Vol. LXVIII, No. 3081. 
NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 13, 1909. 
WEEKLY, $1.00 PER YEAR 
THE BREEDING OF MULES. 
Compared With Horse Breeding. 
The two mules shown in Fig. 55 sold for $400, and 
in a few days the new owner was offered $425 for 
them, which he refused. These are good large mules 
and therefore commanded a good price, but the aver¬ 
age of mule prices is higher than for horses, and this 
point is well illustrated by statistics. For instance, 
on January 1, 1908, there were in the United States 
19,992,000 horses, valued at $93.41, and 3,869,000 mules, 
valued at $107.76 per head. In the past 10 years 
there has been a steady increase in the number of 
mules raised, while the prices per head have rapidly 
increased from year to year. 
The grade Percheron marc shown in Fig. 58 is the 
kind of mare that produces the large, strong mules 
which sell for the good, long prices. Mule foals at 
It is not likely that the owner of the excellent 
mare shown in Fig. 58 would care to breed her to a 
jack, for there seems to be a general impression that 
the first impregnations affect all subsequent ones, so- 
that if a mare produce a mule foal and is subsequently 
bred to a stallion, the horse foals will have some 
mule-like characteristics. Such a belief is 'without 
foundation in fact. Personally, I would much prefer 
to raise draft horses, but as there exists quite a de¬ 
mand for mules at profitable prices, I do not advise 
anyone to give up mule breeding if he be making 
money. Mules have a vile reputation, but if as care¬ 
fully trained and subsequently treated as well as 
horses are, I believe mules are as dependable as 
horses under any and all sorts of conditions and cir¬ 
cumstances. The disposition of the mule, as well as 
of the horse, depends on the disposition and treat¬ 
ment of the dam, and in neither case should we make 
in this thorough granular condition it has an im¬ 
mense .advantagesover a coarse single-grained soil of 
iderft^cal chemical composition. This is so because, 
^abottt the,immense surface within the compound grain 
of the fine soil, soil moisture, with its contained chem¬ 
icals is hot only elaborating soluble plant food far 
faster than is possible on the small surface of the coarse 
single-grained soil, but at the same time, when the 
film of moisture surrounding the fine absorbing root 
hairs becomes continuous with that surrounding the 
compound grain the store of soluble plant food gen¬ 
erated and gathered within the compound grains is 
able to spread outward by diffusion into the water 
film about the root hair as that water and its content 
is drawn into the plant. Then, too, this granular 
compound structure of fine clay soils, when it ex¬ 
tends deeply and good underdrainage exists, per¬ 
mits the excess of rain water to be drained off with 
weaning time sell for $50 to $60 and at 2]/ 2 to three 
years old sell for from $100 to $225, according to 
size and condition. 1 his range in prices shows the 
importance of size in the dam and good feeding from 
weaning time until sold, though some farmers seem 
to think that a mule will thrive on whatever will 
keep a goat. Though not dainty feeders, and quite 
hardy, mules will repay their owners for shelter and 
good feed provided for them to the same extent any 
other animal will. big. 56 shows some mules on 
pasture. There are 11 mules in the bunch shown, and 
all were quiet and nearly as gentle as the two near the 
man. Good draft horses sell for better prices than 
mules bring, and cost very little more to produce, but 
there is a brisk demand for good mules at profitable 
prices, and there is no reason why the farmer pos¬ 
sessing good, large mares should not produce some 
mules, if he wishes, at a good profit. 
A PAIR OF OHIO MULES WORTH $400. Fir, 55. 
a bad disposition worse by harsh treatment, under the 
mistaken notion that such measure will correct faults 
or vices in mules, horses, or any other live stock. 
Hillsboro, Ohio. w. E. d. 
WHY ARE LIME SOILS STRONG? 
Part II. 
FINE GRAINED SOIL AND LIME.—But when 
a fine clay soil has become thoroughly granulated 
through the conditions made possible by an abundance 
of lime carbonate, we have the clay soil converted 
into one having in effect the coarse-grained texture 
of the sandy soil, and on the outer surface of these 
coarser grains water may be stored which is just as. 
available as a like amount and thickness of film car¬ 
ried by the correspondingly large solid sand grains 
of the other soil. When the clay soil is maintained 
far less of leaching effect than is necessarily asso¬ 
ciated with corresponding rainfall conditions with 
the coarse single-grained soils. When a rain falls 
upon a field thus deeply granulated the water, as 
it moves downward by gravity and by capillarity, 
is at first drawn into the crumb structure until the 
compound grains have become saturated. At the 
same time this is taking place the readily soluble 
salts which had gathered in the surface soil by 
capillary action and evaporation since the preceding 
rain enter the compound grains with the water tak¬ 
ing them up, and if the granulation extends to a 
good depth and the open space in the soil is large 
nearly the whole of a heavy rain may be thus stored 
within the compound grain structure, together with 
the soluble plant food it has taken up. In the case 
of coarse single-grained soil, however, the rain per¬ 
colating downward tends to sweep from the surface 
