THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



123 



DISPLACEMENT OF HORSES BY TRACTORS 



In investigating the value of the tractor from 

 the farmer's point of view, specialists of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture recently obtained from 

 over 400 owners of tractors in Illinois reports as to 

 the number of horses which the tractor had enabled 

 them to do away with in the farm work. The fol- 

 lowing analysis of about 200 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 enable 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 commonly ex- 

 pected by purchasers, but its greatest advantage, as 

 before mentioned, lies in the fact that it does the 

 heavy work quickly, and thus completes it within 

 the proper season, since it places at the farmer's 

 command a large amount of power when needed. 



"The tractor does displace horses to some ex- 

 tent, 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 displaced aver- 

 age only about four, and represent slightly less than 

 50 per cent of the cost of the tractor outfit. The 

 number of horses displaced 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 num- 

 ber will vary under different conditions, however, 

 the principal influencing factors being the number of 

 acres farmed per horse and the distribution of the 

 work throughout the year. In the corn belt horses 

 are seldom displaced on farms where the average 

 tilled acreage per horse is 30 or more. On the farms 

 in Illinois where horses were displaced by the trac- 

 tor one horse had been kept for each 20 acres of 

 tilled land. After the purchase of the tractor one 

 horse was kept for each 30 acres of tilled land, or ap- 

 proximately the same as on farms on which no 

 horses were displaced. 



"There is much work on most farms for which it 

 is neither practicable nor profitable to use the trac- 

 tor. This is especially true in the corn-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 

 utilized for such work with entire satisfaction, and it 

 is, therefore, necessary to retain a considerable num- 

 ber of horses after the tractor is bought. 



"A study of the distribution of horse labor on a 

 typical corn-belt farm indicates that the peak load, 

 that is, the greatest amount of work, comes about 

 the end of May, which is the season when corn cul- 

 tivating is at its height. 



"On 92 Illinois farms where no change in the 



acreage was made after the purchase of the tractor 

 an average of 12 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 31, or about one- 

 third, of these farms, no horses were laid off. 



"The raising of colts is an industry of consid- 

 erable importance on farms in the corn belt, and it 

 would seem natural 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 purchase of the tractor, the percentage of 

 brood mares increased only 3 per cent, making the 

 percentage now kept amount to 36 per cent." 



FOR ALASKA HOMESTEADERS 



New Government Circular Giving Useful Informa- 

 tion to Prospective Settlers in the Territory 



A circular for the use of those who are thinking 

 of settling in Alaska has just been issued by the De- 

 partment of Agriculture as Circular No. 1 of the 

 Alaska Experiment Stations, under the title of "In- 

 formation for Prospective Settlers in Alaska." This 

 circular is designed to answer questions as to the 

 climate and agricultural areas of Alaska, the best 

 places to locate, the ways of obtaining a farm, the 

 means and cost of transportation, cost of living, 

 what crops can be grown, possibilities of live stock 

 production, labor conditions, school facilities, game 

 laws, etc., etc. The publication is intended primarily 

 for the benefit of homesteaders. It is stated that 

 the agricultural area of Alaska (mainly in the in- 

 terior valleys) is as large as the combined areas of 

 the States of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, 

 New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, 

 and New Hampshire, and it should be capable of 

 supporting a population nearly equal to that sup- 

 ported by the agricultural products of those states. 



The circular contains a special report on the 

 agricultural possibilities of the valley of the Mata- 

 nuska river, through which the government railroad 

 is now being constructed and where, as a result, set- 

 tlement has recently been rapid. The great problem 

 here, as elsewhere in Alaska, is the clearing of the 

 generally heavily wooded land. The soil and climate 

 have been found favorable to general farming, the 

 experience of the past few years having shown that 

 a considerable variety of field crops, vegetables, and 

 fruits can be produced. 



