4 BULLETIN 814, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
usually found on eastern farms. Thus a team of a given number of 
horses will do more work per day here than in the East when pulling 
implements of heavy draft, particularly plows and disk harrows, but 
probably the difference in weight has no effect on the amount of 
work done per day with lighter implements such as com planters 
and cultivators. As far as could be determined from the reports 
received, the variation in the weight of the horses found on these 
Illinois farms was not great enough appreciably to affect the rate of 
doing work. 
The average time spent in the field, exclusive of the time required 
in going to and returning from the field in the morning, at noon, 
and at night, as reported by these men is 10 hours and 10 minutes 
per day for spring work and corn cultivation; 9 hours and 55 min- 
utes for haying and grain harvest; 9 hours and 30 minutes for fall 
plowing and preparing ground; and 9 hours and 20 minutes for corn 
harvest. 
On most of these farms the keeping of live stock is not an impor- 
tant enterprise, and thus it is possible for the workmen to spend 
longer hours in the field than would be the case in a section where 
live stock, especially dairy cows, are kept in large numbers. 
PLOWING. 
Walking plows are used to such a limited extent in the locality 
studied that no attempt was made to obtain data concerning their 
operation. About 80 per cent of the farmers reported the use of 
sulky plows, about 80 per cent stated that they use horse-drawn gang 
plows, and 14 per cent reported the use of tractors for plowing. 
The depth of plowing in the spring averages about 5.3 inches. 
Most of the men reported plowing from 5 to 6 inches deep in the 
spring, less than 5 per cent of them indicating a depth as great as 7 
inches, and not over 15 per cent reporting less than 5 inches. The 
variations in depth are apparently not sufficient to affect the amount 
of work done per day. 
The plowing was usually about 1 inch deeper in the fall than in 
the spring, more than 80 per cent of the men reporting depths of" 
from 6 to 7 inches, and some reporting 8 inches. The average is 6.5 
inches. 
SULKY PLOW. 
SPRING PLOWING. 
The acres covered per day by 11- and 16-inch sulky plows in spring 
plowing are given in Table II. It will be seen from this table that 
a large majority of the farmers use 16-inch sulky plows, that nearly 
all of them are operated with three horses in the spring, and that 3 
acres is an average day's work for this outfit. 
