AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
impair to impnrte % Jfrater, t \t ftoter, aitir \\t (Sarimr. 
AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHY, THE MOST USEFUL, AND THE MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MA N, —WASHINGTON. 
ORANGE JUDD, A. M., ) 
CONDUCTING EDITOR. S 
Published Weekly by Allen &Co,, No. 189 Water-st, 
( UNDER THE JOINT EDITORIAL SUPERVISION OF 
I A. B. ALLEN & ORANGE JUDD. 
VOL Xlir.—NO. 13.] NEW-YORK, WEDNESDAY, DEC. 6, 1854. [NEW SERIES.—NO. 65. 
JFor |Jros]jectu0, Serins, Sec., 
C5F" SEE LAST PAGE.«aS 
MULES-THEIR BREEDING-REARING-USES. 
NUMBER II. 
The best and most approved asses for the 
American breeders, are unquestionably those 
of Spanish and of Maltese stock. Numerous 
asses of both sexes have, from an early date, 
been imported into this country; but, for 
many years past the importations have been 
confined chiefly to jacks. These really no¬ 
ble animals are as superior to the common 
donkey of England, as the thorough-bred 
English horse is to the ragged Indian pony 
of Canada or Michigan. In their native 
countries they are bred with great care, and 
of approved pedigree, and are models of as- 
sinine excellence. Hence they are the stock 
from which the finest American asses are 
derived, and to which their pedigrees must 
be traced to give them their highest value. 
Yet, they are smaller in Spain and Malta, 
than their descendants are in Kentucky and 
Ohio. It is rare to see a Spanish or Maltese 
jack over fifteen hands high—the common 
standard is probably little more than four¬ 
teen. We have seen many very fine im¬ 
ported ones not above that average; but 
when bred to our western jennies, their 
stock rapidly comes up to the standard of 
western size—fifteen to sixteen hands, as 
observed in our last week’s article on mules. 
The remarkable degree of improvement 
which western breeders have made in the 
size of the ass is, no doubt, to be ascribed to 
the abundance of their food, their fine cli¬ 
mate, and the good care which is bestowed 
upon them. The dam being well fed on 
succulent and nutritious food, and perform¬ 
ing no labor, a perfect development of the 
young foal is the consequence. The same 
treatment continued, the young ass draws a 
full degree of nourishment from its dam un¬ 
til it can eat corn with her, of "which they 
are scarce ever denied all that they will eat, 
in addition to their wonted pasturage, near¬ 
ly the year round. This high feeding gives 
the young foal a rapid growth, increased 
size, and early maturity. Indeed the soft 
Indian corn of our western States appears to 
be the best calculated of all grains whatever 
to promote rapid growth, great size, and 
early maturity, in all grain-eating animals. 
How it affects other important qualities ap¬ 
pertaining to them, we shall discuss hereaf¬ 
ter ; but of these facts, corroborated by a 
long experience, we think there can be little 
question. Thus the ass of Kentucky, and 
other States of the Ohio valley, is equaled 
in size and appearance by no animal of his 
race, probably, in the world. 
The same care in breeding, and the qual¬ 
ity and abundance of their food, has worked 
the same wonderful improvement in the 
mule. The western breeding-mare is usual¬ 
ly a large, well developed animal ; seldom 
over-worked, usually fat, and most general¬ 
ly the favorite stock of the farm. As with 
the she ass, her foal is produced strong 
healthy, and nearly perfect in its parts. This 
applies to the mule as well as to her own 
kind. From its birth the young mule draws 
an abundance of milk from its dam until four 
months old. It then goes into the best pas¬ 
tures. As soon as it will eat corn it is fed 
all that it desires ; and not for a single day 
does it cease to grow till it leaves for a dis¬ 
tant market. At four months the young mule 
is geneally delivered to the contractor, who 
is usually the owner of the jack which got 
it, at a price varying from thirty to fifty dol¬ 
lars, according to the mule market, the ser¬ 
vices of the jack thrown in, which well re¬ 
pays the breeder for the use of his mare, be¬ 
sides the work she has incidentally done on 
his farm. The purchaser of the young beast 
keeps his mules in droves, well pastured, 
and corned, (both in the grain and the blade,) 
until he meets with an acceptable purchaser, 
which is seldom later than two years of age; 
when they are generally collected together 
by the traders and go to a southern or east¬ 
ern market, as the demand may control. 
At two and a half to three years old the 
mule is broken into the harness. Well fed, 
and not over-w r orked, he continues to grow 
until six years old, when he is at full ma¬ 
turity, and henceforward fit for any service 
or drudgery whatever. The late fine exhi¬ 
bition of mules at our Stale Agricultural 
Show in this city, in which many of the 
teams were matches of sixteen hands high 
and upwards, were but fair specimens of 
many which are every year sent from our 
western States to market. 
Although the mule has thus been brought 
up to a size and proportion of which he was 
fifty years ago scarcely supposed capable, 
and is, for heavy draught purposes, a more 
desirable animal than the diminutive brute of 
that day, many have, unquestionably, in that 
increased size and early maturity, deterior¬ 
ated in hardihood, in proportionate strength, 
in endurance, and in longevity. Fed from 
his birth on the best and most stimulating 
food, he requires the same food for life, and 
if denied it, his powers fail, and he becomes 
comparatively useless. He has a larger, 
lighter, spongier bone, made up more rapid¬ 
ly, and with less power of muscle than his 
ancient relative; which, with scantier or less 
stimulating fare, gave him more solid bone, 
with increased muscle, more strength to his 
weight, and a greater capacity for endurance. 
Such, we are assured, by those whose prac¬ 
tical experience both in breeding and work¬ 
ing mules of the past and the present days, 
are the facts in relation to their comparative 
qualities. The breeder, rightly for his own 
interest, has sought to give the greatest 
growth and earliest maturity to his beast to 
obtain a ready market for it,—the purchaser 
found an animal greatly improved in size, 
style, and appearance, with greater strength, 
and capable of performing heavier work, yet. 
still a mule, and with abundance of food, and 
good care, executing all that, he required of 
him. 
In thus comparing the present, improved 
mule to his old-fashioned Yankee relative, 
we are not at all disposed to depreciate the 
former ; but in tracing that improvement to 
its natural causes, to caution those who are 
disposed to adopt mule labor in place of 
horse or ox labor—of which we are, for 
many branches of service, decidedly in favor 
—against the common supposition that mules 
can do all sorts of drudgery, live on scanty 
fare, and bear ill usage and neglect with im¬ 
punity. They will do no such thing. A 
mule of the same weight of a horse, will per¬ 
form more hours of labor in a day ; he will 
live on less food—eating it quicker, and gen¬ 
erally with an appetite ; he will keep in bet¬ 
ter health ; he is less liable to founder from 
either water or grain ; he will bear rougher 
usage ; he will live twice as long; he will 
draw a heavier load ; he will not balk, but 
will pull fifty times at his load—even if 
hitched to the side of a house he will not 
cease striving ; he will labor patiently, faith¬ 
fully, continuedly—in all these things beyond 
the horse. But then, he is usually slower 
in his gait, not fit for rapid work, although 
there are exceptions to this, for occasionally 
they are as fast trotters and walkers—yet 
great speed is not natural to him. The true 
uses of the mule are for slow, continuous 
toil, and for such, no animal can compare 
with him 
In sexes, the mare mule is the best. She 
is the most active, patient and enduring. 
Her temper is more kindly and tractable. 
She is less restive and mischivous than the 
male, yet perhaps of hardly equal strength. 
