180 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. IX, 



donkey whenever he wishes. There is no selection and no risk to be 

 run, as in breeding from Government horse-stallions, where a long 

 price has to be paid for a brood mare to begin with. We also, as 

 horse-breeders, have an object in encouraging the industry. For the 

 mule being sterile, whatever faults of conformation and ud soundness 

 he inherits from his dam, go no further. The mare does good work 

 in producing a very useful class of animal, her faults die with her and 

 her immediate progeny, and are not handed on to successive genera- 

 tions. The improvement of the Indian horse depends much on 

 getting rid of these worthless dams, which can thus be disposed of 

 profitably. If we, in addition, can induce Government to levy a small 

 tax on all entire ponies and horses over two years old in the 

 breeding districts, except on such animals as are approved by the 

 officers of the Civil Veterinary Department, so as to induce owners 

 to castrate freely, a marked improvement must follow at no distant 

 date. The above is the view in which we may regard the mule in its 

 relation to horse-breeding. 



But there is another stand-point, from which mule-breeding must 

 also be considered. That is, a profitable industry per se. 



As I have endeavoured to show in the foregoing, a mare, whose pecu- 

 niary value is very small, will produce a mule which, by the time it is 

 weaned, is commonly worth twice as much as its dam. If we wish to 

 produce valuable mule stock, we must breed from something better than 

 these. Let us take a mare with fair bone, straight back and not, too 

 crooked behind, from 13 hands to 13'3 at the outside, value Rs. 80 to 

 Rs. 120. Putting her to a good donkey-stallion we shall get mules from 

 13*1 to 14 hands, for which Government is ready to pay Rs. 300 to 

 Rs. 400, and even more for Mountain Batteries of Artillery and 

 Ordnance at 4 years of age. As a mule is cheaper to rear than a horse, 

 is hardier, less liable to disease, and will grow and flourish where a 

 horse-colt would starve, or grow up a stunted weed, it requires but 

 little consideration to understand how profitable an industry mule- 

 breeding may be made. The natives in many parts of India, more 

 particularly in certain districts of the Punjab, are awake to this fact. 

 Not only have they gone in extensively for the industry, but they 

 attend the large mule fairs, where they buy up young, immature stock 

 and rear them, with a view to their sale at an adult age to Government 



