THE MULE. . 13 



and five inches in the draw, or "between the rings. It 

 should also have a sweep of one quarter of an inch to 

 the five inches long. I refer now to the bit for the 

 blind bridle. With a bit of this kind it is almost 

 impossible to injure the mule's mouth, unless he is very 

 young, and it cannot be done then if the animal is 

 handled with proper care. 



There is another matter in regard to harnessing the 

 mule which I deem worthy of notice here. Govern- 

 ment teamsters, as a general thing, like to see a mule's 

 head reined tightly up. I confess that, with all my 

 experience, I have never seen the benefit there was to 

 be derived from this. I always found that the mule 

 worked better when allowed to carry his head and neck 

 in a natural position. When not reined up at all, he 

 will do more work, out-pull, and wear out the one 

 that is. At present, nearly all the Government mule- 

 teams are reined up, and worked with a single rein. 

 This is the old Virginia way of driving mules. It 

 used to be said that any negro knew enough to drive 

 mules. I fear the Government has too long acted on 

 that idea. 



I never heard but one reason given for reining the 

 heads of a mule-team up tight, and that was, that it 

 made the animals look better. 



The next thing requiring particular attention is the 

 harnessing. During the war it became customary to 

 cut the drawing-chains, or, as some call them, the trace- 

 chains. The object of this was, to bring the mule close 

 up to his work. The theory was taken from the strings 



