JACKS, JENNETS AND MULES 83 



the result of which was a very famous jack called 

 Compound, that proved to be much more popular as 

 a breeder than the Royal Gift, which was said to have 

 been selected from the royal stud, and was near six- 

 teen hands high, but ill-shapen and ungainly. 



Not many years after this, the great orator and 

 statesman, Henry Clay, who always had an unbounded 

 love for agriculture and live stock, imported into Ken- 

 tucky a few Andalusians. No two men of that day 

 could have added greater popularity to a particular 

 breed — the one, the idol of the whole country, the 

 other, the leader of a great party and the nation's 

 most distinguished orator; and hence, every man who 

 wanted to experiment with jacks wanted to try this 

 particular breed. And the color especially has held 

 on so tenaciously that gray jacks are still extremely 

 common with us. 



This is one of the most distinctive breeds of jacks 

 in existence. They are found in the southern part 

 of Spain, embracing the whole of the ancient kingdom 

 of Andalusia, and are evidently of an ancient race, for 

 we read of them and the profits arising from their 

 use in propagating mules during the Roman occupa- 

 tion and before the time of Christ. Columella, who, 

 in the reign of the Emperor Claudius, published a 

 treatise which has been handed down to us on the 

 husbandry and economy of the Romans, gives very 

 particular directions for breeding jacks and mules. 

 He was a native of Cadiz, Spain, owned large estates 

 there, and tells us that the best mules were raised in 

 that part of the country. 



They are distinctively gray in color, sometimes in- 

 deed practically white, but in rare instances black, and 



