Domestic Animals / History and description of the horse, mule, cattle, sheep, swine, poultry and farm dogs; with directions for their management, breeding, crossing, rearing, feeding, and preparation for a profitable market; also their diseases and remedies. Together with full directions for the management of the dairy.

by Richard Lamb Allen

CHAPTER VI.
THE ASS, THE MULE, AND THE COMPARATIVE LABOR OF WORKING ANIMALS.

THE ASS

Is a native of Arabia, Persia, and the central parts of Asia and Africa. Like the horse, he goes in troops and displays great natural sagacity, activity, and courage. Job says, "He scorneth the multitude of the city, neither regardeth the crying of the driver." Like the horse, too, he has from time immemorial been tamed, and become the faithful servant of man; but unlike him, he is subject to few maladies, is hardy and enduring, and subsists and even thrives on coarse and scanty forage. Thus Job says of his natural haunts, "Whose house I have made the wilderness, and the barren land his dwellings; the range of the mountains is his pasture, and he searcheth after every green thing." Xenophon, in his Anabasis, a thousand years later, says of one of the Asiatic deserts through which he passed with the army of Cyrus, "that it was full of wormwood; if any other kinds of shrubs or reeds grew there, they had all an aromatic smell; but no trees appeared. Of wild creatures, the most numerous are wild asses, which our horses sometimes chased; but the wild asses exceeded them much in speed."

Varieties.

The different breeds of asses are supposed to be quite as numerous as those of the horse. Four distinct races are mentioned in the earliest scriptures. In modern times we find a similar diversity. There are two kinds in Persia, the largest a slow, heavy brute, used only for burdens; the other smaller and more spirited, and used for the saddle. In Egypt, a considerable though less marked difference exists, those near the Delta being inferior to those which are bred in Upper Egypt and Nubia. In Spain, a difference in size and spirit prevails, greater even than in Persia.

The Zebra is nearly allied in size, shape, and character to the wild ass, but his untameable ferocity has hitherto effectually bid defiance, alike to the scourges and caresses, the frowns and the favors of man.

Arabia produces some of the most spirited and hardy asses, but their size, like that of their horses, is too small for purposes of the greatest utility. The Maltese Jack is by American breeders deemed the choicest animal from which to propagate. He is evidently of Arabian descent, and possesses all the good qualities of his ancestry, with considerable additional size.

We have several varieties, all of which are imported, as there are no natives of the Western Continent. The early importations were principally made from the Azores, and Cape de Verd Islands, and were mostly of an inferior character. A superior Maltese Jack was presented to Gen. Washington, in 1787, by La Fayette, and is believed to be the first ever sent to this country. Mr. Custis describes him as of moderate size, clean-limbed, possessing great activity, the fire and ferocity of a tiger, of a dark brown and nearly black, with white belly and muzzle, and manageable only by one groom, nor then safely. He lived to a great age. His mules were all active, spirited, and serviceable, and when from stout mares, attained considerable size.