STANDARD DAY S WORK IN CKNTRAI^ ILLINOIS. 



29 



the work of the otlici- men, esj)eciii]]y tlie *dne on the waffon, is not 

 SIS hai'd as when unloading by hand. The horses used on the hay- 

 fork rope are usually the same as those used for drawing the hay 

 from the field, and would be standing idle if the hay was unloaded 

 by hand. 



HAULING AND SPREADING MANURE. 



In gathering data on the use of manure spreaders each farmer 

 was asked to give the size of load ordinarily hauled (in bushels), 

 the number of horses generally used, the most common distance 

 hauled, and time required for one man to load, haul to the field, 

 spread and return. The same information was obtained for haul- 

 ing in a wagon box and spreading by hand. (See Table XXXI.) 



The most common distance from the barn to the field reported 

 was 80 rods, with an average of 75 rods for the spreader and 74 rods 

 for the wagon. Sixty bushels was reported most often as a load for 

 the spreader, but 50, 70, 75, and 80 bushels were each given as an 

 ordinary load in more than 10 per cent of the reports. Thirty 

 bushels was given most frequently as a load for the wagon, but 40, 

 50, and 60 bushels were each given as an ordinary load in from 10 

 to 20 per cent of the reports. 



About 60 per cent of the farmers use three horses with the 

 spreader, about 30 per cent use 4-horse teams and the remainder 

 2-horse teams. The size of the load and distance hauled, however, 

 apparently have very little to do with the number of horses used. 

 Two horses are nearly always used when hauling in a wagon. 



Table XXXI. — Hauling and spreading manure {time required to load, haul to 

 field, spread, and return). 



Number 

 ofreports. 



Number 

 of horses. 



Distance 

 hauled. 



Size of Time per 

 load. 



Wagon . . , 

 Spreader. 



312 

 382 



2 

 .3,4 



Bushels. 

 44 

 65 



Minutes. 

 68.4 

 45.6 



From Table XXXI it is evident that a given amount of manure 

 can be handled in less than one-half the time with the spreaders in 

 common use than with the wagons, the manure being handled at the 

 rate of 1.4 bushels per minute with the spreader, and of less than 

 seven-tenths of a bushel per minute with the wagon. The increase in 

 efficiency is due not only to the saving in time when spreading the 

 manure, but also to the fact that considerably larger loads are hauled 

 in the spreaders and comparatively less time is spent in going to 

 and from the field. Besides this saving in time the manure will 

 usually be spread more evenly over the field, and the hard work of 

 spreading with a fork is entirely eliminated. 



