I06 BREEDING AND REARING OP 



broad-backed, heavy-bodied, powerful race that seem 

 especially adapted to mule breeding. The test of the 

 jack breeds, therefore, is in France. The Poitou, as 

 has been before mentioned, are not sufficient in num- 

 ber to fulfill the demand in their own country, and 

 hence there are hundreds of the Spanish jacks im- 

 ported there for use in the stud. We have seen the 

 Poitou and the Catalonian in the same establishment — 

 the owner possessing the very best specimens of the 

 latter. The Poitou here fairly maintains his ascen- 

 dancy, and his mules outsell the Spanish breed. 



The Count of Exea, who maintains at Tournay the 

 most magnificent breeding establishment that we have 

 ever visited, keeps two very remarkable specimens 

 of this breed for use solely on his own mares. One 

 of them is fifteen and one-half hands, and the other, 

 a three-year-old past, is fifteen and three-quarters 

 hands. This is a remarkable height for the breed, 

 as they usually range from fourteen and one-half to 

 fifteen hands, rarely growing taller. The fifteen and 

 one-half hand jack was so immense in all his pro- 

 portions that we measured his knee, hind hock, belt, 

 length of ears, etc., in order to see if our vision was 

 deceived by appearances, and after we had left and 

 applied the measure to other animals we concluded 

 that both our eyes and tape were wrong, so huge did 

 his measure appear. The count says he gave $2,000 

 for this jack, and upon our inquiring of him how 

 he could afford to keep so valuable an animal for 

 mares only, he carried us into his barn — a grand 

 structure that has cost a mint of money — and there 

 showed us about one hundred and fifty mule colts, 

 one and two years of age. When I saw the mules 



