HORSE, MACHINE, AND COST

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 11, 12 July 1930, Page 8

HORSE, MACHINE, AND COST

Discussing the lessened interest in horse-breeding recently, the Minister of Agriculture said: "The idea of the farmer is that the horse will not be wanted in the future, and that machinery will be used everywhere. I think that is a great mistake, because in most cases I feel that the horse can still do the work at a cheaper rate than the machine. The horse, properly cared for, with proper selection of the right type, does better work, especially on small places, than the machine. The machine is too long idle during the year." Possibly the Minister is pre-

judiced, as most farmers who have worked with horses aie prone to be. for one cannot have the same fondness for a tractor as for a good horse. But there is, nevertheless, solid argument behind his statement. To install machinery may be pronounced progressive, but it is possible to be too progressive (with expenditure) and to get ahead of returns. The old adage concerning the use of a steam-hammer to crack nuts still applies. It is all a question of relative costs. When a machine is idle for long periods it eats its head off just as much as a horse (in interest and depreciation). Sometimes the idle lime can he reduced by farmers sharing one machine under a hiring system. Where this is impos-j sible it may very well pay to take longei; over the job with horses rather than to save some time and lose a greater sum in interest on expensive mechanical plant. A present weakness of farming methods is that few farmers are able to determine accurately which is the cheaper power—horse or machine. A useful aid in correcting this weakness is a bulletin just issued by ihe Canterbury Chamber of Commerce and prepared in conjunction with Lincoln College and the Economics Department of Canterbury College on horse labour costs. The bulletin sets out simple methods of calculating these costs, finding the cost per acre of ploughing, and discovering how that cost may be reduced, by contract ploughing if the area is too small to warrant ownership of a team, by growing feed, and so on. It is such knowledge as this and that furnished by the Farm Economist that is of great value when an endeavour is being made to reduce costs.