"M" is for Mules

"M" is for Mules. A mule is a hybrid animal that results from breeding a male donkey with a female horse. Although mules have gender, they are sterile and cannot reproduce. For centuries mules have been prized for their intelligence and capacity for work. Farmers typically preferred mules to horses because mules usually lived longer, learned faster, and were better tempered. Mules were fixtures on South Carolina farms for two hundred years. The state’s mule population peaked in the 1920s at around 210,000. Since almost all were imported from Missouri or Texas, the mule trade drained millions of dollars annually from South Carolina farmers. By the 1940s tractors and trucks were replacing mules. The pace of change quickened after World War II, and by the early 1950s mules were the exception rather than the rule.