CHAPTER yi. 



SOMETHING MOKE AEOUT BREEDING MULES. 



Befoee I close this work, I desire to say sometliing 

 more about breeding mules. It has long been a popu- 

 lar error that to get a good mule colt you must breed 

 from large mares. The average sized, compact mare, is 

 by all odds the superior animal to breed mules from. 

 Experience has satisfied me that very large mules are 

 about as useless for army service as very large men are 

 for troopers. You can get no great amount of service 

 out of either. One is good at destroying rations ; the 

 other at lowering haystacks and corn-bins. Of all the 

 number we had in the army, I never saw six of these 

 large, overgrown mules that were of much service. In- 

 deed, I have yet to see the value in any animal that 

 runs or rushes to an overgrowth. The same is true 

 with man, beast, or vegetable. I will get the average 

 size of either of them, and you wiU acknowledge the 

 superiority. 



The only advantage these large mares may give to 

 the mule is in the size of the feet and bone that they 

 may impart. The heavier you can get the bone and 

 feet, the better. And yet you can rarely get even this, 

 and for the reason that I have before given, that the 



