Columbia Democrat and Bloomsburg general advertiser. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1850-1866, 1857-10-10
WARMERS DEPARTMENT.
Mules VS.. Horses.

live tue OfulnaTy llle inc ulloIcu tllc VI
man, three score and ten years His labor
can be confidently calculated on for forty
years.
The following figures show the compl-
rative gain of working mules, instead of
horses, for forty years;
Cost horses every 10 years, ma
king 30 at 500 each ....... $4,000
Cost 5 mules each S120. .... Geo
Balance in favor of mules, first cost 81 400
leaving the interest out, and the trou.
bic and expense of breaking or training to
work, and the money sunk by false horses,
leaves a first cost in balance of employing
mules Of fourteen hundred dollars. This
fact is uncontrovertablo. Many are
opposed to mule labor from thinking they
nre stubborn and difficult to manage. This
is an error, for if properly broken and
matched, they are easier managed, can
uull as much, or more, and are more to be
depended on than h r.es; for when one
has well matched team of mules that all
pull together, which is the great dosidcra-
tum in all teams, they are fixed in this
respect for life whereas almost every year,
from the death of Que or more of your
horses, you have to supply new one
This destroys the unity of action of your
team, and often it is long time before
they act in concert. They act with diff
Guilty, not regularity; sometimes refuse to
start, and again TO quick, &c. This often
ruins tho older part of the team, aud
destroys the unity of action so necessary
in long, steady pull +; consequently the
weight of the load they are able to carry
is one third less than they should haul.
But independent of the first cost, the
saving of food will show greater disparity
between the expenses of mule labor and the
employment of horse power. The mule
does not eat more than one. third of the
grain that she horse requires, and can be
fed on fodder or coarse hay not averaging
more than half the price of timothy SO
putting the support of each horse at the
very low sum of $40 per year, the five
horses will cost 5000, so that to rate the
mule at one half the cost of the horse, will
make the five mules cost but 500 per an.
mum. So here is clear gain of $4,000 in
the forty years from the saving of food
alone. Tc this add the 81 400 saved in |
first cost, makes a certain saving of So, 400;
to this should be added the interest on
half this amount for twenty years, which
is the fair average, SO 3,249. The whole,
added together, leaves at the end of the
forty years the handsome little fortune of
SS,640-often more than a man in life.
time realizes from a large farm.
The data on which the calculations are
based is made purposely low and in favor
of the horse, and am convinced that the
mule will not cost more than one third per
annum that the horse does and am also
certain that no horse can be kept in proper
working order on less than $50 per year
This leaves large margin, sufficient to
supply the accidental loss Of two or three
mules in the forty years.
The moral of the above is, that all farm
mork and heavy hauling can be better done
al one fourth the cost for motive power,
and less than one-half the price of food, by
mules than horses; therefore, prudence and
economy would seem to dictate that every
farmer should employ mules IN preference
to horses.