There is another evil which ought to be remedied.  I refer now to the throat-latch.  Hundreds of mules are in a measure ruined by allowing the throat-latch to be worked too tight.  A tight throat-latch invariably makes his head sore.  Besides, it interferes with a part which, if it were not for, you would not have the mule—­his wind.  I have frequently known mules’ heads so injured by the throat-latch that they would not allow you to bridle them, or indeed touch their heads.  And to bridle a mule with a sore head requires a little more patience than nature generally supplies man with.

Let a mule’s ears alone.  It is very common with teamsters and others, when they want to harness mules, to catch them by the ears, put twitches on their ears.  Even blacksmiths, who certainly ought to know better, are in the habit of putting tongs and twitches in their ears when they shoe them.  Now, against all these barbarous and inhuman practices, I here, in the name of humanity, enter my protest.  The animal becomes almost worthless by the injuries caused by such practices.  There are extreme cases in which the twitch may be resorted to, but it should in all cases be applied to the nose, and only then when all milder means have failed.

But there is another, and much better, method of handling and overcoming the vices of refractory mules.  I refer to the lariat.  Throw the noose over the head of the unruly mule, then draw him carefully up to a wagon, as if for the purpose of bridling him.  In case he is extremely hard to bridle, or vicious, throw an additional lariat or rope over his head, fixing it precisely as represented in the drawing.  By this method you can hold any mule.  But even this method had better be avoided unless where it is absolutely necessary.

It is now August, 1866.  We are working five hundred and fifty-eight animals, from six o’clock in the morning until seven o’clock at night, and out of this number we have not got ten sore or galled animals.  The reason is, because we do not use a single padded saddle or collar.  Also, that the part of the harness that the heaviest strain comes on is kept as smooth and pliable as it is possible for it to be.  Look well to your drawing-chains, too, and see that they are kept of an even length.  If your collar gets gummy or dirty, don’t scrape it with a knife; wash it, and preserve the smooth surface.  Your breeching, or wheel harness, is also another very important part; see that it does not cut and chafe the animal so as to wear the hair off, or injure the skin.  If you get this too tight, it is impossible for the animal to stretch out and walk free.  Besides obstructing the animal’s gait, however, the straps will hold the collar and hames so tight to his shoulder as to make him sore on the top of his neck.  These straps should always be slack enough to allow the mule perfect freedom when at his best walk.