THE MULE. 77 



heavy load. If you want to see how quick you can 

 ruin young mules, place them in the wheels. 



'No. 14 is the off-wheel mule of a six-mule team. I 

 had this mule photographed for the purpose of showing 

 the effects of hitching animals so short to the team that 

 the swingle-tree will strike or rest on their hocks. I re- 

 ferred to this great evil in another place. This mule 

 is but six years old, sixteen hands high, and weighs 

 nearly sixteen hundred pounds. Aside from the hocks, 

 she is the best made and the best looking mule in the 

 park ; and is also a remarkably good worker. You 

 will notice, however, that the caps of her hocks are so 

 swollen and calloused by the action of the swingle-tree 

 as to make them permanently disfigured. The position 

 I have placed this mule in, as relates to the wagon 

 wheel, is the proper position to put all wild, green, con- 

 trary or stubborn mules in when they are hard to bridle. 



This is the severest use to which a lariat can be put 

 on mule or horse. The person using it, however, should 

 be careful to see that it sets well back to the shoulder 

 of the animal. I refer now to the part of the loop that 

 is around the neck. The end of the lariat should al- 

 ways be held by a man, and not made fast to any part 

 of the wagon, so that if the animal falls or throws him- 

 self, you can slack up the lariat and save him from 

 injury. Three applications of the buck will conquer 

 them so thoroughly that you will have little trouble 

 afterwards. Be careful to keep the lariat, in front, as 

 high as the mule's breast ; and see also that they are 

 pulled up close to the front wheel before pulling it 

 through the hind wheel. 



