MULES IN AMERICA.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2186, 26 February 1881, Page 3

MULES IN AMERICA.

[" N. B. Agriculturist."] The returns published by the Board of Agrioulture at Washington give a grand total of nearly 11,000,000 horses throughout the United States and territories, including wild horses in Texas, and the hardy mustangs throughout the Indian reservations. The same official records show at the last census, on Ist January, 1879, 1,713,100 mules, and the number of these useful beasts is increasing at the rate of 100,000 annually. They are chiefly bred by small farmers in the States of Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, and Missouri. Kentnoky was wont to be the great mule-breeding State, but increasing attention having been given to horses and cattle, the mule business is proportionally restricted. They still, however, muster 120,000 in Kentucky, but in Missouri they have risen to nearly 200,000. Mules, like horses, vary much in size and weight Some are 17 hands high, strong and powerful as almost any horse, and when made up weigh 1600 to 17001bs. Others are as small as Shetland ponies. Between these two extremes are all varieties of size and weight. The prevailing colors are brown, bay and grey. A few blacks and chesnuts are met with, and occasional roans and piebalds. All are hardy and long-lived; animals forty and fifty years old are frequently seen. They are very sure-footed ; notwithstanding hard and trying work, broken knees are much less common than amongst horses; lamenesses are also rare; their legs and feet are very sound and strong. Many of the heavier draught mules will lift and move briskly away with a load of two tons. From properly seleoted parents many smart animals are reared, which carry themselves capitally, and which trot as well as most horses. At St. Louis in the autumn we saw a smart mule, which in a eulkey on the trotting track did her mile in 3min lOaec, and could keep up the pace for several miles. Mules have long been held in unjust contumely ; they are often stated to be obstinate, treacherous, and vicious. These aspersions on their character are unfounded. A few badly broken or cruelly treated become troublesome or vicious. The great majority are however as docile as Any horses or asses, and give no trouble either in the stable or at work.

Mesars Eeilly and Wolford, of St. Louis, the largest mule dealers in the world, dispose of about 15,000 a year, and also sell about 6000 horses. In one year of the war they turned over 25,000 mules j have reoently been forwarding 300 a week to the West Indies, and frequently send some to Great Britain. A few weeks ago they showed me nearly 1000 mules of different deacriptiona, and assured me that they are safer to go about and handle than any untried horsea ; and that although often yarded together in large numbers, they do not quarrel or injure each other as strange horaes sometimes do. They show much affection and strong gregarious habits, and always work better in pairs or several together. They are fond of horses, are often worked with them, and the strings or droves of mules, going from fair to fair, cheerfully follow a grey mare, usually decorated with a bell. They are more sensible and teachable than most horsea, stand hardship better, and are more patient. Mr Beilly corroborates the opinion of southern and many western farmers, that they are specially useful on account of their withstanding satisfactorily hot weather and the annoyance of flies. At the constant hard work of the tramcar companies, for which they are much nied throughout the Mid, Southern, and Western States, they laat longer than horaes; some say double the time. Although they inherit the donkey's patient contentment with plain coarse food, if they are to do good servioe they should get the same food as horaes of the same weight and doing the same work. The farmers who use them so freely in Minnesota, Manitoba, and elsewhere, and the tramcar companies who run them in Chicago, Cincinnati, and other cities, make no difference between the feeding and stabling of thoir mules and horses.

Tbe stud donkeys used in the belt mule* breeding districts are tolerably carefully selected. A few are occasionally brought from Spain, but many of the heme bred appear as good as any of the imported. Where big, stout mules are desired, en ass 16 hands high is used, with bold, rather big head, good loins, and great muscular limbs. Where a stud donkey has proved his capabilities satisfactorily, he is kept in service sometimes for twenty years. The service feo varies from 20s to 60s—a hundred mares is a full season's work. A few ' Jinneys' are bred from the stallion horse and the ass, are rather finer about the head and ears, but are not otherwise distinguishable from the ordinary mule. The mules are dropped in Ap*il and May. They are generally suckled until July or August ; but the mother the while is often employed at light work. Their rearing no way differs from that of the horse foal. Contrary to the usual opinion, they tske quite as long as a horse in coming to maturity. A big mule should not be put to work until he is five ; many, however, are broken when three, and even when two years old, when they are worth £l2 to £ls. They are sent to work and to market earlier than they used to be. Useful four and five-year-old mules, 15! to 16 hands high, and weighing about lOOOlbs, are worth, in Kentucky or Missouri, £2O to £22 ; and stouter animals, adopted for heavier draught, are worth £5 more.