Page:Hints to Horse-keepers.djvu/95

Rh into disuse and got a bad name. It may, however, well be doubted whether, in the great demand and inadequate supply of handsome, clever ponies suited for carrying boys, young ladies, and timid, or valetudinarian, or aged persons, who require horse exercise, it might not prove an exceedingly paying speculation to import a few of the very finest and largest-sized Maltese or Arabian female asses,—which, by the way, command no price as compared with the jacks, and to breed from them to the best and highest bred, undersized thorough-bred stallions. We have seen abroad in past years one or two hinnies, with ears but little larger than those of a coarse pony, with long thin manes, full tails, sleek, shining coats, which were altogether beautiful animals. They have a good deal of spirit, and the patience, without the stubbornness, of the ass. If, however, it has not been a matter of profit heretofore to raise hinnies, it has been far otherwise in the case of mules. So highly were they esteemed by the Romans, that we are informed by Pliny, that Quintus Axius, a Roman Senator, paid four hundred thousand sesterces, equivalent to thirteen thousand dollars, for a male ass, peculiarly qualified by size, beauty and spirit for the propagation of mules. They are now, probably, more largely bred and more highly prized in the United States than in any other country in the world, unless it be South America. As draught beasts, beasts of burden, and for field labor, they surpass any other animal in the world; and the use of them allows the noble horse to be applied to his own proper uses,—the saddle or speedy light carriage draught,—and not to field labor or the rude and sordid drudgery to which he is too often degraded, and to which he is wholly unfitted. It is claimed for the mule, and rightly, that he can do his own work, that is to say, field work, heavy teaming, and carrying pack-burdens, all, as well as the horse,—the last