—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 6,1978
46
Mules are
By IRWIN ROSS
National Future
Farmer Magazine
Toll the funeral bell, chant
the dirge, shed the furtive
tear; for the mule, with ears
flapping and hard tail
swinging, is walking into
limbo; He’ll be a.mule to the
last; he won’t walk fast and
he’ll balk a time or two but
he’ll get there, nevertheless.
This honest, homely
workman is a victim of
progress. Our grandchildren
will probably know him only
as the strange looking
inhabitant of a pen at the
zoo. History will probably
not do him justice, for his
reputation among those who
know him only by hearsay is
not pretty. No animal has
inspired so much profanity,
so much concentrated
criticism, as this purely
utilitarian beast, created by
man when he diverted one of
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nature’s laws to cross two
noble creatures, the horse
and the ass, to make a
hybrid.
Rural folklore swells at the
seams with homely wisdom
about the mule. “Never bet
on what a man can do, or
what a mule will do,” and
“The best way to put a mule
in his stall is to hire someone
else to do it.”
A Missouri outlaw mule
could knock a hole in a two
foot wall, stand on his head
and kick at the sky, and chill
the spine of the roughest
mule skinner with his
display of temperament.
The large bams, which
mule barons built to house
the animals until they were
sold, had windows the size of
a ray of sunlight. Stockmen
felt that the mule was less
lethal in a dimly lit en
closure.
And mule buyers, out of
Old Guard
AARON L. EBLIHG
R D. #2, Reading, PA
R D. #2, Jonestown, PA
Adamstown, PA
Box 150, Muncy. PA
a rarity in most parts
respect, quickly learned to
take the shoes off the hind
feet of those which they
purchased.
The first mule to set foot
on the soil of America came
into Missouri from Mexico.
However, the Mexican mule,
originally from Spain,
proved inadequate for the
hard, endless labor of the
American frontier, and the
now famous Missouri mule
was invented.
Kentuckians sent blooded
jacks and jennets into the
state, and Ohio farmers sent
large, strong mares. After
the mule coll was foaled,
high grass, limestone
springs, and the the expert
handling of Missouri far
mers did the rest.
The result was a large
boned, shambling animal,
weighing between 1,100 and
1,200 pounds, an animal
which did not have a peer
anywhere.
By 1880 Missouri stood
first among the states in
mule population. The state’s
reputation justified an oft
appearing illustration of two
mules being led by their
halters, with the caption, “In
mules Missouri stands at the
head - the only safe place.”
The growth and expansion
of America during the latter
part of the nineteenth cen
tury can be told, in part, in
terms of mule statistics.
They built the railroads,
logged the forests, plowed
the fields and harvested the
wheat. Teams of 8, 12, and
16, powered the reapers and
the combines. They turned
the grist mills, built the
roadways, forced the sugar
out of the sugar cane. They
groaned and sweated and
kicked - but they did not
stop. The coal mines em
ployed them, the army
utilized them, and foreign
countries purchased them.
After enjoying a boom
during World War I, the
mule industry had a few
good years immediately
following the 'peace. In
addition to the home market,
there was a big demand for
Missouri mules in Europe.
The Germans, having seen
what the Missouri mule
could do on the Western
Front, were the largest
importers.
As the economic situation
in Europe deteriorated,
mule trading declined. By
1929, the high rate of ex
change and the general
condition of international
trade all but wiped out the
trade.
The mule population of the
United States increased up
until 1925, and then the years
of decline set in. In 1925,
there were 5,918,000 mules
on the nation’s farms. From
that time to the present,
there has been a steady
decrease.
Old mules are dying faster
than the young ones are
growing up. Since the life of
a mule ranges between 17
and 19 years, this indicates
the mule is rapidly passing
into the ranks of those other
animals symbolic of early
America -- the Texas
Longhorn, the American
Bald Eagle, and the
American Buffalo.
The decline of the mule
was reflected in the number
purchased by the United
States Army during World
War I - 123,660 and World
War 11-29,336.
The mule had a brief day
after World War 11. With one
foot in heaven, he still
packed a tremendous wallop
in the other. The United
Nations Relief and
Rehabilitation Ad
ministration purchased
20,500 mules in the United
States to be used for general
farm work abroad.
Since then the market has
deteriorated. One farmer,
who has worked around
mule auctions for 41 years,
claims that more mules
formerly went past the
auctioneer in Kansas City in
an hour than now go by in a
month.
It is said that a mule
no pride of ancestry and no
hope of posterity. He is a
hybrid, a cross between a
horse and an ass, and is
almost always sterile.
Male donkeys are called
jacks and female donkeys
are called jennets. The cross
between the jack and horse
mare produces the mule,
(Turn to Page 49)
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