80 MULES ANB MJLE BREEDING. 



be bred together in almost any manner so as to produce 

 fertile compound hybrids. 



Regarding the facts th/.t more immediately concern us, 

 the character of the hybrids between the horse and the ass, 

 much more has been ascertained, although little scientific 

 observation has been b.'ought to bear upon the question. 

 The relative influenc e of the^ mnlo a nd female parent_ iu 

 these Cases is now well known, and the distinction betwe. en 

 the mule (the offspring of the ass and the mare) and the 

 hjnnv (the result of the union of the horse and the she 

 ass) i s 'veil ascertaine d. Both offspring depend for__ tIiair 

 size on that of the fem ale parent. As f ar as is knownj rom 

 riT^rvitf -hnrn^niti on, male and female mules _ and hinn^ are 

 absolutely ster ile, although certain acco unts of fertile female 

 -nn;1.ea ,ha.Ve"oocasionally ap pparP'^ t" pi-ipf 



Captain Hayes, a very practical authority, writing on 

 this subject states : 



" Neither the mule (the produce of the jackass and mare) nor 

 the hinny or jeimet (the cross between the horse and the she 

 ass) is fertile, either among themselves, or with other members 

 of the horse family. Those animals which have been mistaken 

 by superficial observers as fertile mules, have been, I venture to 

 say, in most cases the offspring of mares that have previously 

 bred to donkeys, and, have endowed their young with some of 

 the characteristics of their former asinine lovers. Both the 

 mule and the jennet respectively ' take after ' their dam in size, 

 and their sire in appearance and disposition." 



Those persons who have paid the greatest amount of 

 attention to mule production and mule industry know of no 

 instance of a female mule producing young, and M. Ayrault, 

 in his valuable treatise " De I'Industrie Mulassiere," the 

 standard work on mule breeding in Prance, says that in 

 Poitou, where 50,000 mares are annually employed in 



