August 23, 2011

Well into the middle of the twentieth century, mules were a common sight on a typical Arkansas farm. Long before the modernization of the Southern farm, the mule was the major draft animal in use. Small farmers plowed their fields with a single mule, while more prosperous farmers used large teams to turn the soil. The team of mules shown here is being used in the cultivation of cotton in the 1930s at Lake Dick in Jefferson County.