction, it will be well to try and discover a solution 

 of the difficulty, pending the construction of railroads. 

 The standard mode of transport there, as all the world 

 knows, is by bullock waggons ; but bullocks are slow, and 

 the rumen of the bullock takes a great deal of filling. The 

 b)ullock is slow and sure, but, on account of its slowness, 

 cannot be accepted as entirely satisfactory in these days, 

 although it must be borne in mind that, prior to the 

 adoption of the mule in America, the development of the 

 Western States, so far as the transport was concerned, 

 was entirely brought about by bullocks attached to the 

 prairie-schooners. 



In the late Lord Eandolph ChurchilFs book on ^^Men, 

 Mines, and Animals in South Africa,^^ the donkey is 

 •declared to be exempt from horse sickness. But the 

 donkey proper is too small for anything but pack work. 

 Big donkeys would be too valuable, and probably too 

 delicate, for this kind of work. At the same time we 

 cannot afford to ignore the value of the donkey for this 

 purpose. 



Reference has already been made in these pages to the 



