12 
THE PERCHERON REVIEW 
the cultivator, has almost equaled the cost of the machine. 
In corn husking a team soon learns to proceed without guid- 
ance, and the work is greatly expedited. Imagine sending a 
man, who can husk 120 bushels per day, to the field with 
a gentle little tractor to draw the load. Language does not 
exist to do justice to his comments. 
Farm power must be capable of negotiating irregular 
ground, ditches and soft places. No matter how well drained 
a farm may be, when spring work opens and most of the 
land is in ideal condition for work, there will be, almost 
invariably, some soft spots in the fields. Horses go through 
these without trouble. The damage done the land is of no 
consequence considered in its relationship to the necessity of 
tilling the field promptly. Tractors mire in such places, 
time and temper are lost in getting them out, and the land is 
damaged much more than it would be by horses. Case 
after case can be cited where men with horses had their 
spring work finished before neighbors with tractors could 
venture on the land. Here is another practical objection 
that upsets mountains of theory. 
Simplicity is another essential in farm power. It must 
be such that it can be trusted to a 12 year old boy or an 
inexperienced farm hand. Here horses excel. Good draft 
horses are broken readily to such an extent that anyone can 
handle them and get the work done. Tractors, despite the 
enthusiastic claims of their makers to the contrary, do re- 
quire skilled help. Men far above the average farm em- 
ployees in intelligence are needed. Constant attention to 
bearings, to parts which have a tendency to work loose, and 
to lubrication, is needed. The operator must train his hear- 
ing to detect the slightest sound that indicates anything 
wrong. Tractor advocates, in the present emergency, are 
making great claims to the effect that a slip of a girl can run 
a tractor. She can, if she has a trained mechanic always at 
hand to keep the machine in order. This simple little proviso 
is not mentioned. Experience has shown conclusively that 
the operation of a tractor requires a man who has mechanical 
sense above the average. 
One of the most experienced farmers in Ohio told an 
enthusiastic salesman that he had two tractors; one of which 
was no longer in use, and the other running only because 
his son had the knowledge necessary to operate it. He added 
that his boy was the only one out of a large force of men 
who could make it go ; and this testimony can be confirmed 
by the experience of hundreds of other tractor users. Against 
this is the fact that well broken draft horses are being used 
generally by boys in their teens, by indifferent employees, 
and in emergencies by the daughters of the household who 
can and do drive draft pairs on mowers and rakes, and fours 
on harvesters. Many a Canadian woman drove four big 
draft horses on the self-binder in 1917 while the men of her 
household shocked the grain. She went to the field with the 
certainty that there would be no breakdown in the motive 
power she was handling. 
Farm power should be such as to suffer but slightly 
from depreciation. Here horses have an enormous advan- 
tage over tractors. I have yet to learn of a case where a 
tractor was sold, or could be sold, at the end of even the 
first season, for two-thirds of its cost price; and at the end 
of three seasons a man may consider himself most fortunate 
if he can obtain, at public sale or otherwise, one-fourth of 
what he paid for the machine. Grade draft mares bought 
when coming three or four years of age, can be used for three 
years and sold for as much as, or more than, they cost, to 
say nothing of colts raised in the meantime and sold, or 
retained, at a profit. Good mares replace themselves in the 
hands of any good farmer, by raising colts that excel the 
mares themselves; but no brilliant mechanical genius has yet 
found a way to make tractors produce little tractorettes that 
will grow into money on the farm. 
The financial side of farm power is most important. 
Bankers, without exception, consider men who farm with 
horses better risks than those who farm, or try to farm, with 
tractors. If you doubt this, go into any bank in any com- 
munity where tractors have been in use for three years or 
more and try to borrow money to buy a tractor. See what 
the banker says; then see what his view is when you tell him 
you want to buy some big, sound, well built, young draft 
mares that are safe in foal, to increase your farm power. I 
have questioned many bankers in many states on the success 
of the two types of farmers, and anyone in doubt about what 
country bankers of experience think, can quickly ascertain 
their views by the plan just suggested. Bert C. Roach, presi- 
dent of a Bank at Bushnell, Illinois, summed it up as all 
others do when he said : "The man who farms with good 
draft mares is the best risk by odds. He is sure to get his 
work done, and he raises, annually, some colts that soon 
grow into money and add materially to the annual cash 
revenues of his farm." 
The actual experience of farmers is worth more than 
bushels of figures from factory experts. The most conclusive 
evidence in the world against any general attempt to use 
tractors on farms comes from men who have tried them. 
DeWitt C. Wing, associate editor of the Gazette, furnishes 
a typical instance. He is interested as part owner in a 
large farm in Southern Illinois. In 1915 a tractor was 
bought to furnish added power in the field. In December, 
1917, Mr. Wing wrote: "I have regretted a thousand times 
that we did not put the money ($950.00) into some good 
grade draft mares." He has since placed an order with a re- 
liable horseman in Central Illinois for some A-1 draft mares. 
This case is typical. 
Some tractor companies object to any comment based 
on past experience. They say tractors have only been per- 
Percherons on a North Dakota Farm 
