CHAPTER IV. 



DISEASES MULES AEH LIABLE TO. — WHAT HE CAN DEAW, 

 ETC., ETC. 



Thb committee also say that the mule is a more 

 steady animal in his draft than the horse. I think this 

 the greatest mistake the committee has made. You 

 have only to observe the manner in which a dray or 

 heavily-loaded wagon will toss a mule about, and the 

 way he will toss himself around on the road, to be satis- 

 fied that the committee have formed an erroneous 

 opinion on that point. In starting with a load, the 

 mule, in many cases, works with his feet as if they were 

 set on a pivot, and hence does not take so firm a hold 

 of the ground as the horse does. I have never yet seen 

 a mule in a dray or cart that could keep it from jolting 

 him round. In the first place, he has not the power to 

 steady a dray ; and, in the second place, they never can 

 be taught to do it. In fine, they have not the formation 

 to handle a dray or cart. What, then, becomes of the 

 idea that they are as steady in drays or teams as the 

 horse. 



The committee also say that mules are not subject 

 to such ailments as horses — spavin, glanders, ringbone, 

 and bots. If I had the committee here, I would show 

 its members that every other mule in the quartermasters' 

 department, over fifteen and a half hands high, is either 

 2* 



