THE POITOU MULE. 



fail to be of advantage to the State. It is true that our men 

 would have to be instructed in the treatment and manage- 

 ment of them at first ; but we have plenty of men in the 

 service who have been used to mules at Gibraltar^ the Cape; 

 India, &c., who would soon impart their experience to their 

 comrades. 



The large, heavy sixteen hands draught mule bred in 

 Poitou, such as is suitable for agricultural purposes and 

 heavy road work, is not the only kind of mule to be found 

 at the fairs. Mules are offered for sale of all sizes, from 

 thirteen to sixteen hands, suitable for all purposes, whether 

 for carriage work (for which purpose the Spaniards buy 

 the best bred and finest in the limb), or for heavy farm or 

 road work, or for burden, or for army purposes. 



A draught mule, bred by Mr. A. J. Scott, of Eotherfield 

 Park, Alton, Hants, from an English cart mare by an 

 Andalusian jack, is shown in the engraving. She is now in 

 the possession of Mr. Sutherland. She is a powerful beast, 

 a quiet good worker, and exceptionally well formed in the 

 hind quarters. 



The mule is little appreciated in England, because it 

 is rarely seen here in perfection. By the term mule is 

 generally signified an under-sized, chance-begotten animal,, 

 of perhaps thirteen hands or so ; and it is not uncommonly 

 supposed that this is the kind of animal it is at the present 

 time sought to introduce into England to do the work of a 

 draught horse ! Any kind of mule can be bred to order, 

 by a judicious selection of sire and dam, whether it is to be 

 a light trotting mule, fit to run between the shafts of a 

 sulky, or a heavy draught mule, that at a dead pull will 

 beat any horse that ever was foaled. You can get to the 

 bottom of a draught horse by putting a weight behind him 

 that he cannot possibly start. Such a horse, in nine cases 



