t. This is in a measure the effect of bad shoeing. It is
very rare to find a blacksmith who discovers this fact until it is too
late. Now there is nothing more easy than to ruin a mule by letting his
toes grow too long. Doctor L.H. Braley, chief veterinary surgeon of the
army, is now developing a plan for shoeing mules, which I consider the
very best that has been suggested. His treatment of the foot when well,
and how to keep it so; and how to treat the foot by shoeing when it
becomes injured, is the best that can be adopted.

No. 13 is a mule that has been worked in a two-mule train which has been
in my charge for about a year. She was previously worked in a six-mule
train, as the off-wheel mule. She is five years old, rising; size,
fifteen hands and three inches high, and weighs fourteen hundred and
twenty-two pounds. She was received into the Government service at
Wheeling, Virginia, and when shipped or transferred to this depot, with
four hundred others, was but two years old, rising three. She was
worked, at least a year or more, too young; and to this cause I
attribute certain injuries which I shall speak of hereafter. This mule,
with two hundred others, was transferred to the Army of the Potomac, and
went through its campaigns from 1864 up to the fall of Richmond. She is
an excellent worker, and her neck, head, and fore shoulders are as fine
as can be. Indeed, they are a perfect development of the horse. But her
hips or flank joints are very deficient. Owing to her being worked too
young, the muscles of the hind legs have given way, and they have become
crooked. This is done frequently by the animal being placed as a wheeler
when too young, and holding back under a heavy load. If you want to see
how quick you can ruin young mules, place them in the wheels.

No. 14 is the off-wheel mule of a six-mule team. I had this mule
photographed for the purpose of showing the effects of hitching animals
so short to the team that the swingle-tree will strike or rest on their
hocks. I referred to this great evil in another place. This mule is but
six years old, sixteen hands high, and weighs nearly sixteen hundred
pounds. Aside from the hocks, she is the best made and the best looking
mule in the park; and is also a remarkably good worker. You will notice,
however, that the caps of her hocks are so swollen and calloused by the
action of the swingle-tree as to make them permanently disfigured. The
position I have placed this m