1939: Horses And Mules

The mechanization of agriculture and of the short haul transportation facilities has resulted in a steady decline in the number of horses and mules ever since 1915. Numbers on Jan. 1, 1940, are expected to show a decline of about 3 per cent from the 15,182,000 head on farms the previous year and compare with 19,124,000 head on farms only 10 years ago.

Horses constitute about 70 per cent of the total. On Dec. 15, 1939, farmers received an average of $77.10 per head for their horses, compared with $79.80, the previous year, and $70.23 per head, the average for the 10 years 1928-37. Iowa leads in number of horses on farms with 783,000 head on Jan. 1, 1939, followed by Texas with 679,000, Minnesota with 662,000, Illinois 661,000, and Missouri 524,000 head.

Numbers of mules have not declined as rapidly as have horses, but since 1925 have followed the same general downward trend. Numbers on farms Jan. 1, 1939, were only 4,382,000 head, compared with 5,382,000 head ten years earlier. Fully 80 per cent of the mules are located in the southern states, where they are used primarily in the cotton fields. They withstand the heat better than horses and eat less.

The production of mules is not as general as horses, and they bring a somewhat higher market price. On Dec. 15, 1939, mules were selling on farms for an average of $97.20 per head, or about the same as a year earlier.

Texas leads in number of mules with 687,000 head on Jan. 1, 1939, followed by Mississippi with 361,000, Georgia 337,000, Alabama 316,000, and North Carolina 310,000 head.