34 
BULLETIN 997, U 
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
HORSE LABOR EQUIVALENT OF TRACTOR WORK. 
Table 23 shows the horse labor equivalent of the drawbar work 
done at home by the tractors in the different areas. Table 14 (page 
18) shows that on the average the tractors did 52.1 acres of spring 
plowing and 37.7 acres of fall plowing per farm, and Table 22 (page 27) 
shows that the daily duty of one horse was 0.84 acre at spring plowing 
and 0.80 acre at fall plowing. Thus on the average, 62.1 days of 
horse labor would have been required to do the spring plowing which 
the tractors did and 47.1 days to do the fall plowing. In other words 
the average tractor did the equivalent of 109.2 days of horse labor in 
plowing. The figures for each operation in the various areas were 
obtained in a similar manner. 
Table 23. — Horse-day equivalent of tractor work in different areas. 
Operation?. 
Madison 
Countv, 
Ohio. 
^eueca 
Countv. 
Ohio. 
Madison 
County. 
Jnd. 
Mont- 
gomery 
Countv. 
Tnd. 
Living- 
ston 
Countv. 
111. 
Knox 
Countv. 
ILT" 
Plowing 
Fitting ground after plowing.. 
Haying 
Cutting grain 
Other drawbar work 
Horse- Horse- 
days. 
126.0 
88. 8 
16.6 
14.3 
day 8. 
v..'.' 
67.0 
1.2 
2.8 
3-6 
All areas. 
Horse- 
Horse- 
Hcrsc- 
Horse- 
days. 
days. 
dat/s. 
days. 
103. 1 
106.3 
131.6 
96.1 
76.2 
99.7 
52.6 
72.1 
4.8 
1.8 
.2 
1.8 
12.3 
6.1 
6.5 
9.0 
12.2 
6-5 
■4.0 
9.0 
Total. 
155. 5 
208.4 
>20.4 
194.9 
188.0 
Horse- 
days. 
109.2 
68.4 
1.5 
7.4 
194. 4 
Comparison of the number of days of drawbar work actually done 
by the tractors with the horse-labor equivalent shows that in each 
area the tractors did as much work per day as would have been done 
by eight or nine horses. The average number of days the tractors 
were used for drawbar work on the home farm in the different areas 
was as follows : 
Days. 
Madison County. Ohio 30. 
Seneca County. Ohio , 17. 
Madison Comity, Ind , 23. 7 
Montgomery County, Ind 25. 4 
Livingston County. Ill 21. 3 
Knox Counts", 111 24. 
For the entire 286 farms the tractors did as much work per day as 
would have been done by 8.3 horses. When plowing, each 2-plow 
tractor performed the equivalent of 7.9 days of horse labor per day 
in the spring and 8.1 days in the fall. The 3-plow tractors performed 
the equivalent of 10.3 days of horse labor in the spring and 10.8 days 
in the fall. 'See tables 12 and 22). 
