Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1899-03-08

tions have operated to diminish the
commercial value of horses, the total
number of which in the country on Jam
uary l, last, was 1900, 900, and the
estimated value of which was less than
$500, 900, 900, decrease of more than
one-half in six years.
The horse has to encounter the
ruinous competition of the bicycle, the
electric car, the cable car, the auto
motor and much new and improved
farming machinery; but these forms
of competition which have reduced 80
largely the number and value of horses
in the United States have been of
small effect upon the mules, though in
reducing the demand for them the new
conditions have diminished the value.
At the present time, taking the whole
country, the average value of horse
is $35, and taking the whole country
except the New England states, where
mules are very few in number, the
value of a mule ia $42. Mules are
worth more than horses-a pecuniary
degradation for the "prince of ami
mails" and a marked distinction for the
patient, humble, long-suffering Ameri-
can mule, the butt of the photographer,
the accepted type of stolidity and the
time-wasting quadruped of many
parts of the country. The decline in
the value of the horse compared to
the mule is due to variety of causes,
the first and most important Of which
is that the demand for higher-priced
horses has visibly diminished, while
the horse of all work of the farm and
of the highway remain in great de-
mand. Again, horses have always
been in largest demand in level parts
of the country. 1t is in these that
mechanical contrivances have become
more general, while mules, in greatest
demand in billy regions, remain in de-
mand in these. A final reason for the
greater average value of mules COM
pared with horses is to be found in the
Fquestion of forage. A horse is much
more expensive to maintain than a
mule, and, moreover, horses are more
numerous, relatively, in those parts of
the country in which the climate is
rigorous and severe than in the milder
regions of the country, in which mules
are cheaply housed and cheaply fed.
In the state of Minnesota, for instance,
there were at the time of the last
count 100000 horses and only $500
mules, and Minnesota is confessedly
one of the states in which winters are
very severe. In South Carolina, on
the other hand, there were on january
II, $4,000 horses and 100000 mules,
and in Georgia there were 10000
horses and 165, 900 mules.
First among the states of the coun-
try in the number of mules is Texas,
next comes Missouri and then Georgia
and Tennessee. California has con-
siderable number and Kansas and Ar
kansas large number, too. The lead.
ing states for horses in respect to their
total number and the hay and oat crops
to maintain them are Illinois and Iowa.
Two states which have, relatively, no
mules to speak of when compared with
the number of horses, are New York
and Michigan. Pennsylvania, because
of its coal and iron mining industries,
has nearly 10 times as many mules as
New York.
The American mule, as has often
been truly said, is worthy of much bet
ter and higher recognition that popu-
lar estimate awards it. The American
mule Is an animal of endurance and
an important factor in the wealth Of
the agricultural states, more particu-
larly in the great cotton belt, where
40 acres and mule" is the measure
of the ambition of many of the Negro
tenant farmers.