The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1912-01-05
The Mississippi Mule.

A travelling circus owner sold in .
county of Mississippi recently $1,000
worth of mules which he raised On .
farm in Missouri.
: Why should a Mississippian buy mules
raised in Missouri, or in any other
state! Is it not high time for the Mis-.
sissippi farmer to raise his own mules9
with a p~asturage extending over a
period OF nine months out of the twelve
mat go to make up the year, why can.
not Mississippi be as successful with
muies as are the farmers of a state
where the pasturage season is not
more than six months out of twelve,
The Agricultural and Mechanical Col.
iege at Starkville has recently been ex.
perimenting with mules, and it has
demonstrated that as good animals can
be raised in Mississippi as in any other
state.
What is the matter with the Missis-
sippi farmers anyway? Meridian Star.
There's nothing the matter with Mis-
sissippi. The old state is one of the
greatest mule-breeding states in the
Union, standing No. 8 in the list, and
leaving Georgia, Alabama, Iowa, Lou
lsiana, Virginia, Nebraska, North Car
DINA, South Carolina and MANY other
states far in the rear; and what is
more was wise on mule raising before
the A. & M. College was ever dreamed
of.
AS to that circus mans sale of about
thirty head of choice Missouri mules in
q Mississippi town for $4,000, why that
is an ordinary deal in any eastern or
southern town. If they were choice,
as circus stock always is, they would
have been bought by an Aberdeen
dealer eagerly, and held in stock. A
carload of fine mules is always a DEAL
er's snap in Mississippi or Missouri.
Mississippi will always be in the mar
ket for fine mules, and other states
will always be hunting for them in
Mississippi and other breeding regions.
There is hardly a large farm in this
state that cannot muster a bunch of
young home bred mules, and many of
the best pillow teams in the state are
home bred.
The Woodville Republican in a recent
issue spoke of a leading Wilkinson
county cotton planter driving twenty
five fine mule colts through town from
one of his farms to another, and almost
any paper in the state can obtain good
reports along that line in its own vi.
cinity.
Many of our really bright writer's
who discuss the mule problem, don't
understand it. They don't realize that
the mule is the creature of a single
generation; that we have about 26O, 600
of them in this state, and that the an.
nual loss must be about eight per cent.
which must be renewed by breeding q
importation, to say nothing of the in
creased demand incident to new acre
age, public works and city drayage. A
large proportion of the field mules be
long to a one or a two-plow farmer,
who cannot afford to keep brood mares
and who If they 8 are teams, can
not afford to breed them.
Mississippi produces a vast number
of fine mules, but in order to main tail
mule breeding her breeders have to di
versify by producing horse-stock, and
Of such colts a large proportion are not
females and do not add to the mule
breeding plant.
Don't criticise the good old state, bu
watch her. She is doing her full duty
as a mule breeder and she always has.
Georgia works nearly as many mule:
as Mississippi, but u state breeds
nearly four times as many. Aberdeen
EUorcsnoor