4 BULLETIN 814, U. S. DEPAKTMENT QF AGRICULTURE. 



usually found on eastern farms. Thus a team of a given number of 

 horses will do more work per day here than in the East when pulling 

 implements of heavy draft, particularly plows and disk harrows, but 

 probably the difference in weight has no effect on the amount of 

 work done per day with lighter implements such as com planters 

 and cultivators. As far as could be determined from the reports 

 received, the variation in the weight of the horses found on these 

 Illinois farms was not great enough appreciably to affect the rate of 

 doing work. 



The average time spent in the field, exclusive of the time required 

 in going to and returning from the field in the morning, at noon, 

 and at night, as reported by these men is 10 hours and 10 minutes 

 per day for spring work and corn cultivation ; 9 hours and 55 min- 

 utes for haying and graia harvest ; 9 hours and 30 minutes for fall 

 plowing and preparing ground ; and 9 hours and 20 minutes for com 

 harvest. 



On most of these farms the keeping of live stock is not an impor- 

 tant enterprise, and thus it is possible for the workmen to spend 

 longer hours in the field than would be the case in a section where 

 live stock, especially dairy cows, are kept in large numbers. 



PLOWING. 



Walking plows are used to such a limited extent in the locality 

 studied that no attempt was made to obtain data concerning their 

 operation. About 80 per cent of the farmers reported the use of 

 sulky plows, about 80 per cent stated that they use horse-drawn gang 

 plows, and 14 per cent reported the use of tractors for plowing. 



The depth of plowing in the spring averages about 5.3 inches. 

 Most of the men reported plowing from 5 to 6 inches deep in the 

 spring, less than 5 per cent of them indicating a depth as great as 7 

 inches, and not over 15 per cent reporting less than 5 inches. The 

 variations in depth are apparently not sufficient to affect the amount 

 of work done per day. 



The plowing was usually about 1 inch deeper in the fall than in 

 the spring, more than 80 per cent of the men reporting depths of 

 from 6 to 7 inches, and some reporting 8 inches. The average is 6.5 

 inches. 



SULKY PLOW. 



SPRING PLOWING. 



The acres covered per day by 14- and 16-inch sulky plows in spring 

 plowing are given in Table II. It will be seen from this table that 

 a large majority of the farmers use 16-inch sulky plows, that nearly 

 all of them are operated with three horses in the spring, and that 3 

 acres is an average day's work for this outfit. 



