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The
Heyday of the Horse
Like all good business people, farmers welcomed new ways to produce more products with
less effort. Between 1850 and 1920, mechanization and scientific agricultural methods
increased farm production. Farmers needed larger, stronger draft horses to power and pull
the new equipment. The horse was in its heyday!
Farmers used the new tools and equipment to plant, harvest and haul diverse cash
crops: wheat, corn, potatoes, oats, sugar beets, peaches, apples and vegetables. The new
equipment included the following:
- Harvesting machines that replaced cutting grain by hand
- Binders that mechanically tied the stalks together
- Threshing machines that removed grain from the stalks much faster than traditional hand
methods
- The corn planter, seeder, seed drill and steel walking plow
Farmers needed heavy draft horses to pull plows, wagons and reapers. They bought draft
horses such as Percherons from France. Some farmers had two teams so one team could rest
while the other worked. It could take 20 or more horses to pull a large combine that cut,
removed and cleaned grain in one operation. Smaller horses were used for riding or pulling
carriages or carts.
 After a
plow turned the soil, a horse-drawn spike tooth harrow with metal teeth fixed on a wood or
metal frame (such as the one in the bottom left of the picture) was used to further break
up the rough clumps of earth and smooth the ground.
Farmers walked behind and guided a horse-drawn walking cultivator (such as the one in
the top right of the picture). It loosened the soil and destroyed the weeds around the
growing plants.
 Farmers often pooled their resources to buy large pieces of machinery. Horses pulled
wagons with bundles of cut grain to the thresher which separated the wheat from the
chaff. Men would travel in a "threshing ring" as seen in this photograph
from one farm to another until all the grain was harvested. Their wives cooked the noon
meal at the farms each day.
Not all mechanical helpers needed horses. This corn sheller replaced rubbing two ears of
corn together by hand to make the kernels fall off. It was invented by J. K. Wilder.
Children could also help. One child put the corn ears in the sheller, the other turned the
crank to operate the machine. Rollers in the machine knocked the kernels off the cob.
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