The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-09-01
RANKS AS SECOND
MONTGOMERY SECOND BEST MAR
 KET FOR STOCK.
During Last Year 5000 Mules Were Sold in MontgOmery--Yenr Was . Record
 Breaker.

Montgomery is the second stock mar ket in the South.
 Between 1000 and 5000 mules are an- nually sold in Montgomery and in ad- dition. no small number of horses find their ways to their masters stables through the stock markets of the Cap- ital City of Alabama.
 Mules from almost every section of the United States are sold in Montgom- cry, and a large part of the supply Of farming animals for the fertile helds Of Alabama. Georgia. Mississippi and Florida are secured from the big sale stables of this city
 The year of 1904 was one of the most prosperous in the history of the Montgomery mule market. stable man in speaking recently of the year, said:
 Well. should say the year has been good one And 1t was certainly a surprise to us" T don't suppose there was stable man in the business in Montgomery. who expected the sales to come any where near the number of 1903 and 1902 but we were all fooled.
 Tn 1902. we began getting big calls from the British Government for mules.
 
 sorts of trouble penetrating the Transvaal. About the only way they could get there was through the pur- suasion of army rifles and big cannon and their armies needed mules.
 Well, we did big business with the British and in 1903, the red coat war helped us. These mules. we shipped to New Orleans and they were taken in transports to Capetown.
 ''Tha oR two years we sold out of Montgomery over 1000 head of mules.
 But when the season of 1904 dawned, the atmosphere around the Transvaal was as clear as a June morning, and we were prepared for a dull season But as I said. we were badly fooled. we did not reckon with King Cot ton. who had been dethroned for some time.
 When sully and his crowd began to bull things up Wall Street way. we recognized then that there would be probably something doing in the mule line. and before cotton reached its ze- nth, we knew that our surmise was correct.
 The planters had more money in their pocket books than they had had in many a year and they were in a financial condition to improve their farms.
 There was many an old and over- worked mule. last fall. who for the first time in years received his much needed rest The farmers were able to inject blood in the form and in place of one decrepit mule. they purchased two or three young and spirited and work worthy animals.
 Tho farmers must have wanted mules for long time. for just as soon as they got money in their pockets, they didn't fail to buy them.
 The result was. before the close of this fiscal year. the Montgomery mar. ket will have sold in the neighborhood of 5000 mules"
 The mules for the Montgomery mars ket are secured mostly from the middle West. Up to 1904 few if any mules raised in the neighborhood of Mont gomery were marketed.
 kere marketed.
 A prominent mule dealer said how ever, that the farmers of the, country now are turning their attention more than ever to stock raising and quite few Montgomery raised mules were marketed.
 And I believe" he added that in a few years this will be an important in' dustry in this part of the county
 The leaders among the farmers are urging 1t and the doctrine is preached at every farmers institute and the farmers are listening to the doctrine"