COST AND UTILIZATION OF POWER ON FARMS. 33 



as given in Table 21 includes all the horse labor used, no difference 

 being made between horses owned and horses hired, and to determine 

 the actual number of days of labor performed by horses owned on 

 these farms the labor performed by hired horses is subtracted from 

 the total. Although this hired horse labor amounted to an average 

 of only 1.0 day for all farms, it amounted to about 13 days on the 

 23 farms. If it is possible to hire horses when they are needed, this 

 practice is preferable to keeping one or two horses throughout the 

 year for only a few days work during the rush season. 



Work done with 2-horse teams. — Loading and hauling hay from the 

 field to the barn or stack, hauling grain to and from the thrashing 

 machine, all the work of corn harvest (except cutting corn and draw- 

 ing the mechanical picker on a few of the farms) , and hauling to and 

 from the farm were almost universally done with 2-horse teams. 

 On a large majority of the farms manure was hauled, whether in 

 wagon or spreader, with two horses, and wagons drawn by two 

 horses were used for a large percentage of the miscellaneous work 

 on the farm. On the average a total of 265 days of horse labor was 

 used for these operations. 



A few farmers used three horses for drawing their manure spreaders, 

 and a few used four horses for drawing the wagon and hay loader 

 and for road hauling when the roads were muddy. But even after 

 making a liberal allowance for the portion of this work which was 

 done with 3 or 4 horse teams, approximately 50 per cent of the time 

 during which horses were used was occupied in hauling or other 

 wagon work with 2-horse teams. 



This work does not require an expenditure of energy on the part 

 of horses proportionate to the amount of time used for it. In 

 nearly all of this work the horses and wagon are standing still a con- 

 siderable part of the time, and the horses are drawing only an empty 

 wagon approximately half of the time they are in motion. 



On practically all of the farms, teams of at least three horses were 

 used for work in preparing the seed bed, for drilling and cutting 

 grain, for cutting corn, and for drawing a 2-row cultivator. Teams 

 of more than two horses were never used, however, for broadcast 

 seeding of small grain, planting corn, drawing 1-row cultivators, and 

 mowing, raking, and tedding hay. These operations occupied on 

 the average a total of 88 days of horse labor per farm. In all, a 

 total of 353 days of horse labor were used on the average farm for 

 the wagon work listed above, and for these 2-horse field operations. 

 This is over 75 per cent of the total horse labor used during the year. 1 



detailed records kept by the Office of Farm Management and Farm Economics on 14 farms in west- 

 central Illinois where tractors were not owned show that 62 per cent of the horse labor was used in 2-horse 

 units. 



