2 BULLETIN 997, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



viewed. A complete record of all the farm operations and of the 

 work which was done both with tractors and with horses for the 

 year ending October 31, 1920, was obtained from each farmer. 

 Data from which the cost of operating the tractor and the cost of 

 keeping workstock could be determined, the acreages and yields of 

 different crops, the size of the farm and the number of workstock 

 before the purchase of the tractor, and related information were 

 also collected. 



The object of the investigation was to obtain information, in 

 addition to that already available in the Department of Agriculture 

 and the various State colleges of agriculture, which would assist in 

 determining the most profitable forms of power for different farms 

 under different conditions. 



SUMMARY. 



The average size of the farms visited was 258 acres. This is consid- 

 erably above the average size of all farms in these States. 



Two-plow tractors were owned on 174 of the 286 farms, 3-plow 

 tractors on 104, and 4-plow tractors on 6 farms. One farmer owned 

 a 1-plow machine and one farmer owned a 5-plow machine. Two- 

 plow machines were found on 75 per cent of the farms with less 

 than 160 crop acres, and on 53 per cent of those with 160 or more 

 crop acres. 



One hundred and six of the tractors had been in use 1 year, 100 had 

 been in use 1^ or 2 years, 49 had been in use 2\ or 3 years, and 31 

 had been in use more than 3 years. 



On the average each tractor was used for 30.8 full days during the 

 year covered by the investigation. Of this period, 23.5 days were 

 devoted to drawbar work on the home farm, 2.7 days to belt work, 

 and 4.6 days to custom work. Of the 286 tractors, 73 did less than 20 

 days' work during the year and 26 did 50 or more days' work. 



The number of workstock owned at the time of the investigation 

 varied from 2 head on 11 of the farms to more than 15 on 5 of the 

 larger farms. On the average each farm had 6.8 head at the time 

 of the survey, and their value was $144 per head. In all, the 286 

 farms had 1,878 head of workstock and 111 colts less than 1 year old. 



The average number of full days' work per year per horse, for all 

 farms, was 68.6. On 20 of the farms, the workstock did less than 40 

 full days' work each, and on 27 they did 100 or more days' work per 

 year. 



The tractors did 85 per cent of the plowing on these farms, 73 per 

 cent of the disking, 43 per cent of the harrowing, rolling, planking, and 

 packing, 41 per cent of the grain cutting, and 15 per cent of the load- 

 ing and hauling of hay. 



