Page:Hints to Horse-keepers.djvu/96

88 item better than the horse,—and twice as much of each one of them as the horse, provided he be not hurried; keeping himself in perfect condition, where the horse would knock up and starve; that he can do all this on half the food and with half the care that the horse requires, although, the more food and the more care both have the better they will do their work; and lastly, the mule being an animal of great longevity and great retention, or conservation, of both his vital energies and his physical powers, is able to work to the advantage of his owners, twice, if not thrice as many years as the average of horses. These are the inducements to breed the mule, and to apply it strictly to the purposes for which it is best fitted, and for which nature seems to have intended it.

We propose now to treat of the difference between the mule of Europe and that now generally raised in the United States; the error, as we believe it to be, in the present American system of breeding, and the best plan to be adopted for raising the most valuable mules. Inasmuch as asses are not bred to any extent in the United States, it is of the first consequence for breeding to import fine jacks from their native countries, of the breed and description most suitable to the purposes for which they are intended; and of the second, to cross them with properly-selected mares, so as to raise mules of the best type, size and substance for general work. And it will be well here to observe that in the United States generally the work of the mule is and ever will continue to be,—unless some radical change takes place—which is not to be expected—in the tastes and habits of the people,—field-work, agricultural labor and team-draught on the roads, as opposed to use under the saddle or in pleasure vehicles. In the prairies, plains and mountains of the extreme west, on the Mexican frontier and on the