Malcolm Dykes: All Hail the Mule

There is nothing more symbolic to our past history in regards to agricultural here in the Magnolia State than the mule.

A close second would be the old ‘Puttin John’ John Deere tractor.

But long before the old mechanical farm machine came along the only means for a farmer and family to survive on was on the hooves of the family mule.

It’s been a long time since any of us have seen a mule hitched to a plow plowing a large field as modern day inventions have taken over with tandem wheeled behemoth tractors.

But suffice it to say the old mule got us to were we are today from any aspect.

Because if our ancestors didn’t eat we wouldn’t be here.

According to Webster’s dictionary a mule is a hybrid offspring between a mare horse and a male ass or donkey.

Mules are born male and female but are sterile and can’t reproduce an offspring.

They are big strong animals with long gaited heads and long lopped ears, a sharp backbone and huge muscles built just right for field work.

Usually deep red or black in color their hoof is smaller than a typical horse thus requiring a different style shoe.

Back when mules were most depended on and in demand they were raised, trained and shipped from farms in Tennessee and Missouri.

Of course their basic job was plowing the fields and pulling wagons.

Today they are mostly for sport and showing and trained for riding and jumping in shows and not so much for plowing.

Of course, we couldn’t leave out the popular mule pulling in Fall festivals like the Pecan Festival in New Augusta MS every Oct.

From the turn of the last century until the 1940s every farmer including my parents and grandparents depended on the faithful labor of a mule to make their crops a reality.

My grandfather Dykes was a sharecropper in Pine LA and my dad and all his brothers knew what the back end of a mule looked like as they all had their turn at plowing.

Plowing the fields come April or May was not an option, it was a necessity.

There were no Walmarts or Targets maybe only a general store with the bare necessities but if the Dykes clan ate they either caught it, shot it or raised it.

They were not alone.

A ‘one horse’ farm as it was called was usually about 25 acres that one mule could handle but it was not uncommon for large land owners to have 20 or more mules to work the fields.

Cotton was king as far as cash crops followed by corn so with most of the raw land being timber land the chore of clearing became imminent.

Clearing timber land to make pasture took on an Herculean effort that required slave labor work.

Usually done in winter, at best only an acre could be cleared during that season.

Hand held cross cut saws brought the trees down and mules were hooked to them one by one and drugged out of the woods then hitched to the wagon that hauled the timber to a mill to be made into lumber.

All hard demanding work.

But the real challenge of all was getting the large stumps up to allow the pasture to be made.

Workers would use axes to cut the roots from the stump then usually two mules would be chained to the stump and on command those strong beast of burden would throw their weight into those chains and up would come the stumps.

Nobody said it would be easy and it was not but because of those old lop eared mules it all was doable.

There are many more awards that can be handed to these humble creatures.

But suffice it to say they played a huge part in getting us where we are today.

All hail the mule.

God bless you and God bless America.