48 BREEDING AND REARING OF 



break him to business at a proper time. I will also 

 repeat what I have written when speaking of training 

 jacks, that they should be away from mules as well 

 as jennets. Some jacks are partial to mules and I 

 have known mare mules used to get jacks ready to 

 serve mares. 



At an early day mules were used for riding. In 

 the patriarchal ages the ass, ox and camel were the 

 principal beasts of burden, but in our day we use the 

 horse, ox and mule, the latter especially for the South 

 and tropical climate. Since the Spanish-American 

 War there has been so much tropical territory added 

 to the United States, that the demand for mules has 

 increased and will continue to increase until those 

 tropical islands of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans are 

 supplied with mules. Of all the beasts of burden and 

 for agricultural purposes, especially for the South, 

 there are none equal to the long-lived and hardy mule. 

 He lives much longer than the horse, perhaps more 

 than twice as long, and is not so subject to disease. 

 He consumes much less food, pulls under a cold collar 

 and is not so liable to balk. His hoof is more deeply 

 cupped and is tougher, consequently he will hold a 

 shoe much longer than a horse. He is considered 

 more sure-footed than a horse, and I have known 

 physicians who preferred riding a mule to using a 

 horse. 



Will give you a description of the different classes 

 of mules by Messrs. Shryer & McConnell, of Nash- 

 ville, Tenn., who are perhaps the largest mule dealers 

 in Tennessee, and are reliable business men. 



The sugar mules run in age from three to five years 

 old and from fifteen and a half to sixteen and one- 



