452 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, 
they thrive as well in America as in the countries from which they 
came to us. 
THE ASS. 
This useful and indispensable animal — useful in mule breeding 
as well.as in the propagation of his own species, is among the most 
important items of our farm stock, and worthy of a discriminating 
notice. On the eastern continent, their utility is of as ancient date 
as that of the horse, and amocg many nations and people their la¬ 
bor is indispensable. They were early brought into our American 
colonies, and from their first introduction until some years of the 
present century were widely used in the Atlantic, Northern and 
middle states for the propagation of mules for the West Indies and 
our southern domestic markets. Since about the year 1820, mule 
breeding and rearing in the eastern states being superseded by the 
cheaper facilities for producing them in several of the more west¬ 
ern states, the ass has ceased to be either an article of breeding or 
commerce where they were first imported, and is now rarely known 
within their boundaries. Yet in the localities where now most 
used, he has been improved both in size and quality. Numerous 
importations have been made during the last seventy years, from 
Spain, Malta and other adjacent countries, of the best blood of his 
race, and their produce, bred on the females of American stock, 
have so improved them that we can now exhibit the domestic ass 
as equal, if not superior, to those of any other country. Would 
time permit, we might even go into particulars, to prove our asser¬ 
tion, but it must now suffice to state the facts in general terms. 
With us he is rarely used as a laboring beast, his services being 
superseded by the mule, as our country is happily free from that 
low class of labor in which his drudgery is needed. 
• 
THE MULE. 
The origin and history of this peculiar animal is almost as an¬ 
cient as that of his progenitors, the ass and the horse. He has ever 
been useful in the industries of the people of many nations, both 
ancient and modern, and to the development of certain branches of 
our American agriculture, traffic, and commerce; he is widely ap¬ 
propriated, and indispensable. The early mules of the Eastern 
states were small in size, seldom attaining a height of more than 
fifteen hands, and usually less, yet of great strength in labor, endu- 
