The Mule

Riley, HarveyProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.5

Word count: 156K words
Chapters: 16

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Mule by Harvey RileyAuthor: Riley, Harvey,Language: English, Class: SF: Agriculture: Animal culture, Release Date: Jan 1, 2004

Editor's review

The Mule is a short public-domain English book in the Gutenberg collection, written by Harvey Riley and classified under agriculture and animal husbandry, centered on the mule as a working animal. Its value lies in placing the mule back in the context of practical production: the mule is a hybrid offspring of horse and donkey, combining hardiness on coarse feed, strong disease resistance, and a steady gait, and it once shouldered a great deal of heavy work in farming, mountain transport, and early engineering. Such literature is usually not known for literary quality but consists mainly of empirical description, recording common knowledge and observations on feeding, working, and breeding, bearing clear marks of its era. For today's readers its value is more historical and informational: it offers a way to understand the composition of agricultural power in the pre-mechanized era and why the mule remained irreplaceable for so long in areas with poor transport. Readers should not expect systematic modern animal-husbandry conclusions but should treat it as an old record of human-animal cooperation, suitable for casual reading by those interested in agricultural history, animal culture, or English public-domain literature.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in agricultural history, draft animals, and rural life
Beginners in animal husbandry who need basic knowledge of raising and working mules
Learners who want to practice reading with a short English public-domain text
Writers and science communicators gathering material on animal culture

Not a good fit for

Professionals who need modern animal-science data and scientific feeding plans
Readers expecting a literary work or a narrative animal story
Readers with weak English who need a Chinese translation

Reading tips

First skim the book's structure to distinguish feeding, working, and breed discussions, then read by interest.
When you reach specific feeding practices, compare them with modern animal-science sources to see which still apply.
Take notes on it as agricultural-history material, recording the mule's role in transport and plowing.
The English text is short; read it in two or three sittings and retell the main points in your own words after each.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book about mule-raising techniques?

It is an early work on agriculture and animal husbandry, covering the feeding, working, and related experience of mules, and it clearly reflects its era. It is not a modern livestock manual and lacks contemporary scientific data and standardized feeding plans; it is better used as a reference on agricultural history and general knowledge.

Why does the mule deserve a whole book in agricultural history?

The mule is a hybrid offspring of a horse and a donkey, hardy in feeding, relatively disease-resistant, and steady of gait; before mechanical power became widespread, it bore a great deal of heavy work in plowing, hauling, and construction. A book devoted to the mule is in effect a discussion of the motive power behind agriculture and transport in the pre-mechanized era.

What English level is needed to read this book?

The book is in the original English, not long, with somewhat old-fashioned expository sentences. A moderate reading level in English is enough to read it through, with a dictionary for livestock and farming terms; if you only want a summary of the content, you can first read relevant Chinese materials on agricultural history and then return to the original.

Comments

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About the author

Riley, Harvey Author

Harvey Riley is an author about whom relatively little public information is currently available. His name appears in library catalog records, while other biographical details remain to be verified. According to the materials held in our database, only one work is attributed to him, namely The Mule. Because there are no reliable records concerning his nationality, dates of birth and death, educational background, or writing career, it is difficult to sketch a complete picture of his creative development or to determine which common category this work belongs to. On the basis of the available clues, this work serves as the main entry point for understanding the author, and readers may turn to the text itself to appreciate its thematic orientation and narrative style. For an author with such sparse documentation, rather than filling the gaps with speculation, it is better to state honestly the limits of the material and to treat his work as a starting point for further inquiry and research.