28 
THE PERCHERON REVIEW 
Cost of Horse Labor on the Farm 
Agricultural conditions are gradually changing. 
Men now living remember when the first draft 
horses were brought to the United States. The 
average farm horse in those days was small, and so 
was the machinery. Now many farmers use three- 
bottom plows and two-row cultivators and horses 
proportionately larger. Since the introduction of 
the draft horse farmers have learned that it is the 
most profitable farm horse. High-priced land, high 
interest, ineffective man labor, and an occasional 
dry season have led many to give their horse equip- 
ment serious consideration. Those who have read 
the signs of the times correctly have been making 
plenty of money in horses. Every farmer should 
know why horse labor is expensive, and what 
methods are being followed to reduce these costs. 
Recent figures furnished by farmers show that 
the farm horse works on an average of from 3 
to 4 hours for each working day at a cost of $75 to 
$100 per year, or 9 to 12 cents per working hour. 
Man labor on these same farms costs from 14 to 
20 cents per hour. The expense of keeping a team 
is more than that for a hired man. No farmer 
would think of employing a man during the entire 
year for 6 or 8 weeks of spring work, yet many 
farmers keep extra horses for which there is work 
only in the springtime. The horse that works prac- 
tically every day earns his yearly keep. It is the 
idle horse that is too expensive. Plenty of horse 
power is absolutely necessary to put in a crop well 
and at the right time. The question is how to 
secure cheaper horse labor. 
There are four practical methods by which horse 
labor costs may be reduced: the use of a cheap 
grade of horses, a better distribution of horse labor 
throughout the year, the use of young horses, and 
the use of more productive draft mares. 
Cheap horses worth from $75 to $125 furnish 
labor at a low cost because the original investment 
and depreciation charges are lower than on $250 
to $300 horses. For some farmers this is a de- 
cided advantage. The man with limited means 
is able to begin farming much sooner by using 
cheap horses. The man who must depend almost 
entirely on hired help, and that many times in- 
competent, finds that cheap horses are very satis- 
factory. If a careless driver overheats a cheap 
plug, the financial loss is not so great as if it were a 
$300 horse. But such horses can furnish only 
labor. Successful farmers who use this kind of 
horse labor attribute their success to the fact 
that they have had little money invested and that 
their main object has been to get the work done 
regardless of the welfare of their teams, though 
absolute disregard for the feelings of even plug 
horses is not laudable. A serious objection to using 
cheap horses is the fact that they soon become 
unfit for work and have to be replaced. It would 
be much better for the farmer to have a pair or 
two of good horses to sell every spring rather than 
a pair of plugs to buy, even though they do not cost 
much. 
Much can be done to reduce horse labor costs 
by a better distribution of labor throughout the 
year. During the cropping season there is need 
for more horses than at any other time in the year. 
Most farmers do not buy extra horses for the busy 
season, selling them again when work is slack, but 
they carry all the horses they need throughout the 
year. Those who receive nothing but labor from 
their horses find that any system that will reduce 
the total number of horses kept and still operate the 
farm effectively contributes a great deal toward 
making the farm pay. If they have young horses 
that are increasing in value or brood mares that are 
producing valuable colts, the more horses that their 
farms will carry the greater will be their profits, 
providing they know how to develop and sell colts 
on a profit-paying basis. 
Diversification is the keynote to a better dis- 
tribution of horse labor. Growing more leguminous 
roughages reduces the number of acres in culti- 
vated crops. Other crops may be selected that 
do not require attention at the same time as ordi- 
narily cultivated crops do. The practice of fall 
plowing many times enables the oats and corn crops 
