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Show Farm Horses Remain as Economic Factor; "Old Dobbin" Continues a Strong Favorite "Old Dobbin" is not fading out of the farm picture entirely. Although Al-though trucks and tractors have come to his assistance in pulling the heavier loads, and even in doing do-ing some of tho lighter Jobs about the farm, there still is a place for power provided by horses and mules, says E. R. Gross, professor of agricultural engineering at the New Jersey college of agriculture, Rutgers university. "During the early period in tho mechanization of agriculture," Professor Pro-fessor Gross says, "thero sprung up the vague and somewhat erroneous use of tho term 'power farming' as meaning mechanical farming. Tho horso is still recognized as a power unit in animal form, whllo tho tractor trac-tor Is tho mechanical form. Euch bus Its place. On tho smaller farms, devoted to general crops und livo stock tho horuo rnny bo tho muni economical unit of power. "Tho choice between horsepower and mechanical power Is made on a basis of economy. Tho tractor and truck win on speed. They ore not matcrlully slowed up In hot weather. They reduce cost of production pro-duction by placing more power in the hands of one man. Tho horse, on the other hand, will do some farm operations better or moro economically eco-nomically than tho tractor. "In some lurgo farming areas tho clj;ht to sixteen-horso teams are competing successfully with nio-chunical nio-chunical power. Tho price of horses continues to hold relatively hlili, which In Itself Is a factor In Increasing Increas-ing tho uho of tractors. A woll-manuged woll-manuged farm may bo completely mechanized, It may employ both tractors and horses or operate with horses alone, depending upon wlilcli group tho preponderance of operations oper-ations on the particular farm may full." |
