can lock his wheels. In nine cases out of ten he will
waste time in punishing his animals for what they do not understand. He
never thinks for a moment that the mule is accustomed to start up when
the wagon ahead of him moves, and supposes he is doing his duty. In many
cases, when he had got his wheels locked, he had so excited his mules
that they would run down the hill, cripple some of the men, break the
wagon, cause a "smash-up" in the train, and perhaps destroy the very
rations and clothes on which some poor soldier's life depended. We all
know what delay and disaster have resulted from the roads being blocked
up in this manner. The brake, thanks to the inventor, offers a remedy
for all this. It also saves the neck and shoulders of every animal in
the train; it saves the feet of the wheelers; it saves the harness; it
saves the lead and swing mules from being stopped so quick that they cut
themselves; and it saves the wheels at least twenty per cent. Those who
have had wagons thrown over precipices, or labored and struggled in mud
and water two and three hours at a time, can easily understand how time
and trouble could have been saved if the wagon could have been locked in
any way after it started over those places. The best brake by all odds,
is that which fastens with a lever chain to the brake-bar. I do not like
those which attach with a rope, and for the reason that the lazy
teamster can sit on the saddle-mule and lock and unlock, while, with the
chain and lever, he must get off. In this way he relieves the
saddle-mule's back.

We all know that, in riding mules down steep or long hills, you do much
to stiffen them up and wear them out.

CHAPTER VI. SOMETHING MORE ABOUT BREEDING MULES.

Before I close this work, I desire to say something more about breeding
mules. It has long been a popular error that to get a good mule colt you
must breed from large mares. The average sized, compact mare, is by all
odds the superior animal to breed mules from. Experience has satisfied
me that very large mules are about as useless for army service as very
large men are for troopers. You can get no great amount of service out
of either. One is good at destroying rations; the other at lowering
haystacks and corn-bins. Of all the number we had in the army, I never
saw six of these large, overgrown mules that were of much service.
Indeed, I have yet to see the value in any animal that runs or rushes to
an overgrowth. The same