MULE BREEDING IN INDIA. 155 



thich piece of rope attached to it. Place the rope in his 

 mouth, i.e., on his lower jaw, and twist it till it is moder- 

 ately tight. Keep as near the point of the shoulder as 

 possible. If he is extra lively, put on two of these twitches, 

 with a man to each, one on each side of the animal. The 

 length of stick should be from 3ft. to 4ft. This twitch 

 is the severest way of treating a jack, and should be 

 seldom required. A common iron or galvanised iron bit, 

 with cheek pieces from 9in. to 12in. long, will generally 

 suffice to lead and control a lively jack. 



Use and Abuse of Sexual Power, — Two leaps per diem 

 from each jack, one in the morning and one in the evening, 

 are all that should be expected_, except in very special 

 cases. In Poitou six or seven leaps_, up to even twelve,, 

 are daily exacted from each animal. The average mule- 

 breeder of France is totally ignorant of the laws of phy- 

 siology, and has only the love of immediate gain before 

 his eyes. Although this abuse of sexual power does not 

 seem actually to shorten the days of the jack, it materially 

 affects his powers of fecundating his mares. I have known, 

 however, of jacks of twenty-five years of age retaining 

 their fecundating powers in spite of having been grossly 

 abused. 



Number of Mares to each Jack. — Looking at the well- 

 ascertained fact that the mare holds less readily to the 

 jack than to the horse, and consequently requires to be 

 served in the generality of cases a greater number of times 

 by the former in order to prove in foal, it is fair to put 

 the number of mares for each jack at from fifty to seventy. 

 In cases in which jacks are intelligently managed and fed 

 this number may be increased to one hundred mares. 



Jacks Serving Donkey Mares. — Some jacks will never 

 cover a mare after they have once covered a jenny. The 



