A great many persons insist that a mule has no marrow in the bones of his legs. This is a very singular error. The bone of the mule's leg has a cavity, and is as well filled with marrow as the horse's. It also varies in just the same proportion as in the horse's leg. The feet of some mules, however, will crack and split, but in most cases it is the result of bad shoeing. It at times occurs from a lack of moisture to the foot; and is seen among mules used in cities, where there are no facilities for driving them into running water every day, to soften the feet and keep them moist.
Best Method of Breaking Value of Kind Treatment How to Harness Injured by Working too Young What the Mule can Endure Color and Peculiar Habits Mexican Mules, and Packing The Agricultural Committee Working Condition of Mules Spotted Mules Mule-Breeding and Raising How Colts should be Handled Packing Mules Physical Constitution Value of Harnessing Properly Government Wagons More about Breeding Mules Ancient History of the Mule Table of Statistics 14 Portraits of Celebrated Mules Diseases Common to the Mule, and how they should be treated
CHAPTER I. HOW MULES SHOULD BE TREATED IN BREAKING.
I have long had it in contemplation to write something concerning the mule, in the hope that it might be of benefit to those who had to deal with him, as well in as out of the army, and make them better acquainted with his habits and usefulness. The patient, plodding mule is indeed an animal that has served us well in the army, and done a great amount of good for humanity during the late war. He was in truth a necessity to the army and the Government, and performed a most important part in supplying our army in the field. That he will perform an equally important part in the future movements of our army is equally clear, and should not be lost sight of by the Government. It has seemed to me somewhat strange, then, that so little should have been written concerning him, and so little pains taken to improve his quality. I have noticed in the army that those who had most to do with him were the least acquainted with his habits, and took the least pains to study his disposition, or to ascertain by proper means how he could be made the most useful. The Government might have saved hundreds of thousands of dollars, if, when the war began, there had been a proper understanding of this animal among its employees.