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TRACTION FARMING IN THE CORN BELT 273 



The labor-saving feature of the tractor is last, but by no 

 means least. Two men will handle the tractor where five 

 would be required for fifteen horses. One man can easily drive 

 four, or even five horses, but Government statistics show that 

 it requires about twenty-seven minutes every day throughout 

 the year in chores for each work horse, hence one extra chore 

 man's time would be well occupied, even with the horses idle. 

 The saving of $4.50 to $6 per day on labor, to say nothing 

 of the elimination of monotonous chores before daylight and 

 after dark, makes powerful appeal to the farmer who must 

 often buy machines that will not save money but will replace 

 men who are not to be had. 



We have said nothing about the many times in a year when 

 only two horses are required rather than fifteen; of the vexing 

 delays over the breakage of some trifling part; of the intelli- 

 gence required to learn and operate successfully a new type of 

 power as compared to one which the farmer knows almost by 

 instinct; of the times when a tractor becomes stalled in the 

 mud and cannot flounder out; and of other disadvantages. It 

 is not logical to suppose that every tractor is perfect, and 

 that the ownership and operation of one constitute a key to 

 everlasting bliss. However, the advantages enumerated are 

 real, and from the scattered cases of power plowing in the 

 corn belt, are developing numerous communities devoted for 

 the most part to traction farming. 



