34 



BULLETIN 997, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



HORSE LABOR EQUIVALENT OF TRACTOR WORK. 



Table 23 shows the horse labor equivalent of the drawbar work 

 done at home by the tractors in the different areas. Table 14 (page 

 18) shows that on the average the tractors did 52.1 acres of spring 

 plowing and 37.7 acres of fall plowing per farm, and Table 22 (page 27) 

 shows that the daily duty of one horse was 0.84 acre at spring plowing 

 and 0.80 acre at fall plowing. Thus on the average, 62.1 days of 

 horse labor would have been required to do the spring plowing which 

 the tractors did and 47.1 days to do the fall plowing. In other words 

 the average tractor did the equivalent of 109.2 days of horse labor in 

 plowing. The figures for each operation in the various areas were 

 obtained in a similar manner. 



Table 23. — Horse-day equivalent of tractor work in different areas. 



Operations. 



Madison 



Countv, 



Ohio. 



Seneca 



Countv, 



Ohio. 



Madison 



Countv. 



Ind. 



Mont- 

 gomery 

 Countv, 

 Ind. 



Living- 

 ston 



Countv, 

 111. 



Knox 



Countv, 



111. 



All areas. 





Horse- 

 davs. 

 126.0 

 88-8 



Horse- 



davs. 



80.9 



67.0 



1.2 



2.8 



3.6 



Horse- 

 days. 



103. 1 

 76.2 

 4.8 

 12.3 

 12.2 



Horse- 

 days. 

 106. 3 

 99.7 

 1.8 

 6.1 

 6.5 



Horse- 

 days. 

 131.6 

 52.6 

 .2 

 6.5 

 4.0 



Horse- 

 days. 

 96.1 

 72.1 

 1.8 

 9.0 

 9.0 



Horse- 

 days. 

 109.2 



Fitting ground after plowing 



68.4 

 1.5 





16.6 



14.3 



7.4 





7.9 







Total 



245. 7 



155. 5 



208. 4 



220.4 



194.9 



188.0 



194.4 







Comparison of the number of days of drawbar work actually done 

 by the tractors with the horse-labor equivalent shows that in each 

 area the tractors did as much work per day as would have been done 

 by eight or nine horses. The average number of days the tractors 

 were used for drawbar work on the home farm in the different areas 

 was as follows : 



Days. 



Madison County. Ohio 30. 



Seneca County, Ohio 17. 



Madison County, Ind 23. 7 



Montgomery County, Ind 25. 4 



Livingston County, 111 21. 3 



Knox County, 111 24.0 



For the entire 286 farms the tractors did as much work per day as 

 would have been done by 8.3 horses. When plowing, each 2-plow 

 tractor performed the equivalent of 7.9 days of horse labor per day 

 in the spring and 8.1 days in the fall. The 3-plow tractors performed 

 the equivalent of 10.3 days of horse labor in the spring and 10.8 days 

 in the fall. (See tables 12 and 22). 



