Show ARM HORSE OR TRACTOR EXPENSE IS SAME facts brought out in an analysis of records the average expense a crop acre for man labor horse and machinery use on farms is practically the same for horse farms standard tractor farms and general purpose tractor farms this is one of the facts on changes change s in the use of farm power brought out in an analysis of records kept from 1930 to 1936 in operation cooperation co with the department of agricultural economics college of agriculture university of illinois A summary of the analysis is reported by P E johnston associate chief in agricultural economics in a recent issue of illinois farm farin economics published by the department of agricultural economics other studies indicate that farmers who continue ao 40 operate their farms with horses are more efficient in the use of horse power it is explained the records also indicate that the expense for man labor has been reduced only slightly by the addition of tractors in some cases tractors have enabled operators to do a larger volume of business and in others to provide for more leisure on the part of farm workers another fact brought out in the study is that farmers are using almost two fewer horses and mules a farm in 1938 than in 1926 furthermore ther more the percentage of farm horses more than 20 years of age is twice as high in 1938 1933 as in 1926 but the proportion of horses less than four years of age is also higher from 1930 to 1934 about 26 per cent of the accounting farms in central illinois used horses only whereas in 1936 the proportion had declined to 14 per cent the shift in breeding operations on farms has been related to changes in prices of farm products and of horse feeds during the period 1930 to 1934 when the price of farm products dropped much more drastically than that of tractors there was practically no shifting from horses to tractors on the farms included in the study the percentage of farms operated with horses averaged about 26 per cent each year during this period however there was a shift from standard tractors to general purpose tractors and this shift had an effect on numbers of horses since general purpose tractors which are used for cultivating row crops replace more horses than do the standard type |