edy, very
likely he would not give himself the trouble to apply it. I have never
been able to find out how this pernicious habit of tying mules behind
wagons originated; but the sooner an order is issued putting a stop to
it, the better, for it is nothing less than a costly torture. The mule,
more than any other animal, wants to see where he is going. He cannot do
this at the tail of an army wagon, though it is an excellent plan for
him to get his head bruised or his brains knocked out.

Some persons charge it as an habitual vice with the mule to pull back. I
have seen horses contract that vice, and continue it until they killed
themselves. But, in all my experience with the mule, I never saw one in
which it was a settled vice. During the time I had charge of the
receiving and issuing of horses to the army, I had a great many horses
injured seriously by this vice of pulling back. Some of these horses
became so badly injured in the spine that I had to send them to the
hospital, then under the charge of Dr. L.H. Braley. Some were so badly
injured that they died in fits; others were cured. Even when the mule
gets his neck sore, he will endure it like the ox, and instead of
pulling back, as the horse will, he will come right up for the purpose
of easing it. They do not, as some suppose, do this because of their
sore, but because they are not sensitive like the horse.

_Packing Mules_.--In looking over a copy of Mason's Farrier, or Stud
Book, by Mr. Skinner, I find it stated that a mule is capable of packing
six or eight hundred pounds. Mr. Skinner has evidently never packed
mules, or he would not have made so erroneous a statement. I have been
in all our Northern and Western Territories, in Old and New Mexico,
where nearly all the business is done by pack animals, mules, and asses;
and I have also been among the tribes of Indians bordering on the
Mexican States, where they have to a great extent adopted the Spanish
method of packing, and yet I never saw an instance when a mule could be
packed six or eight hundred pounds. Indeed, the people in these
countries would ridicule such an assertion. And here I purpose to give
the result of my own experience in packing, together with that of
several others who have long followed the business.

I also purpose to say something on what I consider the best mode of
packing, the weight suitable for each animal, and the relative gain or
loss that might result from this method of transpor