Before Tractors, Twenty Million Horses Farmed America: Draft Horses

How farming with draft horses and mules worked before tractors, from harness and implements to the cost of feed, and why the tractor replaced them. A century ago, the day on most American farms began in the barn, harnessing a team of horses. Around 1920 there were more than twenty million horses and mules working US farms. Why did they vanish from the fields in a single generation, and what did farmers lose and gain? This is how horse farming worked: the draft breeds and mules, the harness, the implements they pulled, voice commands, and a farm that grew its own fuel and fed the manure back to the soil. Then the hidden cost, around a quarter of cropland growing feed, the Fordson tractor, and the Amish farmers, horse loggers and small growers who still work with horses today. Chapters 0:00 Before breakfast, the barn 0:37 Draft horses and mules 1:06 The harness and the work 1:50 Fuel the farm grew itself 2:26 The hidden cost 2:54 Where did the horses go? 3:56 Still working 4:33 An honest note 4:47 The honest answer Sources Number of horses and mules on US farms around 1920: USDA-ARS / University of Nebraska-Lincoln DigitalCommons - Vogel, 'Energy production from forages (or American agriculture - back to the future)' https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usdaar... Share of US cropland used for draft-animal feed before mechanization: Historical Statistics of the United States, Millennial Edition (Cambridge University Press) - Crops and Livestock essay (Olmstead & Rhode) https://hsus.cambridge.org/HSUSWeb/es... The Fordson tractor: The Henry Ford - Fordson Tractor, 1917-1918, Used by Luther Burbank https://www.thehenryford.org/collecti... Modern horse logging and draft-horse farming: Alabama Cooperative Extension System - Introduction to Draft Animal Logging https://www.aces.edu/blog/topics/fore... Footage and photographs: Pixabay contributors, used under the Pixabay Content License. Thank you to jmrockeman, Marsel_beijing, Tingeling, Linzmeier1, dendoktoor, NY2002, stux, erwinbosman, Couleur, dmarr515, MabelAmber, Sergio-sq, Kranich17, KayleneSerafina, Ihtar, sarangib, Optimusius1, GoranH, The_Northern_Photographer, bogitw, wobogre, 3345557, JillWellington, terbe_rezso, tmcsparron, mathee, ArtTower, KaiPilger, jarmoluk, Finmiki, LeeTravathan, SophiaMartin, 12019, Chrisko1960, nanseaj, LUM3N, manfredrichter, artellliii72, agmclellan, Rencie, Atlantios, Pexels, danielkirsch, rajon_69, pcdazero, CharlieYoon, TheOtherKev, JoshuaWoroniecki. The Kept Ways shares the skills our grandparents used to work with the land instead of against it. If this one was useful, the next is waiting for you on the channel. #drafthorses #horsefarming #homesteading #oldways #history #farmlife #thekeptways #forgottenskills