JACKS, JENNETS AND MULES 91 



Ion, S. C. This breed has always been popular, and 

 justly so. For the propagation of mules of a certain 

 quality they are unsurpassed, and those who are en- 

 gaged in rearing them need never fear but that the 

 demand for them will be active and the prices remun- 

 erative. They have many valuable qualities, and among 

 these is that of color. Browns, or rather, sunburned 

 blacks, are frequently seen, but the majority have a 

 very glossy, jet-black coat of short hair that is greatly 

 sought after. Besides they are a jack of good height, 

 varying from fourteen and one-half to fifteen hands, 

 in rare instances reaching sixteen hands. While they 

 have not a large bone, it is a very flat, clean one. Our 

 Kentucky brethren object to them chiefly on the 

 ground that their bone is not large enough; but, I 

 think, this objection would disappear after a few gen- 

 erations on our rich blue grass soil. 



There are few gray jacks in Catalonia. During nu- 

 merous trips there I have never seen more than two 

 or three, and these had doubtless strayed in with 

 their owners from some province farther south. They 

 have been thus bred for ages, and this fixedness of 

 color constitutes a point of much merit in the breed, 

 and is one of the chief reasons why I should prefer 

 breeding a jennet to them than to our native stock. 

 Our jennets in this country are very diverse in color. 

 Grays, blues and mouse-colored are quite numerous. 

 There is no way of so quickly eradicating these off- 

 colors as by the cross indicated. 



It is a law of nature that a color that has been true 

 for ages in an animal will reproduce itself in a cross 

 with stock lacking in pure breeding. The Cleveland 

 bay horse that is stood to a neighbor's mares of varied 



