350 FA KM MANAGEMENT 



is too powerful and cumbersome for these operations. 

 There is no economy in having an engine for plowing 

 if the same number of horses must be kept anyway, and 

 are standing in the stable while the engine works. 



In the corn-belt, the greatest pressure of work comes 

 when corn cultivation and hay and small grain harvest 

 follow close together or overlap. The engine is not 

 adapted to these operations, hence few engines are used. 

 Occasionally, there is a farm in each of these regions that 

 follows a type of farming that can use an engine to good 

 advantage. In a considerable number of cases, an engine 

 that is primarily used for some other purpose may help on 

 the farm at times when it would otherwise be idle. This 

 is the greatest field for engines in all regions. 



Where large areas of winter wheat are grown, it is of 

 great importance that the plowing be done promptly. 

 An engine may then be of use because it does the work at 

 the proper time. Where half the land is fallowed in arid 

 regions, the engine may have a place. In some regions, 

 the danger of storms is so slight that wheat may safely be 

 left standing until it is dry enough to thresh. An engine 

 may then be used to draw a combined harvester and 

 thresher. But even in these regions, horses are used by 

 most of the farmers. 



Before one buys an engine, he should see whether it is 

 to do work at the time of year when horses are most 

 needed. There is little point in having an engine, if one 

 has to continue to keep as many horses as he needed with- 

 out it. 



PRODUCTIVE WORK UNITS 



224. Definition. Just as we must reduce the animals 

 to some comparable unit and the feed to a comparable 



