The Portland daily press., 1892-12-24
MULES.
The Long cared Animal Finds Stanch
Champion-Good Points.

The Long cared Animal Finds a Stanch
Champion-Good Points.
A mule never balks, but persists in
pulling until it lies down for inability
TO use another muscle. Tt begins work
earlier and continues longer by several
years than a horse; it is rarely ever sick.
and generally. unless woefully misused.
has nothing the matter with it from the
time it begins to work at three years old
until it is discarded at the age of forty
Mules have been known to live and
work more than forty or fifty years with
out any rest by summer pasturing, but
constant Juggling of heavy loads on
mountain roads throughout the entire
years. Their digestion is remarkably
strong, and their appetite is easily salts
fed. In the absence of its usual corn
and blade fodder it will most contented-
ly make meal of the bark of a tree cut
for the purpose on the roadside where
the driver camps at night after twenty
five miles of heavy pulling, with no bed
but the ground and no roof but the
ssarry infinite above. In cold and heat,
rain or snow, in mud or over rocks, it
wends its way without break or an OBJ
lection, and brays for its coarse fodder
and eats it with excellent appetite wher-
ever it may stop for its short rest
The mule is no racer, but it may be
trained to travel under the saddle or in
light harness at very good speed, and
it will maintain its pace for ten or
twelve hours with more steadiness than
horse. Its compact build makes it the
best pack animal. The horse can make
40 more vigorous effort on the spur of
the m oment, but cannot maintain
slow, logged energy like the mule. 1t
requires more food, and that of a better
quality Where quick work for short
time is wanted the horse beats the mule,
but for the slow draft and unchanging
toll the mule is the more useful.
A mule is kept one-half more cheaply
than horse. It may be fed on blade
fodder and few ears of corn day after
day without any change, and will do
more work on this coarse fare than a
horse of 200 pounds more weight. This
character is so we'll fixed that in the
south, where all the hard work is done
by mules, q mule of 1000 pounds is
worth 800 or $3.50 more than a horse of
the same weight, and for smaller animals
the value is $50 in favor of the mule.
For few years past have been rear
ing young mules and horses, and while
the colts get the best hay and more
grain the mules get corn fodder, the
coarse hay and few corn ears. An &C
curate account of the cost of feeding the
two kinds of animals up to three years
old shows that the mule may be reared
for half the cost of a horse colt. A pair
dollars a year for the two years they
were fed, and they lived during the
summers in wood lot and cost nothing
for their pasture. A mule will live
where horse will starye, and when out
of work enjoys the coarse feeding of the
woods. When the horses come to the
gate and wait to be brought home for
their feed, the mules have to be hunted
up, and bells are put on them SO that
they may be found.
On the whole, am very sure that a
pair of mules will do twice as much
work as pair of horses the same size,
or somewhat larger, at half the cost of
feed and other expenses. This takes
into account the feeding, the work and
the longer life. Much is said about the
ill nature of mule. This is unde-
served. Its frequent viciousness is
taught to it by i'll treatment and general
bad management. A mule will never
kick unless it has been taught, except in
frolicking when young. 1t is really
affectionate and good natured, and
when otherwise it gives only what it
gets. When kindly treated from the
first by those who rear it, the mule will
be kind, docile and even affectionate.-
Henry Stewart in American Agricul-
tuIist.