4 THEPERCHE 
to raise maximum crops on a field if a horse's hoof 
print was on every square inch of it, especially 
if the soil were a trifle wet. Horses, used in field 
work, pack but a mere trifle of the total area; 
tractors pack nearly all of it. Most conclusive of 
all, however, is the verdict of farmers who have 
tried small tractors. Dozens of such men state that 
a good small tractor does good work, when every- 
thing is just right, but that it is a positive detriment 
at other times. All are agreed that they can do more 
work, with horses and a tractor, than with horses 
alone; but that it is useless to expect the tractor to 
reduce materially the team force needed on a farm 
of 160 to 240 acres. The use of tractors cannot be 
rated as profitable, even on larger farms, save where 
power work around the barns is relied upon to keep 
them busy a good share of the time, and their field 
work must be considered a secondary item, rather 
than the main point in their purchase. There 
is, however, only one cure for a man once thoroughly 
infected with the tractor fever, and that is the pur- 
chase of a tractor. Experience is a sure teacher. 
The competition of tractors with horses has 
served a good purpose. It has caused men to figure 
team costs, and the cost per hour of horse labor. It 
has made farmers study the relationship between 
horses kept, and work to be done; has forced upon 
every careful farmer the desirability of using heavier. 
RON REVIEW 
stronger, more durable horses, capable of doing more 
work at less cost. It has, by exposing the fact that 
on most farms horses average only three or four 
hours' work daily, led men to so rearrange their 
cropping systems and live stock production as to 
render it possible to utilize profitably more team 
labor per day. It has led farmers generally to 
realize that draft mares are the most efficient power 
units that can be kept on the farm, because they 
serve to do the work and at the same time rear colts 
that return a substantial net profit. 
Horse breeding differs greatly from all other live 
stock lines, in time involved. Six years must 
elapse from breeding until the mature horse is ready 
for market, although in the case of draft horses the 
growing colts can earn their keep for the last three 
years of this period. It is impossible, however, 
to create any sudden congestion in the market. At 
the present time, the world faces a shortage of draft 
horses, grade and purebred. Prices are at a profit- 
able level. There is nothing in the situation, even 
if we overestimate the effect of trucks and tractors, 
to indicate any material cessation in the demand for 
powerful draft horses, or in prices. There never 
was a better time to unload horses ranging from 14.2 
to 16 hands in height, and from 900 to 1400 pounds 
in weight. Such animals should be sold while the 
war demand is on; and men alive to the increasing 
discrimination against unsound horses of any size, 
and against animals of faulty conformation, are dis- 
posing of such animals as rapidly as possible. 
Good draft horses, whether grade or purebred, are 
worth more to-day (considering worldwide con- 
ditions) than they have been at any time in the 
past twenty-five years, and men who have good stock 
have every reason to feel optimistic over the out- 
look for draft horse breeding. 
Wayne Dinsmore. 
In the Wheat Fields of Virginia 
