THE PERCHERON REVIEW 
Grade Percheron Mares at Wendover Farms. This picture was taken in midsummer after 
mares had been at heavy work for four months 
The great field for draft horses, and the place 
where more than 80 per cent of our horses are used, 
is on farms. The tractor has invaded this field, 
and its possible influence must be considered. 
So far as the large tractor is concerned, it has 
already been eliminated as a factor of consequence. 
Bitter experience in our northwestern states, and in 
the Canadian northwest, has taught farmers a 
costly lesson. Thousands of big tractors are stand- 
ing in fence corners and barnyards, unused, save as a 
perpetual warning to the men who bought them. 
The small tractor, claimed to be the ideal power 
unit on corn belt farms, is a new development which 
has come to the fore in the past two years. Many 
companies are making them, with the idea that there 
is here the same rich field that the automobile 
industry developed. Some are reported to be fakes, 
pure and simple: others are made with honest intent 
to do the work demanded of them. Low cost, ease 
of operation, and simplicity are the points em- 
phasized, plus the claim that the tractor costs noth- 
ing when not at work. The increased cost of keep- 
ing horses is also urged as a reason for changing, and 
it is a factor, as it costs about $125 annually for 
each mature draft horse used in farm work. 
Tractors are increasing on our farms, and will 
continue to do so. They will, when field conditions 
are favorable, relieve horses of heavy plowing and 
discing, and at other times can be used in grinding 
grain, filling silos, etc. They cannot be relied upon 
to displace any considerable number of horses on 
the farm, for the reason that field work must often 
be done, and is done successfully with horses, when 
the ground would not permit the use of the tractor 
at all. Aside from this, the tractor needs and must 
have a firm footing for efficient work — ■ a condition 
desirable in roads or city streets, but highly objec- 
tionable in farm lands. Tractors do pack the soil 
to a crop reducing extent, unless the ground is very 
dry: and the argument set forth by tractor salesmen, 
that the pressure per square inch under the tractor 
wheel is no more than under a horse's hoof, is beside 
the point. It may be true: but who would expect 
Jalap 80583 (85614) 
