COST AND UTILIZATION OF POWER ON FARMS. 



15 



amount of time it was out of running order when it was needed, as 

 well as upon the size of the farm. The variation in the number of 

 days' work done during the year by the entire 286 machines is shown 

 in figure 4. Nine of the machines were used for less than 10 days 

 and 7 for 60 or more. 



The number of days of drawbar and belt work on the home farm 

 and of custom work done by the 2-plow and 3-plow tractors is given 

 in Table 11. The number of tractors of sizes other than the 2 and 

 3 plow is not great enough to afford an accurate comparison. The 

 3-plow tractors did considerably more belt work both on the home 

 farm and for the neighbors than did the 2-plow machines. The 

 drawbar work on the home farm constituted 80 per cent of the total 

 work done by the 2-plow tractors and only 71 per cent of that done 

 by the 3-plow machines. 



Days per year 



Number of Tractors 



10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 



Less than 10 



10 - 19.9 



20 -29 9 



p— 































30 -399 



















40 -49 9 



















50 -59 9 











60 and over 







Fig. 4.— Variation in number of days tractors were used per year. 

 Table 11. — Days work per year done by 2-plow and 3-plow tractors. 



Size of tractor. 



Number. 



Days of work on 

 home farm. 



Days of custom 

 work. 



Total. 



Draw- 

 bar. 



Belt. 



Draw- 

 bar. 



Belt. 





174 

 104 



25.8 

 20.2 



2.1 

 3.5 



2.6 

 1.3 



1.8 

 3.5 



32.3 



3-plow 



28.5 







DRAWBAR WORK. 



The 23.5 days of drawbar work on the home farm which the 

 average tractor did was divided among the following operations: 



Days. 



Plowing 12. 4 



Disking, harrowing, and other work in fitting ground 7. 6 



Cutting grain. 1. 5 



Loading and hauling hay 4 



Other 1.6 



Although the tractors on these farms were used more for plowing 

 than for any other drawbar operation, the amount of time spent on 

 other work almost equaled that spent in plowing. 



The " other" drawbar work, which amounted to 1.6 days for the 

 average tractor, consisted of many operations, such as cultivating 



