COST OF PRODUCING WINTER WHEAT IN OREGON 
15 
Table 10. — Number of work stock kept and amount of horse work done on tractor 
and nontractor farms of specified sizes, 1921 
Size of 
farm 
Tillable 
acreage 
Work 
stock 
per farm 
Amount 
of work 
per head, 
per year 
Number and class of farm 
Wheat 
Other 
crops 
Summer- 
fallow 
Total 
Tractor farms: 
Acres 
640 
960 
1,280 
640 
960 
1,280 
Acres 
219 
335 
396 
275 
294 
402 
Acres 
36 
32 
49 
32 
81 
65 
Acres 
294 
406 
457 
262 
383 
433 
Acres 
549 
773 
902 
569 
758 
900 
Number 
10.0 
13.0 
18.0 
15.6 
17.4 
23.2 
Hours 
731 
3 - 
524 
5 
799 
Nontractor farms: 
14 . 
749 
5 . - 
. 755 
6 . 
911 
In general, as the hours worked per head per year increased, 
there was some increase in the cost per head of keeping work stock 
but a greater decrease in the cost per hour of horse work. This 
relationship is clearly shown in Table 1 1 which serves to illustrate the 
importance of keeping only sufficient work stock to perform the farm 
work and of getting the maximum amount of profitable work out of 
the work stock. On those farms where horses worked less than 
500 hours per horse per year, the cost of horse work amounted to an 
average of 16 cents per hour, but in the group where the hours worked 
per horse per year were 950 and over, the cost per hour of horse work 
was only half as much. 
Table 11. — Relation of hours worked per head to cost per year of keeping work 
stock and cost per hour of horse work on 72 nontractor farms, 1922 l 
Farms 
studied 
Average 
size of 
farm 
Tillable acreage j Average 
Net cost 
of keep- 
Cost per 
hour of 
horse 
work 
Hours worked per head 
per year 
Crops 
Summer- 
fallow 
of work 
Total I P er head 
1 per year 
ing one 
head of 
work 
stock 
Less than 500 . 
Number 
9 
27 
19 
10 
7 
Acres 
954 
920 
1,011 
1,306 
1,122 
Acres 
316 
354 
375 
513 
410 
Acres 
267 
328 
351 
533 
514 
Acres \ Hours 
583 ! 429 
682 j 588 
726 j 731 
1,046 ! 855 
924 1 1,098 
Dollars 
68 
75 
79 
86 
Cents 
16 
500 to 650... 
13 
650 to 800— 
11 
800 to 950— 
10 
950 and over 
92 
8 
1 The number of farms contained in this table has been made to conform to the number of nontractor 
farms shown in Table 8. 
FARM MACHINERY 
The farms included in this study are of a type requiring a rela- 
tively large amount of farm machinery. The inventory value per 
farm of all classes of farm machinery for the three years of the study 
was as follows: 1920, $3,730; 1921, $3,872; and 1922, $3,129. The 
value per farm of general farm machinery — that is, all machinery 
except tractors, combines, and stationary threshing machines — varied 
from an average of $2,342 per farm in 1920 to $1,666 per farm in 
1922. In the latter year the value of general farm machinery on 
different farms varied from $370 to $7,393 per farm and amounted 
to an average of $1.99 per tillable acre. 
The items constituting the total annual charge for use of general 
farm machinery as given in Table 12, include fuel, oil and grease, 
