HORSES AND MULES 



347 



two years old. Then if they are to be 

 sold, they must be fattened; otherwise 

 they bring but a small price. The fol- 

 lowing fattening regimen has been pro- 

 posed by Jones: "The sugar mule 

 should be placed in the barn with plenty 

 of room and not much light about the 

 first of November, before he is two years 

 old, and fed about 12 ears of corn per 

 day and all the nice, well-cured clover 

 hay he will eat, and there kept until 

 about the first of April. Then in the 

 climate of middle Tennessee the clover 

 is good, and the mule may be turned out 

 on it without fear of firing, that is, 

 heating so as to cause scratches, as the 

 green clover removes all danger from 

 this source. During the time they run 

 on clover they eat less hay, but this 

 should always be kept by them." Later 

 they are put in barns or sheds and fed 

 green clover and grain in the form of 

 sheaf oats and bran. Ground barley 

 may be fed in June ad libitum. Later 

 they may be fed, in several separate 

 grain rations, green roasting ears, 

 shelled corn, bran and oats. Bran and 

 oats are considered necessary for giving 

 the proper finish to the coat. Mules fed 

 in this way until the September after 

 they are two years old, should weigh 

 1150 to 1350 pounds. The sugar mule 

 market opens in September. 



The cotton mule is usually not put 

 in the barn till the August after it 

 reaches two years of age. It should re- 

 ceive shelled corn, green corn, good hay 

 and soiling crops until November, after 

 which time oats and bran are added, so 

 as to bring the mule to the right finish 

 by January 1, when the market for the 

 cotton mule opens. The central south- 

 ern market for sugar mules is New 

 Orleans, but large markets for both 

 classes of mules are found in Chicago, 

 St. Paul, St. Louis, Kansas City, Louis- 

 ville, Nashville and many other cities 

 of the Mississippi valley region. In 

 feeding working mules the same mate- 

 rials may be used and in the same ra- 

 tions as for horses. (See above.) A 

 number of feeding experiments have 

 been carried on with mules and the 

 results may be briefly cited here as sup- 

 plementary to the discussion of feeding 

 under horses. Chicken corn proved 

 nearly equal to corn for mules in Mis- 

 sissippi. This crop is usually cut green 

 four or five times a year, but it may 

 be worth while to allow it to mature and 

 feed the grain to mules. 



Corn and cob meal was compared 

 with shelled corn in North Carolina in 

 rations of 10 pounds clover hay for 

 roughage, and also with a ration of oat 

 hay. The results were slightly in favor 

 of shelled corn. Cottonseed meal is ex- 

 tensively fed to mules. In Louisiana 

 it is recommended that the ration begin 

 with y 2 pound and be gradually in- 

 creased to 6 pounds as a maximum 

 feed. Only bright, yellow meal is con- 

 sidered safe. Eed, musty meal is always 

 to be avoided. In a test in Mississippi, 

 cottonseed meal was not relished by 

 mules. In North Carolina it was found 

 that cottonseed meal could be used to 

 replace a part of the corn or oats in a 

 mule ration. Good results were had 

 from feeding 2 pounds daily mixed with 

 other grain or sprinkled on moistened 

 hay or corn stover. 



In North Carolina, 4 pounds gluten 

 meal and 4 pounds corn stover were 

 compared with 8 pounds of oats for 

 mules in rations containing also 10 

 pounds corn and cob meal and 8 pounds 

 cowpea hay. The gluten meal-corn 

 stover ration proved slightly superior 

 and was cheaper, but the mules did not 

 greatly relish the gluten meal. At the 

 same experiment station, bran proved 

 more effective and cheaper than oats 

 for mules. Oats are usually too expen- 

 sive for mules and may economically 

 be partly or entirely replaced with cot- 

 tonseed meal, gluten meal, cowpea hay, 

 or alfalfa. Wheat and cowpeas have 

 been found about equally effective for 

 mules in rations of 4 pounds with 8 

 pounds of corn. Wheat, however, is 

 too expensive and cowpeas have the ad- 

 ditional advantage of improving the 

 soil. 



Beggarweed hay may be fed shredded 

 to mules ad libitum. In Florida, this 

 hay gave good results. Cassava is not 

 much relished by mules, but in Florida 

 it seemed to have a greater feeding 

 value than sweet potatoes. The latter 

 may be fed in rations of 12 to 15 

 pounds. In Florida, it was found that 

 they could be used to replace half of the 

 ordinary corn ration, the substitution 

 being made at the rate of 3 pounds of 

 sweet potatoes for 1 pound of corn. A 

 mule was kept in good condition for 

 three months on sweet potatoes, cassava 

 and hay. 



Bermuda hay for working mules in 

 Mississippi proved equal to timothy and 

 was somewhat cheaper. Cowpea hay, 



