TRACTORS AND HORSES IN THE WINTER WHEAT BELT. 43 
fifty-four hours of work with $5 annual repairs and an estimated life of 10 years 
resulted in the low cost of 81 cents per hour for using the tractor for drawbar work. 
Twelve mares, six geldings and two mules were kept on this farm. The mares were 
kept primarily to raise colts and the operator considered that only 12 head of work 
stock in addition to the tractor were necessary for the proper operation of the farm. 
The mares had produced six mule colts during the year and the colt credit for the 
year reduced the cost of keeping horses by $210. The low grain ration fed was 
another factor contributing to the low cost ($37 per year) of keeping work stock. 
In addition to fall plowing, disking, drilling, and cutting cane with a grain binder, 
the tractor was used 1] days for harvesting grain with acombine. Large horse-drawn 
equipment was used on thisfarm. For plowing, a three-bottom disk plow and a three- 
bottom moldboard plow, each drawn by six horses, were used. ‘Two-row listers were 
used and a 14-foot header, each of which was drawn by six horses. 
The owner estimated that the grain ration per head of the work stock had been 
reduced 50 per cent and roughage 20 per cent after the purchase of the tractor and 
stated that he could raise more colts since the tractor was doing most of the heavy 
work. 
Farm No. 1, Northern area: Twenty-three per cent of the total drawbar work was 
done with the tractor on this farm, which is the smallest farm of the six. Eighty-five 
acres of wheat and 60 acres of corn were the only crops raised. The tractor plowed 
30 acres for wheat, disked the remainder of the wheat ground, drilled 30 acres, and 
cut the entire 85 acres with a 7-foot binder. The horses seeded 55 acres of wheat with 
one-horse drills in the standing corn, listed, and cultivated (three times) 60 acres of 
corn, and were used for stacking grain, husking corn from the standing stalks, and 
for hauling wheat from the thresher to the grain bin. Four horses were needed (the 
same number as was on hand) to do the work and one colt was being raised. 
The work stock were fed 50 bushels of corn and 24 tons of roughage per head per 
year supplemented by three months of grass and four months of stubble and stalk 
pasture. The cost per head of keeping the horses was $4 below the average for the 
area and the hours of horse labor 13 above the average. The cost per crop acre for 
power, $3.19, was the highest of the six farms because of the small size of the farm. 
Likewise the cost per hour of using the tractor, $1.64, was highest on this farm, despite 
a low depreciation and few repairs. Yet when the size of the farm is considered the 
cost of power was very low. (See Fig. 15.) 
In addition to the drawbar work the tractor was used two and one-half days for 
shelling corn and five days for shredding fodder. It had displaced two head of work 
stock. The owner believed it had been responsible for an increase of 5 bushels per 
acre in his yield of wheat in 1920. He was using it as his primary source of power and 
considered it a profitable investment. 
Farm No. 2, northern area: The horses did all of the drawbar work on this farm 
except 330 acres of fall plowing, and harvesting 475 acres of grain. These two opera- 
- tions however, required 37 per cent of the total power for drawbar work. Of the total 
hours of work per year done with the tractor, 31 per cent was drawbar, 28 per cent was 
belt, and 31 per cent was custom work. Hence this four-plow tractor follows the 
general rule that the larger tractors are used for a greater amount of belt work than the 
smaller ones. Three 7-foot grain binders were pulled on this farm at one time at a 
cost for power and man labor of 39 cents per acre compared with 87 cents per acre for 
all farms where tractors were used for this work. The tractor was overhauled between 
busy seasons at a total cost of $237 of which $50 was for expert labor. 
Twelve head of work stock, the same number as the operator stated he needed, 
were kept, and four colts were being raised. A reduction in both grain and the hay 
ration of 30 per cent per head and an increase of 10 per cent in pasture had been made 
since the purchase of the tractor. When farming with horses only, 18 head had been 
kept for 480 crop acres, one for every 27 crop acres. At the time of the investigation 
142 additional crop acres were being farmed with 12 head of work stock, one for each 
52 crop acres. 
CHANGES AFTER PURCHASE OF TRACTOR. 
For each farm visited a record was obtained of any changes in size 
of farm, in the number of work stock and in the amount of feed 
consumed per head, in the amount of family and regular hired labor 
used or in tillage practice which had been made since the purchase 
of the tractor. From this and other information obtained the change 
im the cost of power and labor due to the use of the tractors and the 
change in investment due to their purchase were computed. 
