18 



BULLETIN" 560, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



On six farms where the horses worked from about 800 to 1,300 

 hours per year, the average feed cost per hour was less than 5 cents. 

 This low feed cost per hour was largely due to the judicious use of the 

 cheaper grades of feed and pasture on the farm when the horses did 

 light work or were idle, and to the high number of hours worked per 

 day during the busy crop season when the horses were fed greater 

 quantities and higher-priced feeds. These differences in the feed 

 cost per hour indicate clearly that on many farms the importance 

 of light and heavy feeding and the use of the cheaper feeds, according 

 to the amount of work required, is not fully realized. 



Figure 2 further shows that on an average on the farms studied there 

 was a fairly uniform difference between the average feed cost and the 

 total cost per hour of horse labor, showing that the number of hours 

 worked and the feed cost per horse are the controlling factors in 

 the total cost per hour of horse labor. 



*.IS 



<t 



O 



r 



K .10 



u 



0. 



1- 



(O 



o 



O .05 



X v 



x. 





















" 



'»» 







****•-* 



""V 







• 





. 



* 



" 





T 7 * 



, : 





T^^ 



~ 





, - 

















' 







500 60O TOO 800 900 IOOO IIOO 1200 1300 1400 



TOTAL. HOURS 



FCE.0 COOT 



Fig. 2. Relation of total hours worked to feed cost and to total cost per hour of horse labor, for all 



farms. 



COST OF HORSE LABOR PER HOUR. 



The cost of horse labor per hour depends on the net cost yearly to 

 keep a horse, and the total amount of work done. (See Table 13.) 



Table 13. — Cost of horse labor per hour {27 farms, 316 horses). 



State. 



Average hours worked. 



Per 



year. 



Per 



week day. 



Tor 

 Sunday. 



Average 

 net cost 



per 

 horse. 



Average 

 cost per 



hour 

 worked. 



Illinois (154 horses). . , 



Ohio (72 horses) 



New York (90 horses) 



1,053 



806 



1,020 



3.30 

 2.70 

 3.24 



0.40 

 .46 

 .13 



$100. 65 

 120. 37 

 145.02 



Cents. 

 9. 56 

 13.90 

 14.22 



From the averages shown in Table 13 it will be seen that in all 

 cases under consideration the average cost of horse labor is over 9£ 

 cents (on the New York farms over 14 cents), while in no instance 



