Saturday, December.,14 1912. yv: v , . t " ;- . .
U; WHY THE FARLIER SHOULD HAVE .TWO HORSES.
The One-Horse Farmer Loses by" Getting Less for His Work, by .
: Being Able to Work Fewer Days on the Farm, by. Finding Tt.
Harder to Diversify -.and Improve His Land. , :
I
By A. Dr McNair, Little Rock. Arktnsa.
T IS easier to pay for a two-horse.
farm by two-horse methods than
to pay f or a one-horse farm 'by ;
one-horse -methods. 1 This simple and.
direct statement will serve asanln-
w 111 have to "hire some work done,
but the fact is that he can pay for
having, some of it picked and still,
on .account" of his larger area, get - a
larger net p'rofit than the one-horse
viewpoint. Is working at a disad
vantage. ; i .
"(1). He Is forced to spend too
much time on each acre of crop, be
cause his one-horse methods Urn if
him to a small area of crops, and in
limiting his area, , he limits his in
come.. (2). He cannot diversify to adrN
vantage in raising the standard farm
crops, and thus falls to get the ad
vantage of the larger acreage which
(5) 1280
that there is too much lost time un-
der the one-horse systems
(4). It Is.more difficult for him to-.
raise his own hay, corn and meat .
than for the two-horse farmer. -
(5). It is more difficult for a far-
mer to pay for one mule by one-mule
methods than, to pay for two mules
by two-mule methods.
(6). It Is more difficult to pay for',
a one-horse farm by one-horse meth
ods than to pay for a two-horse farm .
the two-horse man can tend under J" two-horse methods.
r traduction to what the writer Is': man can possibly get. ,Vs-to"'
": about to say. It may be supplement- "In the foregoing comparlso'hs it is
ed, however, by another-, statement, assumed that, the one-horse farmer,
,vi2.: : A tenant can make more profit and r two-horse farmer . follow ;:. the
r on a two-horse farm ;byj two-horse same : type of farming, and this is
methods than on,, a one-nbrse farm usually the cotton-corn type ; but the
A-by one-horse methods, t v. fact is that the two-horse .man can
V It ought to be ; unnecessary .and ' sti-"
his diversified systems. :
(3) Neither he nor his mule is
employed as many days In a year at
actual work as the two-horse man is
employed under his " diversified sys
tems, which isajiother way of saying j
(7). The two-horse farmer, by rea-1;
son of his more efficient Implements
and better cropping systems, receives a
a larger net income than the one- ."
horsj farmer receives, and he can
thus give his family a better living,
and more advantages.
.vperfluous to '- make such statements,
' because the truth of them ought to
be, self-evident; but as long as a large
-'-part of the Work of the farm is done
diversify easier than the other man
can.f- (If the one-horse man wishes to
diversify, he is confined' to fruits,
vegetables, poultry 'and dairying on
a small scale, and with feed that is
by one man, driving one-horse and bought, and he can do this profitably
using one-horse implements, there m proximity to markets, but the two
will - be need to assert and prove horse farmer can diversify along a
these simple statements.1 ' more general line. He can raise
It is to be regretted that the one- small : grains, hay, cattle, hogs,
horse farmer sometimes resents the horses, mules and some sweet and
REDUCE THE COST OF THE WORK OF THE TEAM.
It Can Be Done By Increasing the Number of Working Day;
Do This By Diversifying Crops, Planning the Work and Drain
ing the Land.
' adv&cacyvof rthe superiority of .the
two-horse farm,; and even .assumes
'that those who advocate- this thing
have no .sympathy for "the poor -one-;
horse fanner. He Assumes; that the
' xost of a two-horse farm, plus : the
1 cost of implements, work animals,
etc.; that are necessary to operate it,
Us ..beyond him, - and t: that his only
chance of becoming an independent
farmer is to -buy a small farm, on
which one horse .or mule can do all
the work! Or; if he: isfa renter and
thinks he cannot pay for even a small
farm, he-takes the ground 'that he
cannot pay;for two horses -or mules,
".andjhence only attempts to buy one.
. Or again, if he owns no animal at all,
Irish potatoes 7a standard line of
crops In which it Is not so easy : to
overdo 1 the market as in raising
fruits and vegetables.
Steadier Work and Better Land Un
der Two-Horse Farming. -
. The two-horse 'farmer can adopt a
system of diversified agriculture in
which the time of men and teams is
better distributed thruout the year
than is possible in raisingcotton and
corn a!one. The number of days of
crop i ; work -not miscellaneous work
and lost time for the cotton-corn
farmer for a "whole year, does not ex
ceed 130 to 140 days as a rule, and
the number of days that the horse
W
By Prof . J. F. Dugjfar, Alabama Experiment Station.
E ARE entering upon the win- pense by the number
but simply uses the mule which the or mule works at actual crop work,
planter furnishes,, he seems content,.
- and the-planter Is contents that one-
horse implements shall be used.
, There are very few people who pay
for farms cash down, andeven those
farmers, . small ; farmers especially,
who K buy horses "and mules, pay for
4 them out of .. the crop produced by
these horses -and mules. The' poor
..man will buy horses or mules before:
he attempts to buya farm, and; ho
then bopes jto make enough money
" by the work of these animals to make ',
a first cash payment on a farm', trust
ing to what ihe can make ouit of tbo
" farm to finish his payments, .and
, have his farm clear of debt. Since,
; then, it1 is customary to get credit in
buying horses and mules, and it is
customary to buy farms on credit,
making only a small cash payment at
the start, the question Is whether he
shall get credit for one mule of two
mules for a' one-horse fann or a
f two-horse farm. -
. The Larger Profits of the Two-Horse
. ; -Farmer.-. ' v.
With' two-horse implements, ' one
.- man can prepare, plant and. cultivate
. twice as many acres of cotton, corn
ana omen mier-uuea crops as ne can . Qt farmer over and above
J .with one-horse implements, and can: all expenses, rent or interest, depre
; give just as good treatment even ciation-etc-i is easily 'four times aa
better treatment to the larger, area-U(A under ' good diversified sys
. than to the smaller, : In;either ase; ; tern :as under the one-horse, cotton
; lie should not attempt to tend more corlx regjm ; . - c - ;
acres than he. can care for properly, A 8ystem of diversiflea farming,
t, but the polnt la that ho can pTOperly which includes" cowoeas or other letr-
care for.twice as many acres of rops pyo land so that larg-
does not usually exceed ,100 days in
a jear, hence there is a great amount
of lost time. for men and teams on a
cotton-corn farm, unless there is
much-miscellaneous work ; to do; ;
which there is not for 'the average
tenant or for the - average one-horse
farmer. Under a properly diversified
system I however, the two-horse far
mer can work 200 days in .a year at
actual crop wo rk," besides a lot of
time devoted to miscellaneous work,
and in working a greater .number of
days in a year, he jtends a much larg
er; total area' and rgets a : larger in-
ijCpme.;;'" ;;;" 'y: '' - .
The crops, which may be used to
diversify; with, are cowpeas (at least
two plantings at different dates)
oats, sweet; potatoes, sorghum," pea
nuts, ribbon-cane, Irish potatoes, and
lespedeza, wherever . that - crop grows
to a height of .eight or more inches.
Borne, or all; of these, in addition to
cotton and corn, may be proportioned
in such manner as to give a uniform
distribution . of labor, a larger acre
age per man and horse and a larger
income: Extra man labor is requir
ed, at busy seasons, "but the cotton
farmer is, used to this. The net in
ter season, during which one'
of the heaviest expenses is
the cost of maintaining the teams.
Not only do they
incur large ex
pense for feed,
but they should
also be charged
with interest on
the Investment in
teams, and with
their deprecia
tion. D ur i n g
much of the win-
v prof, duggar. ter season, and at
certain other, times 'of year as well,
the farm teams perform very little
labor on the average Southern . farm.
It is well worth the while of every
farmer to determine the' expense to
which" he is put in keeping his teams.
This information will be useful in
making us more careful to find more
continuous employment for the teams
the
of
horse
full
or
daya
mule
during which
worked. ; f
There is need to have more rec
ords kept of the actual number of
days during which a horse or mule
works on various types of Southern
farms. On the average cotton farm,
Hammond, about 20 years ago, es
timated this at 96 day 8. I have ob
served some poorly managed 20-acre -tenant
farms, for which my estimate
of the days of all-day work of one
mule -would be the almost absurdly
low figure, 65 days. On this latter
basis, we should have the animal
cost of maintenance of team (say
1 100) divided by only 65 days, giv-
ing $1.53 as the astonishing cost of
each day's work. Where the mule
works 94 days, the cost would thus
be $1.04 per day of actual work. .
The main point is .that every in
crease in the number-of days during
which the team is employed greatly
and in determining the cost of pro- reduces the cost of a day's work by
ducing any given crop, for its cost
will largely depend on the price at
which the team work expended in
producing that crop is charged. : -
The' object irT any calculations to
determine the team expense . is to
answer the : following question:
"What is the expense of food, care,
interest ; and" depreciation for each
day that the horse or mule works?"
.The following figures are employ
ed merely as an example of one of
the easiest ways of calculating this
cost, which at the best is a rather
indefinite problem. Each reader
should, of course, substitute other
figures according to his experience.
- Annual cost of feed:
72 Bushels of corn at 80c $57.60
2 Tons hay, or other .forage . 30.00
2 Months' pasturage
Interest at 8 , per cent on one
$200-mule ... . . .
Annual depreciation ($200
10 years)
1.40
16.00
20.00
1 . r $125.00
We are accustomed to think of the
cost of maintaining a working horse
or mule on the farm at about $80
per year, which ii probably .about
correct for a cheap animal, not so
continuously employed as It might be.
with two-horse -implements" as with er ie9 are obtained than under the -But either figure must lead us to the
one norse, ana can get xwice xne gross cotton-corn regime, and provides an conc4USlon inai norsepower cosis
income. In harvesting these crops, 'abundance of feed which makes pos- more than we would expect. Let us
he cannot .do as well relatively as in Bible thfl 'kppnfn of mnr Hvpatnck see how this cost is related to the
the previous work, for If the crop is t. These improved yields cannot be ob- cbarge that we ought to make for tomary
oouDiea, xne worx oi narvesuug i tained by the cotton-corn farmer un- eacn OI worK empiuyeu m
doubled or praotically .80. Taking ieSs he spends much money for com-' Producing any crop.
, all the work into 'account the work . mPrHal fflrfiil7Pr Thn two-immfl In the flrstplace, this charge must
a mule. Thus, on a farm where the
teams are in use 130 days per year, ,
the cost per day of work would be
only - half as m uch as on the poor
tenant farm. If by good ' manage
ment and foresight, the number of.
working days could be increased to
195 days, the daily cost would be
only one-third the maximum.
, How can this increase in the nun
ber of working days of the farm
ers' team be increased? In brief,
this economy can be effected by the
following means:
(1) . Diversification of crops, grow
ing those that Tequire their team
work At different seasons.
(2) . By careful planning in ad
vance the work of the teams, espec
ially as to their employment while
the soil is too wet .for tillage opera
tions, (3) . By better drainage, which
permits plowing sooner after rains,'
than in the case of undrained land.
(4) . By keeping records from year
to year of the number of dayB of
team work 'each week. or month for
each crop or operation,, which rec
ords will some ls' reveal the pos
sibility of dispensing rwith one or
more mules. More frequently tho
need is to increase rather than to re
duce the, number of work-stock. In
tfmes of surplus team the extra an
imals can often be' employed to ad
vantage in more frequent cultivation
or deeper preparation than is cus-
before 'harvesting, "and the work- of farmerf therefore - not only tends a b6 considerably above : the cost of
harvesting: and 'marketing it v ls;;larger 'Area of crops than the one-' feed interest, depreciation, . etc., tor
larger, of course, on the1 two-hoTBe orse man "but. by reason of the leg- toe -days, during which the animal is
farm than on the one-liorse farm, butuininoua"crQi)8. wWcn be can harvest actually at cwork. For obviously;
is' not nearly as much In proportion . and feed: he can get a larger, income 11 mast -include, in addition,; some
to the number of acres of crops. from each acre., V e figure to cover the same class of ex-
' The two-horse farmer,', or the man . ; - v r ' pensea Incurred on Sundays, and on
who ruses; two-horse Implements ' at . peyen Ways in Whrch the One-norse other Idle days. ; The . simplest way
his -work.' will -probably ra ascertain the team cost for one
In the South, with its long sea-
sons for preparing the land, and .for
planting, we should be able to get .
from each team a far lareer number
of days of service than can the farm
ers of higher latitudes," where the
soil is frozen stiff for a number of
months each winter. . On . our ability
to do this, will largely depend the
economy of profit, with which , we
can produce . our greatest Southern
staple cotton and all other farm
cotton than'Jiia iamlly can pick, and ; ; The pne-horse farmer, from every woTk day, is to divide the yearly ex- products.
kin