No. 12 is what may be called a pack mule of the first class.  He is seven years old, fifteen and a half hands high, and weighs eleven hundred and fifty-six pounds.  This animal has endured almost incredible hardships.  He is made for it, as you will readily see.  He is what is called a portly mule, but is not inclined to run to belly unless over-fed and not worked.  He has a remarkably kind disposition, is healthy, and a good feeder.  This animal has but one evil to contend with.  His off hind foot has grown too long, and plainly shows how much too far back it throws the pastern-joint.  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 mule in, as relates to the wagon wheel, is the proper position to put all wild, green, contrary or stubborn mules in when they are hard to bridle.