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The mule, a sterile cross between a jackass and a mare, is a creature "without pride of ancestry nor hope of posterity." And it's also the subject of an article in the current edition (Feb. 15-22) of The New Yorker.
The full text is available only to subscribers, although an abstract is available on-line. In general, the article explains the mule's comeback from a low point in the 1950s, when tractors finished taking over on the farm and the U.S. military became totally mechanized.
But the mule market has come back with a growing Amish population and the military's need to operate in rugged, isolated areas where pack animals work better than trucks. The mules used for the military's animal-packing school in California come from Montana.
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