244 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
pasture to feed on, with plenty of water. “Nothing can 
be more absurd than to suppose that animals can improve 
if neglected in their youth ; to improve any breed, or to 
keep it up when improved, it must be well fed from the 
time it is produced. To produce a fine animal, you must 
feed him from the starting post, no starveling ever did well/’ 
We sum up under this head by saying, breed your mares 
to such Jacks as Knight Errant above described, and feed 
them well, and we will insure you fine Mules, 
The Mule^ for all Agricultural purposes in the cotton 
growing States, is preferable to all other animals. The 
horse being his only competitor, we propose to institute a 
few comparisons between them. In point of health the 
mule has the advantage over the horse; he is a much more 
healthy animal and with the same care and attention 
•which is usually bestowed on the horse he would never 
be sick ; but being a mule ! he is thought by many, to 
need only a little provender to keep soul and body togeth- 
er — shelter and a curry-comb, two essentials in the pre- 
servation of his health, are never thought of. The Com- 
mittee, give it as their opinion, founded on their own ex- 
perience and observation, that three Horses die annually, 
from disease, where one m'ule does, thus showing him to 
bean animal preferable to the horse in point of health. 
And being a more healthy animal, he lives longer, and 
is as capable of doing good service at twenty -five years, 
as the horse at fifteen years old. Pliny gives an ac- 
count of one eighty years old in Greece, and Dr. Hus, of 
two, seventy years old in England, and your committee 
know several over twenty years old doing good service. 
Por the wagon, as a draft animal, the mule is preferable 
to the horse, because he is a truer puller, stronger and 
quicker, will endure heat better, and will recover from 
fatigue sooner; in every respect he is more reliable than the 
horse. The two great objections urged against the mule 
is, slowness and viciousness. The former is the result of 
two causes, first, the mule kept exclusively for the v/agon, 
and drawing heavy drafts necessarily becomes slow from 
habit ; and secondly, abuse. 
Some planters make all cotton and no corn, or never 
make corn enough to feed their mules as they should be, 
consequently they become poor and weak, and being re- 
quired to plow so much per day, are urged on by the whip, 
and being unable to come up to the requirements of the 
driver, are beaten uniil they lose their sensibility and 
spirits, and become very slow. We once knew an ani- 
mal of this description — he passed into the hands of one 
of our neighbors, who was noted as a good horse-master, 
This mule when approaching the end of the row at the 
turning point would nearly draw himself up double, ex- 
pecting a pole to come in contact with the rump ; he was 
put on good treatment, the driver not allowed to carry a 
whip after him, which never should be allowed ; the last 
time we noticed this mule in the plow, the driver could 
make him trot with one stroke of the line ; good treat- 
ment had entirely restored his sensibility and spirits. 
Viciousness or a disposition to kick, is often the effect of 
abuse when the young animal is first haltered, not know- 
ing what is required of him, he is disposed to resist, and 
instead of kind treatment and persuasive means, force 
and abuse are resorted to, and notwithstanding he is as 
capable of appreciating kind treatment as the horse, he 
resorts to what some politicians call “the right of revolu- 
tion,” a right inherent in all animals. Your committee, 
from their own experience, prefer the medium-sized mule, 
for all purposes, to over-grown or two light varieties, and 
the mare, to the horse mule, the former being more spright- 
ly and less disposed to mischief 
In conclusion, your committee regret they have no data 
from which they can make a correct estimate in dollars 
and cents, of the expense of the mule as compared with 
the horse, but from their own observation and experience 
they give it unhesitatingly as their own opinon, (all 
things considered,) that the mule is one-third less expen- 
sive than the horse. No animal can compare with the 
mule in the Southern States; they are less expensive, five 
longer, are more healthy, eat less, “and above all are 
better suited to our slaves than any other animal could 
possibly be, their strength, patient endurance of privation 
and hardships, slender pasturage, exposure, and in short 
all these ills to which animals are subject, where slaves 
are their masters, gives to mules the preference over all 
gives to mules the preference over all other animals in. the 
Agricultural States of the South.” 
All of which is respectfully submitted by the Commit- 
tee . — Newberry Mirror. 
THE PAST AND PEESENT CONDITION OF TEE- 
NEGEO. 
The Nev: York Observer, in the course of an article on 
slavery, says : 
When the ancestors of those negroes were torn from 
their homes in Africa, by the slave-traders of Old England 
and placed under the influence of Christianity at the 
South, they were the most degraded and miserable of the 
human species, slaves and cruel masters, the victin s of 
bloody superstitions, believers in witchcraft and worship- 
pers of the devil. 
And what now is the condition of their descendants '? 
Several years ago more than 300,000 of them were mem- 
bers of Protestant evangelical churches in the slavehold- 
ing States! And 10,000 American negroes, trained 
chiefly at the South transplanted to Liberia, now rule 
nearly 200,000 natives of Africa, by the light and love of 
the gospel in that land of darkness and heathenism. 
It is true that more than nine-tenths of the negroes at 
the South are still slaves ; but is slavery under ChrLstian 
masters in America, the same evil with slavery under 
heathen tyrants in Africa I Degraded as these slaves 
may still be compared with the sons of the pilgrims in 
New England, or even with the mass of laborers in some 
of the enlightened countries in Europe, can 3.000,000 
negroes, bond or free, be found in any part of the world, 
who can compare, for good condition, physical, intellectu- 
al and moral, with the 3,000,000 slaves at the South I Has 
Christianity, aided by all the wealth of British Christians, 
done so much during the last 20 years for the elevation of 
the 800.000 emancipated negroes in the West Indies, 
British philanthropists themselves being the judges of 
what it has effected there, as it has done during the same 
period for the elevation of our 3,000,000 American 
slaves I 
THE OIL FEOM COTTON SEED. 
The records of the Patent Office show that a great 
amount of intellect is always engaged in the discovery and 
useful application of machinery to the various arts useful 
to man, and it is matter of some surprise that so little has 
been directed in giving value to so very abundant a ma- 
terial as cotton seed. If it could be econmically made into 
oil and properly purified, or turned into soponaccous mat- 
ter, it would be of immen.se value. The material is a most 
abundant one ; the present crop of cotton exceeds three 
and a half millions of bales, and promises not to be less so 
long as nine cents per pound will pay the interest on the 
capital invested. A bale of 500 pounds yields 40 bushels 
of seed weighing 1000 pounds, and 3 bushels of seed gives 
one of kernels separated from its hulls, and each bushel of 
kernels, two and a half gallons of oil. All these after de- 
ducting one- fourth of the seed for planting, leaves tiie 
enormous quantity of 105,000,000 bushels, 35,0t)0,00i' 
bushels of hulled seed, or 87,000,000 gallons of oil, These 
figures are large, but the arithmetic is good, — Ano' . 
