the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. 
75 
the war much of the land could not have been cultivated. At 
the former period it was no unusual sight to see a team driven by 
a daughter of the house ; and after the peace, maimed soldiers 
were competent for such work, which would otherwise have; 
required able-bodied men. Nor do I think that the weight 
of the carriage and driver adds materially to the draught. 
The wheels are large, and the ploughs are suspended from the 
beams. The friction is to a great extent rolling rather than 
sliding, and might be entirely so if inventors would copy the 
English double ploughs, and replace the sole, &c, by a friction- 
wheel behind the mould-board. One of the Judges (Mr. Bruce, 
of Carvallos, Oregon) informed me that with two of these 
ploughs, each drawn by four mules, he and his servant did all 
the ploughing on a farm of 600 acres arable during the winter 
season, averaging about fifty acres per week. When on the 
road, or during the turning at the headlands, the ploughs are 
raised clear of the ground, and the team, driven with reins, 
trot along at the rate of six miles an hour — an important con- 
sideration when the occupation is large, as on one particular 
prairie farm, on which it is said a furrow twelve miles long can 
be drawn. A word or two touching mules, which are so largely 
used, not only for agricultural, but for town work throughout 
the States. If a proof of their value were needed, it would be 
found in the fact, that in ordinary times, i.e., when trade is 
flourishing, their price is double that of horses ; 40/. to 50/. is 
quite a common figure for a 4- or 5-year-old mule. I visited 
one of the best-managed farms in Pennsylvania, that of Mr. 
James Young, of Middleton, near Harrisburg, and found twenty- 
four mules doing the work of the farm (about 1000 acres, nearly 
all arable), the only horse kept being the nag for the overseer. 
Mr. Young's practice is to buy them in at three years old. At the 
time of my visit the price was only 27/. 10s. to 30/; they are 
usually worked till fourteen or fifteen years old, when they are ex- 
changed for youngsters, making about 10/. or 12/. Many of them 
were very powerful, between sixteen and seventeen hands, capable 
of great endurance and long hours when well fed. As far as I 
could learn, a mule may exist upon less than a horse ; but in 
order to get maximum work, they must have good food, and 
plenty of it. The principal difference in treatment is that the 
mule requires more hay and less corn. The following is the diet 
at Middletown : — 4 A.M., a feed of whole cobs, just as much as can 
be eaten up clean ; at noon, a feed of bruised oats ; at night, cut 
hay, with mash composed of rye, oats, and corn ; average con- 
sumption per day, corn 12 lbs., hay 15 to 16 lbs. : this would be 
good feeding for a farm-horse. Nothing was more noticeable 
during the great heat in Philadelphia than the miserably jaded 
