Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1894-04-05
FARMER AND PLANTER.
THE MULE.
Its Uses, How to Breed, Grow, Prepare
for Market and Sell.

Its Uses, How to Breed, Grow, Prepare
for Market and Sell.
There is no kind of labor to when
a horse can be put Tor which mule
may not be made to answer, while
there are many for which mules are
more peculiarly adapted than horses;
among the rest, that of mining, where
the mule is used, and many OF them
need no drivers. They can endure
more hardships than the horse, can
live on less, and do more work on the
same feed than any other beast OF bur-
den we use in America.
A cotton-planter in the south would
feel unwilling to raise his crop with
horses for motive power. The horse
and the labor of the cotton belt could
not harmonic, while the negro is at
home with the mule.
A mule may be worked until com
pletely tagged, when good feed and a
nights rest will enable it to go; but it
is not so with q horse.
The mule being better adapted for
carrying burdens, for the pillow, the
wagon, building of railroads, and in
fact all classes of heavy labor, let us
see how it compares with that noble
animal, the horse, in cost of mainte-
nance.
From repeated experiments that have
come under my observation in the
past twenty-five years, have found
that three mules fifteen hands high,
that were constantly worked, con-
sumed about as much forage as two
ordinary-sized horses worked in the
same way, and while the mules were
fat the horses were only in good work.
ing order. Although mule will live
and work on very low fare, he also re-
spends as quickly as any animal to
good feed and kind treatment. True,
it is charged that the mule is vicious,
in handling many mules on the farm
has failed to sustain the charge, save in
few instances, and in these the propen-
sites were brought about by bad
handling. They are truer pullers than
the horse, and move quickly under
the load. Their hearing and
vision are better than the horse.
The writer has used them in all the
different branches of farming, from
the plow to the carriage and buggy,
and thinks they are less liable to be.
come frightened and start suddenly
and if they do start, they usually stor
before damage is done, while the
horse seldom stops until completely
freed. The writer once saw a runa
way of six teams in cornfleld, five Of
them being mules and the sixth {
horse. The mules ran and capereC
until they came to the first batch o.
green grass, and there stopped to re
gale themselves, while the horse
ran on until he stuck the pillow
in his back, greatly frightened
In less than ten minutes
the five mule plows were going with
out bolt broken, while the pillow afte
the horse was wreck, and the hors,
ruined for life. The mule is NOR,
steady while at work than the horse
and is not so liable to become ex
hausted, and often becomes so well in
structed as to need neither driver no
lines,
In the town in which the write
lives, a cotton merchant, who is also il
the grocery trade, owned large sor
rel sixteen hands high, that he WORKED
to dray to haul goods ant
cotton to the depot, half a mil
from his business house. This null
often went the route alone, and wa
never known to strike anything, and
what was more remarkable, woul'
back up at the proper place with TIL
load, there being one place to unloa,
groceries and another for cotton.
They are also good for light harness
many of them being very useful bugg
animals, travelling a days journe
equal to some horses. The writer OF
tanned one from firm of jac
breeders in his vicinity, that wa
bred in the purple by them, a
an experiment, being out of
thoroughbred mare by royal
bred jack. She is sixteen hands higl
as courageous as most any horse. /
travelling distance of thirty-tw
miles, this mule, with two men an
baggage, made it, as the saying goe
under pull" in four hours, and whe
arrived at the journeys end SCENE
willing to go on.
We do not wish to be understood 9
undertaking the horse, for it is mob
animal. well suited for mans want
but for burden bearing and drudgcr
is more than equaled by the patien
faithful, hardy MULE. L. Jones,
Farmers Home journal.