MULES ARE PROFITABLE 2O9 



CARE AND MANAGEMENT 



The old idea that any sort of an ill-conditioned 

 misfit of a mare belonging in no particular market 

 class, and having nothing to commend her as a 

 breeding animal, should be bred to a jack with the 

 expectation of producing a good mule, has been 

 entirely discredited by the practice of modern breed- 

 ers. It is to this erroneous idea of the nature of the 

 animal that the mule owes all of his reputation for 

 an evil disposition. As a matter of fact, mules which 

 have reasonably good breeding back of them, and 

 which have been managed in an intelligent manner 

 in being broken to work, are gentler and easier to 

 handle and are more trustworthy than the average 

 horse. Nearly every case of trickiness or vicious- 

 ness on the part of a mule can be traced either to a 

 similar tendency on the part of its dam, or to abuse 

 and mismanagement while breaking the animal to 

 work. The attitude of careless or ignorant people 

 toward the mule in assuming that he is naturally 

 a vicious animal, and one to be subdued by abuse 

 has been responsible for more permanently ruined 

 animals than any other one cause. The mule, more 

 than any other animal, requires kind and intelligent 

 treatment, and will respond to this, while any abuse 

 during its training period will probably always 

 show its effect upon the disposition of the animal. 



Where mules are raised under farm conditions, 

 it is usually possible to handle the young colts 

 almost from the time of their birth, and it is wise 

 to do this and accustom them to being handled as 

 early as possible. It will frequently be necessary 

 to tie the young colts up when their mothers are 

 to be worked, and they can easily be accustomed to 

 the use of the halter while very young, so that later 



