RAISING MULES 



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MULES 



IT costs less to breed and raise a mule than a horse. The selling price 

 is usually higher, quality for quality; the demand is always there. 

 Besides this, a mule is usually marketable earlier than a horse, and 

 keeps useful even longer. It is a common thing for mules to live twenty 

 years or more in active service; and many live to thirty, even to forty 

 years. 



While mules should have just as good care as horses, they seem not 

 to expect much luck in life; and with genuine philosophy, make the most 

 of what they get. A mule will pull through under conditions that would 

 make a horse give up life in disgust. A mule is tougher, hardier every way 

 than a horse. Most authorities agree that the mule is less liable to disease. 

 There is some dispute as to whether a mule requires less feed than a horse; 

 but experience shows that at least the mule makes more thrifty gains on 

 low grade feeds than the horse. 



It is certainly true that a mule can do more work than a horse; and 

 can work under harder conditions, over rough or hilly ground, and in the 

 heat of burning sun. The mule is sure-footed he has heels for hills. He 

 comes down a hill at a cautious gait; but he takes a hill at a run, even 

 when heavily loaded. 



MULE POINTS This hybrid animal, the cross of mare and jackass, is 

 said to get its body shape from the mare, together with 

 the good horse qualities of courage and strength. Its patience, endurance, 

 faithfulness and hardiness it gets from the jack, along with the jack's big 

 head, large bones, and long narrow feet. There used to be an old- 

 fashioned idea that this hybrid offspring would not inherit the constitu- 

 tional defects of the mare; and mares past their usefulness for good colts 

 would then be bred to jacks. Commonsense, and also a higher, more 

 critical demand now call for the best quality in both dam and sire; and 

 the really high grade muie today is dropped by a good specimen draft 

 brood mare. The market demands good size, and style and finish, strong 



