Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1850-03-27

the Spanish part OF HIspanIola INTO Cape
Francois, and from thence introduced, but
they were vastly inferior to the Spanish
Jacks. From this miserable stock system
of breeding mules commenced, the best cal
culated TO delerioate any race Of animals
that has been, could be devised, since
their creation. The purchaser of a Jack,
when about 10 commence mule dealer, made
li'Ie inquiry concerning him but of his ca
pacity to propagate mule. He placed him
in dstric. where there was the greatest
number of mares of qualities so Inferior
that their coils would not compensate their
owners for the expense Of putting them TO
a horse, and contracted to purchase their
mules at four months old. Those are kept
in herds, with precarIous shelter in winter,
having ample opportunities afforded them
to mature and transfer that propensity for
kicking, which seems a, first merely playful,
into an habItual means of defence, 10 be
exercised when the biped or any other race
of animals approach them. In This kicking
seminary they remain two years, and are
then driven to market. AT subsequent pc
RODS, few Jacks of higher grades were
procured from which small number of
good sized mules were bred, and few OF
them broke. The breed Of Jacks has some
what improved, and mule dealers are now
and some parts of Newly ork. But The
system as above detailed. with few excep-
lions, has continued and it is from such
a race of Jacks, and such system of breed
ing and management, that the mules have
been produced, with which the farmers and
planters OF .Naryland and Virginia, and
The Southern States, have been supplied
from .Ne1c- Englan and such have fur
nIshed criterion for great portion OF
our countrymen TO form an estimate Of
the value and properties of this degraded
animal.
On the share of the mare. in affecting The
value of The mule, Mr.. Custis says emphsli-
calg. that General Washington bred mules
from ''his best coach mares and found the
value Of the mule to bear a just proportion
to the ualue Of the dam. Four mules sold
al the sale of his effects for upwards Of $500,
and two more a. upwards of $500 each
pair One pair of these mules were nearly
sixteen hands high. h."-Now, although it be
not here affirmed ,ha: these ''bes, coach
mares" were blood mares, the fact may be
very safely assumed that they were deep in
blood, when we consider that the General
himself was of the ''racc-horse region,o-a
member and officer of the jockey club al
leXandria-sometmes acting as Judge of
the race-iond Of the turf and of the chase;
in which, according 10 one, Of all men liv-
IA hyS hahi
always superhly mounted, in true sporting
costume, of blue coat, scarlet vest, buck in
breeches, top-boots. velvet cap and whip
with long thong, he took the field a, day
dawn, with bis huntsman WILL LEE, his
friends and neighbours and none rode
more gallanily in the chase, nor with voice
more cheeriy awakened echo in the wood
land, than lie who was afterwards destined,
by voice and example, 10 cheer his coun-
trymen in their glorious struggle for inJe-
pendcnce and empire. .''-Thus mounted on
his famous hunter Rlue-Skin, says The au-
Thor Of his yet unpublished memoirs, Wash
ington was always sin at the death, and
yielding 10 no man the honour of The brush"
Being himself breeder and runner of tho
oughbred stock. and we'll acquainted with
the good effect of generous sprinkling of
blood, as we'll for the road as for the battle-
field, it may be fairly inferred that these s'besl
coach mares'' had heavy dash Of il, from
which were bred mules that commanded
$500 each, and were nearly sixteen hands
high, 'acllve and spirited"
il is we'll remembered as the opinion OF
the late FREDERICK SKINNER, (blessed be
his memory,) father of the writer of this
memoir, who sent his ennets several wears
from Calvert County, to the Jacks at Mount
Vernon, and who was wi,hal connoisseur
in all such cases,-it was his oflen-express-
ed conviction that the activity, endurance,
and value of mules was greatly enhanced,
when bred from mares deep in the 6lood-
But we cannot dismiss our respected and
cautious author of the prize essay, withou,
avaIlIng yet moie largely of the result OF
his careful researches and reflections, roun-
ded on personal experience, and so we pro-
ceed TO transcribe his remarks on the several
points of breeding and rearing-economy
OF keep-sieadiness to labOur-docility OF
temper-exemp,ion from disease-and Ion
gevlty OF the animal.
The impressions received, says he, when
on visit to the West Indies in my youth,
by observing, in the sugar plantations, the
severe labour performed by mules in cane
mile, induced me, when ! commenced far
ming, to purchase the first welI-broke mule
could light on; and notwithstanding he
was SO small as to require vehicle and
harness constructed purposely for him. his
services were found SO valuable, and the e.
economy of using those animals so evident.
that was stimulated TO great exerions for
procuring several others Of larger size in
this ! succeeded, after grea, difficulty, to
such an extent, as to have had more labour