Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 381 



muscle, we leave each man to compute for himself. I have heard 

 farmers say that three horses, working abreast, to a gang-plow, are 

 equal to four attached to two separate plows, and that they will do 

 quite as much work. I have also heard them say that they have 

 plowed five acres per day with four horses and a gang-plow, when the 

 same four horses would not have plowed more than four acres if 

 attached to two separate plows. A little time is saved in turning, 

 and a man will make his team walk faster when he has only to ride 

 and drive, than when he has to walk and hold a plow. I do not 

 believe that it is any easier for the horses, as some say ; but that you 

 can get more work out of them, I do believe. Another feature that 

 may sometimes prove valuable is, that an old man or a little boy, who 

 could not follow and hold a plow, if he can drive the team, can plow 

 as much and as well as the strongest plowman. 



By the use of this machine, or a similar one, I am quite sure the 

 expense of plowing may be reduced at least one-half. Mr. Greeley 

 estimates that his plowing costs him nine dollars per acre. He uses 

 two yoke of oxen, two men, and one plow— a man to hold and <one to 

 drive. They plow two acres per week. He counts nothing for the 

 oxen, but nine dollars for each man. If Mr. Greeley had a machine 

 of this kind, he could dispense with one of the men, and that would 

 reduce the cost of his plowing just one-half. But Mr. Greeley's 

 oxen move about as fast with a heavy load as with a light one, or even 

 none at all. I believe, with two good plows in a gang, one man, with 

 these same cattle, could easily plow three acres in a week, which 

 would make his plowing cost him only three instead of nine dollars 

 per acre ; a reduction of just two-thirds. 



Or, take another illustration. In the west, we consider two acres 

 a fair day's plowing for one man and two horses. Say the man's labor 

 is worth $1.50 per day, and that of each horse worth seventy-five cents, 

 and it will cost three' dollars to plow two acres — $1.50 per acre. This 

 may seem to you a low estimate ; but plowing, such as it is, is done 

 at these rates in many places. Now, one man, with three horses and 

 a gang of two plows, will plow four acres in a day. At the same 

 rates for men and teams, this will cost $3.75, or ninety-three and 

 three-fourths cents per acre, against $1.50 the other way. Or, if one 

 man uses four horses, and plows five acres, the cost will be $4.50 for 

 five acres, or just ninety cents per acre. This calculation is made 

 from plowing done as it is, not as it ought to be. You cannot plow 

 fifteen or eighteen inches deep for such prices ; but the comparison 

 will hold good, if applied in both cases to deep plowing. When we 



