174 MULES. 



from the Spanish part of Hispaniola into Cape Fran- 

 cois, and from thence introduced, but they were vastly 

 inferior to the Spanish Jacks. From this miserable 

 stock a system of breeding mules commenced, the best 

 calculated to deteriorate any race of animals that has 

 been, or could be devised, since their creation. The 

 purchaser of a Jack when about to commence mule 

 dealer, made little inquiry concerning him but of his 

 capacity to propagate a mule. He placed him in a 

 district where there was the greatest number of mares 

 of qualities so inferior that their colts would not com- 

 pensate their owners for the expense of taking them 

 to a horse, and contracted to purchase their mules at 

 four months old. Those are kept in herds, with pre- 

 carious shelter in winter, having ample opportunities 

 afforded them, to mature and transfer that propensity 

 for kicking, which seems at first merely playful, into 

 an habitual means of defence, to be exercised when 

 the biped or any other race of animals approach them. 

 In this kicking seminary they remain two years, and 

 are then driven to market. At subsequent periods, a 

 few Jacks of higher grades were procured, from which 

 a small number of good sized mules were bred, and a 

 few of them broke. The breed of Jacks have some- 

 what improved, and mule dealers are now located in 

 most of the New England States and some parts of 

 New York. But the system as above detailed, with 

 few exceptions, has continued ; and it is from such a 

 race of Jacks and such a system of breeding and 

 management, that the mules have been produced, with 

 which the farmers and planters of Maryland, Virginia, 

 and the Southern States, have been supplied from 

 New England ; and such have furnished a criterion for 

 a great portion of our countrymen to form an estimate 

 of the value and properties of this degraded animal. 



