16 



BULLETIN 997, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



corn, drawing the corn binder or corn picker, hauling manure, and 

 drilling grain, but less than 10 per cent of the farmers used their 

 tractors for any one of these operations and on the average the length 

 of time the tractors were used for any one was less than the time 

 they were used for drawing the wagon and hay loader. 



The average number of days the 2 and 3 plow tractors were used 

 on the different drawbar operations and the average number of 

 acres covered per day by each are shown in Table 12. 



Table 12. — Average number of days per year 2-plow and 3-plow tractors vjere used for 

 different drawbar operations and average number of acres covered per day. 



[174 two-plow tractors and 104 three-plow tractors.] 



Operation. 



2-plow. 



3-plow. 



Days per 

 year. 



Acres per 



Days per 



year. 



Acres per 

 day. 



Spring plowing 



Fall plowing 



Disking 



Disking in combination 

 Harrowing, rolling, etc . 



Drawing hay loader 



Cutting grain 



Other work 



Total 



7.9 

 5.1 

 4.0 

 3.4 

 1.1 

 .4 

 1.9 

 2.0 



6.62 

 6.46 

 21.60 

 19.69 

 39. 05 

 10.50 

 19.73 



6.3 



5.2 



2.3 



4.0 



.2 



.4 



.9 



.9 



8.63 

 8.62 

 30.78 

 23.83 

 51.38 

 11.57 

 23.22 



25.8 



There was little variation in the amount of ground covered per day 

 by the tractors at the various operations in the different areas. The 

 average number of acres covered per day, at least in plowing, on the 

 farms visited in this investigation is evidently very near the average 

 of all farms in this section. Reports from over 600 Illinois tractor 

 owners to the Department of Agriculture in 1917 and 1918, as sum- 

 marized in Farmers' Bulletin 963, " Tractor Experience in Illinois," 

 showed that the 2-plow machines covered an average of 6^ acres per 

 day of 10 net working hours and 3-plow machines 8f acres. Reports 

 from about 70 farmers in McLean County, Illinois, in 1918 and 1919, 

 and summarized in Department Bulletin 814, "A Standard Day's 

 Work in Central Illinois," showed that 2-plow tractors covered 7.0 

 acres per day in spring plowing and 6.4 acres per day in fall plowing, 

 and that 3-plow tractors covered 8.7 acres per day in the spring and 

 8.1 acres in the fall. 



Table 12 shows that the 2-plow tractors were used more exten- 

 sively than the 3-plow machines for the light operations of harrowing, 

 rolling, etc., and cutting grain. In disking, the 2-plow machines 

 pulled disks alone a greater part of the time while the 3-plow machines 

 usually pulled harrows or other light implements in combination 

 with the disks. 



