Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 May 1878 — Expense of Farm Teams. [ARTICLE]

Expense of Farm Teams.

In no part of the country is this expense of keeping animals to do farm work as groat as in the West. This is largoly owing to the fact that Western fanners have continued, in one way ant! another, to make animals do the work that men perform elsewhere. Grass is cut, hay is spread, raked and pitched by hoiso power. Grain is sowed, harvested and threshed by the same means. Corn is planted, cultivated and, in some instances, cut up, husked and shelled by machines operated by horse power. Even potatoes arc now cut, dropped, covered, cultivated and harvested by horse power. Of late, Western farmors have stopped raising most of tho crops that require hand cultivation. Tho chief objection to raising tlax, broom-corn, tobacco and castor-beans is that they require too much manual labor. The second reason why it costs more to keep a farm team here than in most parts of tho country is, that fanners keep more expensive animals. An expensive team always calls for expfcnsive food, harness and buildings for shelter. In the East, oxen are chiefly used for farm work. They require to be shod but once a year. A wooden yoke, which will last a century and only cost a dollar or two, takes the place of an expensive harness. The food of tho oxen is grass in summer and hay and straw in winter. At the end of a dozen years tlioy arc converted into beef. They are never of much expense to their owner, in the South, the mule is used on the farm almost exclusively. The mule is more hardy than the horse; can be kept for about half as much; will work for a greater number of years, and will get along with poor quarters and a very simple harness. Most Western farmers will tolerate neither oxen nor mules on their places. They must have horses; generally' they insist on having lino horses, that will take them to town in good time and make a lino appearance on the road. Horses of this sort must bo fed grain the entire year. They must receive extra care and attention, and have good stables and harness. It is likely that it will be long before the fashion of keeping horses to do tho farm work changes in the West, though, without doubt, more oxen and mules could be used to advantage. Most Southern farmers would say at once that they could make nothing from their estates if they were obliged to work them with horses, requiring, as they do, the best of hay as well as a goodly allowance of oats and other grain. The same opinions would be expressed by tho farmers in the New England States, who use oxen for field work. —Chicago Times.