54 THE MULE. 



trees, grain sacks, pieces of old leather, do not come 

 amiss with him when he is hungry. There were many 

 instances, during the late war, where a team of mnlef? 

 were found, of a morning, standing over the remains of 

 what had, the evening before, been a Government 

 wagon. "When two or more have been kept tied to a 

 wagon, they have been known to eat each other's tail 

 off to the bone. And yet the animal, thus deprived of 

 his caudal appendage, did not evince much pain. 



In the South, many of the plantations are worked 

 with mules, driven by negroes. The mule seems to 

 understand and appreciate the negro ; and the negro 

 has a sort of fellow-feeling for the mule. Both are 

 sluggish and stubborn, and yet they get along well 

 together. The mule, too, is well suited to plantation 

 labor, and will outlast a horse at it. The soil is also 

 light and sandy, and better suited to the mule's feet. A 

 negro has not much sympathy for a work-horse, and in 

 a short time will ruin him with abuse, whereas he will 

 share his corn with the mule. 'Nor does the working 

 of the soil on southern plantations overtax the power 

 of the mule. 



T/ie Value of Harnessing properly . — In working any 

 animal, and more especially the mule, it is both humane 

 and economical to have him harnessed properly. Un- 

 less he be, the animal cannot perform the labor he is 

 capable of with ease and comfort. And you cannot 

 watch too closely to see that every thing works in its 

 right place. Begin with the bridle, and see that it 

 does not chafe or cut him. The army blind-bridle, 

 with the bit alteration attached, is the very best bridle 



