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Displacement of Horses by Tractors 



[U. S. Department 



IN investigating the value of the 

 tractor from the farmer's point of 

 view speciali.st.s of tlie Department of 

 Agriculture recently obtained from over 

 foui- hundred owner.s of tractors in Illi- 

 nois reports as to the number of horses 

 which the tractor had enabled them to 

 do away with in the farm work. The 

 following analysis of about two hun- 

 dred reports from typical Corn-Belt 

 farms is taken from Farmers' Bulletin 

 719, "An Economic Study of the Farm 

 Tractor in the Corn Belt": 



Many men look to the tractor to en- 

 able them to do away with the use of 

 horses for farm work, at least in great 

 part. To date, however, the tractor has 

 not displaced horses to the extent com- 

 monly expected by puixhasers, but its 

 greatest advantage, as before mentioned, 

 lies in the fact that it docs the heavy 

 work quickly, and thus completes it 

 within the projier season, since it places 

 at the farmer's command a large amount 

 of power when needed. 



-The tractor does displace horses to 

 some extent, but only in about two- 

 thirds of the cases where it is used on 

 the same number of acres previously 

 farmed. In these instances the horses 

 disi)la(ed average only about four, and 

 represent slightly less than 50 jier cent 

 of the cost of the tractor outfit. The 

 nuTuber of horses disjilaced does not 

 appear to vary to any great extent with 

 the size of the outfit, about as many 

 horses being laid off after the purchase 

 of a small outfit as after buying a large 

 one. The number will vary undei- dif- 

 ferent conditions, howcver,the piinci|)al 

 influencing factor being the number of 

 acres farmed per horse and the distri- 

 bution of the work throughout the year. 



of Agriculture] 



In the Corn Belt horses are seldom 

 displaced on farms where the average 

 tilleil acreage per horse is thirty or 

 more. On the farms in Illinois where 

 horses were displaced by the tractor, 

 one horse had been kept for each 

 twenty acres of tilled land. After the 

 purchase of the tractor one horse was 

 kept for each thirty acres of tilled land, 

 or approximately the same as on farms 

 on which no horses were displaced. 



There is nuich v^'ork on most farms 

 for which it is neither practicable nor 

 profitable to use the tractor. This is 

 especially true in the Coin Belt section, 

 where cultivating frequently requires 

 more power at one time than any other 

 farm operation. Few if any tractors, 

 according to reports received, are util- 

 ized for such work with entire satisfac- 

 tion, and it is, therefore, necessary to 

 retain a considerable number of horses 

 after the tractor is bought. 



A study of the distribution of horse 

 labor on a typical Corn Belt farm indi- 

 cates that the peak loa I, that is, the 

 greatest amount of work, conies about 

 the end of May, which is the season 

 when corn cultivating is at its height. 



On ninety-two Illinois farms where 

 no change in the acreage was made 

 after the purchase of the tractor, an 

 average of twelve horses per farm had 

 previously been kept. Two hundred 

 and sixty-three horses were displaced 

 on these farms, an average of not quite 

 three horses per farm. On thirty-one. 

 or about one-third, or these farms, no 

 horses were laid off. 



'l"hc raising of colts is an induslix (if 

 considerable importance on farms in 

 the Corn Belt, and it would seem nat- 

 ural to expect that where tractors were 



bought and the work stock thus relieved 

 of the heavy field work the percentage 

 of brood mares kept would be increased 

 and that the chances of raising more 

 and healthier colts would be enhanced. 

 It was found, however, that on a large 

 group of farms in Illinois the brood 

 mares constituted 33 per cent of the 

 work stock before the tractors were 

 bought, and while the work stock was 

 decreased to some extent after the pur- 

 chase of the tractor, the percentage of 

 brood mares increased only 3 per cent, 

 thus making the percentage now kept 

 amount to 3(i per cent. 



Fruit Sun-Scald 



Reports from various parts of the 

 state indicate an unusually large amount 

 of injury to growing fruit caused by 

 sun-scald. It is probable that the trou- 

 ble is so prevalent this season because 

 of the sudden and extreme changes in 

 the weather. When several cool, moist 

 days are followed by high temperatures 

 and high insolation the tissue of the 

 fruit is likely to be so watery that the 

 exposed outer cells are killed. This 

 causes a discoloration of the skin and 

 flesh on the sunny cheek of the fruit 

 and destroys any hope of its ever de- 

 veloping to better than "cull" quality. 



What to do to prevent such injury, or 

 to reduce the loss to the minimum after 

 the burning has taken place, is being 

 frequently asked the Department of 

 Horticulture of the State College at 

 Pullman. Of course, the primary cause, 

 the unfavorable weather, cannot be 

 controlled. It is probable, however, that 

 weak trees with sparse foliage are the 

 ones on which the injury is most 

 severe. This would indicate the need 

 of nitrogen-gathering cover crops to 

 improve the soil condition, thus causing 

 the tree to make a better twig and leaf 

 growth. 



Since the burned apples cannot de- 

 velop into good fruit. Professor R. J. 

 Barnett reconiinends that they be re- 

 moved from the tree by pulling or clip- 

 ping, as soon as possible. The work of 

 thinning would cost something at the 

 time, but this expense would be largely 

 balanced to the grower by the lessened 

 cost of picking and sorting the mature 

 fruit at harvest time. In addition, the 

 fruit left on the tree would have in- 

 creased chances to develop high (lualily, 

 because of the lightened loatl. It is the 

 number of seeds produceil which repre- 

 sents most closely the lax on the tree of 

 maturing a crop of fruit. Such a thin- 

 ning may prove to be very valuable if 

 it enables the tree to produce a larger 

 crop during the season of 1917, a nor- 

 mally light fruit year. — Ira D. Cardiff, 

 Director, State Agricultural Kxperiment 

 Station, Pullm;ui, Washington. 



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 228 N. &W. BIdg. Roanoke, Vs. 



