THE MULE. 63 



Terj long time, notwithstanding tlie rongh treatment 

 they get. When you feed a mule, you must adjust the 

 proportions of his body to the strength of his limbs and 

 the kind of service he is required to perform. Expe- 

 rience has taught me, that the less you feed a mule 

 below what he will eat clean, just that amount of value 

 and life is kept out of him. 



In relation to feeding animals. Some persons boast 

 of having horses and mules that eat but little, and are 

 therefore easily kept. Now, when I want to get a 

 horse or a mule, these small eaters are the last ones 

 I would think of purchasing. In nine cases out of ten, 

 you will find such animals out of condition. When I 

 find animals in the Government's possession, that cannot 

 eat the amount necessary to sustain them and give 

 them proper strength, I invariably throw them out, to be 

 nursed until they will eat their rations. Animals, to 

 be kept in good condition, and fit for proper service, 

 should eat their ten and twelve quarts of grain per 

 head per day, with hay in proportion — say, twelve 

 pounds. 



I wish here again to correct a popular error, that 

 the mule does not eat, and requires much less food than 

 the horse. My experience has been, that a mule, twelve 

 hands high, and weighing eight hundred pounds, will 

 eat and, indeed, requires just as much as a horse of 

 similar dimensions. Give them similar work, keep 

 them in a stable, or camp them out during the winter 

 months, and the mule will eat more than the horse will 

 or can. A mule, however, will eat almost any thing 

 rather than starve. Straw, pine boards, the bark of 



