1905. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
499 
AN ARGUMENT FOR THE MULE. 
The picture at Fig. 210 shows a carload 
of Kentucky mare mule colts, purchased 
at an average price of $90 when they were 
from 10 days to two months old, and de¬ 
livered October 15, 1903; these colts were 
the pick of nine different counties, and are 
said to be the best load in this part of the 
State. The buyer of these mules buys 
from 800 to 1,200 mule colts every season, 
and in buying them selects them with 
large feet and bone, with as much weight 
as possible, with large heads and long 
ears. We find the best colts we buy are 
out of mares with from one-fourth to 
one-half draft blood in them, which draft 
blood gives them the bone and weight, 
while the Kentucky blood gives them the 
style and finish. We think a colt which 
stands three feet five inches to three feet 
six inches high, properly cared for when 
weaned at 53 to 55 inches, when fully de¬ 
veloped will measure 15.3 to 16.1 hands 
high, and that makes them good enough 
for any market. For breeding mules we 
prefer a jack with large foot and heavy 
bone, with weight in proportion, 14to 
15^2 hands high, as they are more uni¬ 
form than the larger jacks. The smaller 
jack’s colts are more compact and better 
feeders, while as a rule the larger jack’s 
colts are too leggy and have not enough 
weight. As for feeding and taking care 
of mule colts; we feed them green corn 
cut in a cutting box until after frost, with 
old corn, usually four or five ears a day, 
good clover hay and sheaf oats. We find 
that bran and chopped feed about twice a 
week are very good, as such a ration keeps 
the bowels in good condition. We think 
bedding is very essential, either straw or 
corn fodder. We have found corn fodder 
a very good bedding, as it is coarser than 
straw, and the shed will keen drier with 
average value, has a valuation of $70.07, 
which is $15.56 higher than the horse, in 
that State. In Illinois, another great 
horse State, the horse is valued at only 
$55.56, while the mule makes the average 
of $65.89, being $10.33 in advance of the 
horse. In Kansas the horse is valued at 
$48.06, the mule at $64.22. In Nebraska 
the horse is placed at $50.44; the mule at 
$63.79. Is it not astounding? Taking the 
whole Union, and including the great Ax- 
tell at $100,000; Sunol, Boralma, Lord 
Derby, Alex. Prince Alert, and the other 
fast and high-priced ones, ranging in price 
from $5,000 to $100,000, all valued, yet the 
average of the mule is $11 more than that 
of the horse. This establishes the fact 
that the mule as a class is a more valuable 
animal than the horse, and as the pro¬ 
gressive American farmer sees this, he 
will adopt the mule as the farm animal 
and motive power. 
From repeated experiments that have 
come under my observation in the past 
25 years, I have found that three mules 
15 hands high, that were constantly 
worked, consumed about as much forage 
as two ordinary sized horses worked in 
the same way, and while the mules were 
fat the horses were only in good working 
order. Although a mule will live and 
work on a very low fare he also responds 
as quickly as any animal to good feed and 
kind treatment. True, it is charged that 
the mule is vicious, stubborn and slow, 
but an experience in handling mules on 
the farm has failed to sustain the charge 
save in few instances, and in these pro¬ 
pensities were brought about by bad hand¬ 
ling. They are truer pullers than the 
horse, and move more quickly under the 
load. Their hearing and vision are better 
than the horse. The writer has used 
them in all of the different branches of 
A CARLOAD OF KENTUCKY MULE COLTS. Fig. 210. 
fodder bedding. Once a week we sprinkle 
air-slaked lime, not too heavily, on the 
bedding to prevent the mules having sore 
feet. We keep plenty of fresh water in 
their trough and plenty of salt, sulphur 
and wood ashes in separate trough in the 
shed. The load of mule colts shown in 
Fig. 210 were fed by E. R. Davis, of Mason 
County, Kentucky. This load of mules 
sold first of September, 1904, for $127.50 
and the buyer refused $130 the day he re¬ 
ceived them. 
The majority of our small mule colts 
are bought up by Pennsylvania buyers, 
for $40 to $60 at weaning time; the larger 
ones selling for $60 to $90, are bought by 
Kentucky buyers and kept for sugar 
mules. The small colts that go to Penn¬ 
sylvania are driven through the country 
and peddled out to the farmers by the 
pair; they find it very profitable to grow 
them until three or four years old and sell 
to the miners. The mule is always ready 
for the market, and finds a ready sale 
at any age. Breeders usually take their 
best mares to horses and breed the com¬ 
mon ones to the jacks. You may take a 
stallion that cost $1,000 to $2,000 and breed 
to mares of the same quality you would 
breed to a $500 or $1,000 jack; the mules 
will bring a third more at weaning time, 
and often double. They can be kept at 
less expense, and will always be the 
greater money maker. The world, day 
by day and year by year, is becoming more 
acquainted with the American mule be¬ 
cause it is the best on the globe. All 
nations that handle mules are purchasers 
of American mules. 
In a general way in a very large ma¬ 
jority of the States of the Union the mule 
is valued higher than the horse. In Towa 
the greatest horse State in the Union, it 
is said with her many high-priced im¬ 
ported horses, the horse "is valued at 
$54.41 per head, while the mule, with its 
farming, from the plow to the carriage 
and buggy, and thinks they are less liable 
to become frightened and start suddenly; 
and if they do start, they usually stop be¬ 
fore damage is done, while the horse sel¬ 
dom stops until completely freed. A reli¬ 
able man tells he once saw a runaway of 
six -teams in a cornfield, five of them be¬ 
ing mules and the sixth a horse. The 
mules ran and capered until they came to 
the first batch of green grass, and there 
stopped to regale themselves, while the 
horse ran on, greatly frightened, until he 
stuck the plow in his back. In less than 10 
minutes the five mule plows were going 
without a bolt broken, while the plow 
after the horse was a wreck, and the horse 
ruined for life. The mule is more steady 
while at work than the horse, and is not 
so liable to become exhausted, and often 
becomes so well instructed as to drive 
with one line. j. F. cook. 
Lexington, Ky. 
Mr. Smith : “I believe there is a spe¬ 
cial Providence which protects bricklay¬ 
ers’ laborers. Do you know that only 
yesterday one slipped off a 40-foot ladder 
and was not hurt in the slightest degree?” 
“That sounds almost miraculous,” said 
Mrs. Smith. “Oh, no—there was nothing 
marvelous about it; he slipped off the first 
rung.”—Melbourne Leader. 
“Doctor,” said the man who several 
weeks before had been operated on for 
appendicitis, “I’m all right now except for 
a heavy feeling in the pit of my stomach 
and a slight metallic rattling when I 
walk.” “There!” exclaimed the M. D„ 
slapping his thigh, “I knew that case of 
surgical instruments would turn up event¬ 
ually. Will you pay me for them and 
keep them, or shall I remove them? The 
cost will be about the same.”—Houston 
Post. 
INCREASED CAPACITY 
CREAM SEPARATORS 
♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ 
In line with its established policy of always keep¬ 
ing FAR IN THE LEAD of all possible competition 
by further improving its separators every few years, 
the DE LAVAL COMPANY has just let out another 
“link” of superiority, which still further widens the 
gulf of practical efficiency between the DE LAVAL 
and the best of imitating cream separators. 
Seemingly perfect as they have been before, the 
MAY, 1905, DE LAVAL machines are still further 
improved, run still easier, have lower-down supply 
cans, and LARGELY INCREASED CAPACITIES 
all for the SAME PRICES as here, of ore 
STYLB OLD 
“Humm ng-Birt)” . . . 250 lbs. 
“Daisy” . . . . 350 “ 
“Baby ’ No. 1 . . 450 “ 
“B^by” No. 2 (Iron-Stool) 600 “ 
“Baba” No. 2 (Solid-Frame) 600 “ 
NEW 
300 lbs. 
400 “ 
500 “ 
700 “ 
700 “ 
1 , 2,0 “ 
1 , 2(10 “ 
‘ Babt ” No. 3 . . . 1,000 
“D airy” Turb ne . . 1,000 
Send for new 1905 Catalogue giving complete par¬ 
ticulars 
The De Laval Separator Co. 
Randolph (k Canal Sts., 
CHICAGO. 
1213 Filbert Street, 
PHILADELPHIA. 
9 & I I Drumm St., 
SAN FRANCISCO. 
General Offices: 
74 CORTLANDT STREET, 
NEW YORK. 
121 Youville Square, 
MONTREAL. 
75 & 77 York Street, 
TORONTO. 
248 mcDermot Avenue, 
WINNIPEG. 
Why not get it in your cream separator when 
every other essential goes with it? That’s 
the difference between the separator of 
today and the old machines. The new 
Papec 
Cream Separator 
doesn’t require you to lift the milk as high as 
your head to fill the can. A child can fill it. 
That counts when you use it every day twice 
a day. Mind you, this is not attained at ihe 
expense of clean skimming, easy turning, or 
cleaning. Handiness is not inconsistent with these 
things. The Papec is the separator that lias them all. 
Let us tell you all about it. Our free book will do it. 
THE PAPEC MCH. CO., 
Box 10, Lima, N. Y. 
1 DR. DAVID 
ROBERTS 
CATTLE 
| SPECIALIST 
OFFERS THESE BOOKS FREE 
No. 1. Abortion In Cows. No. 2. 
Barren Cows. No. 3. Retained 
Afterbirth. No. 4. Scours In 
Calves. No. 5 How to make your 
OWN STOCK FOOD at home. 
l>r. Pa. Id Roberts, Cattle Specialist 
MORE 
MONEY! 
Cows will give 15 to 20 per 
cent more milk if protected 
from the torture of flies with 
CHILD’S SO-BOS-SO KILFLY. 
Kills flies and all insects; protects horses as well 
as cows. Perfectly harmless to man and beast 
Rapidly applied with Child’s Electric Sprayer. 
80 to 50 cows sprayed in a few minutes. A true 
antiseptic; keeps stables, chicken houses, pig 
pens in a perfectly sanitary condition. 
A»k dealer for Child’s 80-B08-S0 or send $1 (special 
price) for 1-gal can and Sprayer complete by express. 
CHAS. H. CHILDS & CO., Sole Manufacturers, 
24 LaFayette Street, Utica, N.Y. 
A Boon to 
Farmers’ Wives 
Why not save half the standing— 
lifting—washing? Make your dairy 
work twice as easy—twice as profit¬ 
able. Our friends call the Tubular 
Cream Separator the “Easy Way.” 
Try it. Catalog J-153 describes it. 
The Sharpies Co P. M. Sharpies 
Chicago, III. Wist Chaster. Pa. 
LABEL! 
Dana’siSiSSt.EAR LABELS 
stamped with any name or address with consecutive 
numbers. I supply forty recording associations and 
thousands of practical farmers, breeders and veteri¬ 
narians. Sample free. Agent* Wanted. 
O. U. DANA, 74 Main St., West Lebanon, N. H. 
SHOO-FLY ~ 
Kills every FLY it strikes. Keeps the rest ofT Cows while in 
pasture, longer than any imitation. Used by leading dairymen 
since 1885. If your dealer does not keep the genuine, send us $1.00, 
will return latest Improved 3-Tube Sprayer and enough ‘*Shoo- 
Fly ” to protect 200 cows. Name Exp. Office. Free Hook let. 
SH00-FLT MFC. CO., 1026 Fairmoant, Philadelphia, Pa. 
EDITOR knows from experience “Shoo-Fly " is O. K. 
na 
lowers, 
rs, norse powers, nay presses. Catalogue free, 
HARDER MFC. COMPANY, Box 11, Coblosklll, N.Y. 
