The eastern clarion. [volume] (Paulding, Miss.) 1837-1863, 1860-05-02
From the Field and Firesiie.
The Breeding of Hinnies

4AC Vi G11I1u6B.
Probably no branch of stock-growing
would pay better at the South than the
breeding and rearing of hinnies, provided
the business was properly embarked in.
and conducted with sound judgment. 1t
is a serious and insuperable objection to
the extensive breeding of mules that
mares are thereby prevented giving
birth to their own noble species. which
would inevitably become extinct in few
years if all the females were bred to
males of the inferior ass. On the contra
ry. if the South was properly stocked with
the best she-asses, that may be had much
cheaper than Jacks in Southern Europe.
Northern Africa, and in Syria, because
there is no foreign demand for them,
! these females, bred to suitable stations,
would soon supply planters and the pub
| lie generally with hinnies of considerable
| economical value; and in this way all
mares would be left to increase the num-
! Der of horses in the country. The fact is
not to be disguised that really desirable
carriage urTlt euryiyllU l-----------L~~----:-e
rather expensive luxury while the high
price Of good mules is calculated to aggra-
vate the evil by constantly diminishing
| the number of male colts born and reared
7 Tor Dreeders OF either mules or horses So
far as any increase of horse flesh is con
cerned, our present practice is equivalent
| to spayng one half or more of all the fe-
male foals that come into the world.
There is a well-deined and material diff
! ference between mule and a hmm which
we will briefly describe The hinnv neighs
like his father, the horse, and pretty
closely resembles him throughout in ana
| tomical structure and organic develop
ment. He has the fine head, ear and
neck, the flowing name and full tail, the
broader feet, and larger and wider set
legs of the horse. In the mule, the form
of the ass is more strikingly developed.
The mule always bragS like its father, and
cannot neigh like its mother. Its long
thick, and ugly head and ears. its trifling
name and nearly naked tail, its small legs
and feet, its hardness, surefootedness.
temper and disposition, not less than lis
voice, prove beyond reasonable doubt
that the blood of the ass predominates in
Its veins. 1t is, in truth, an ass much i'm
proved by an infusion of superior blood !;
ana at the same time hlbrid so contrary
10 the pure conservatism Of nature, that it
cannot propagate its mongrel and corrupt
specific analogies. The hinny is equally
lniertile, but as il is as much horse as
the mule is an ass, it is superior to the
mule as a riding animal, and for all light
draught and carriage purposes. 1t can
not subsist on coarser fare than the horse,
although not quite so long lived as the
mule. or its own mother. The Romans
appreciated the Hiruies highly, as a sub
stitute for the horse, and derived its name
from knnire to neigh, to distinguish it
from the Hemionus (halfass), or mule.
We can hardly imagine more promis-
ing enterprise than for one or more farm
ers to import cargo of the best Maltese
female asses and breed them to Morgan
stations, whose size and blood would give
offspring compact in form, beautiful in
figure, and alike distinguished for action,
| speed, and powers of endurance. South
ern sagacity and capital have already Civ
en- no ineonsiderable amount of the best
male blood of the horse kind for breeding
J purposes; but our stock Of brood mares