Long before motorized John Deeres dominate rural America , farmers were using in advance mechanical equipment thanks to — you estimate it — horse power . The quicker you tend to ( and harvest ) your craw , the more you could acquire , sell , or store . Horses are the obscure heroes of nineteenth - century farms , and these are just some of the horse - pull back farm equipment that modify the plot forever .
1. Wagon
You ’ve plausibly heard the idiomatic expression , do n’t put the handcart before the horse , but people were n’t hitching their horses to handcart until around 3500 BCE . A few thousand years later on , circa 1300 BCE , the check was excogitate which let people direct donkeys , kine , or horses in a much more controlled manner .
It did n’t take long for our ancestors to empathize how rein animal power for their farming recitation could totally revolutionise their agrarian organisation . Wagons , in particular , were utile because of their multiple purposes . They could cart hoi polloi , hay , crops , and other supplies or good around the farm .
By the seventeenth century , horse - drawn Dipper had been plucked from their rural source , bind up by the blue elite group , and redesigned into luxrious , consolation - centrical carriages .
2. Peg Tooth Harrow
These are one of those historical farm tools that an archeologist in 5024 would appear at with no context and confidently claim it was some form of torture gimmick , but they ’re actually really radical .
Often used over disk harrows with animal - power farming , the peg tooth harrow features horizontal rows meet with wooden or metal teeth . They are commonly used for land equalisation or soil puddling , which is often utilise in Timothy Miles Bindon Rice production . But they were an of import tool in aid you prep the Edwin Herbert Land so it was ready for planting .
" Rice has fed more people over a longer menstruation of fourth dimension than any other crop . " UC Davis’Anatomy of Crop Plants Project .
3. Sleds & Sleighs
Freeze advisory and nightlong snowfall might cause schoolhouse cancellations , but agriculture does n’t block up for Mother Nature ’s plea . Horse - quarter sleds make carrying loads across the farm much leisurely than sample to roll wheels through the snow . Sleighs , or sleds , were extremely common in the 19th century and were used for both rapture and work .
Sleds were a mainstay for rural agriculture communities like those in Appalachia because you couldsource all of the materialsto make them yourself from the land around you .
4. Reaper Binder
By the mid-19th 100 , the reaper ( a machine used to cut down texture ) got a makeover . manufacture in 1871 by C.W. & W.W. Marsh , thewire binderwas a Modern machine that bound big money of crop with wire striation .
take this a step further in the eighties , the reaper binder was born . This massive machine trim down down metric grain , like straw , and binds it into piles and ca n’t work without horse power . They were such a sentence rescuer that farmers used these straitlaced deviceswell into the 20th 100 .
5. Steel Plow
The steel plow is theantique farm toolthat put John Deere on the mathematical function . Invented in 1837 , this exclusive - leaf blade plough was a revolutionary tool for tilling wide swaths of prairie body politic in a fraction of the prison term it took to do it by bridge player .
By the recent 1800s , plows like this featured more blade to lift and bend the grime in cooking for planting and were situated on wheels so one or two horse could rend them while husbandman could steer it from behind .
6. Mower
Take one look at get-up-and-go mowers from the 1950s and our arms start to ache , but think hear to lean a monumental package of land before even push mowers were a affair . That ’s were the blessing of horse - drawn mowers come in .
Between the 1850s and 1900 there were over 100 brand name ofhorse - draw mowersmade , which proves just how important the gadget was . One or two sawhorse would pull these machines while a sodbuster ride on the back . The long branch full of tooth extends out to the side to swerve down smoke or overgrown fields for farming , making hay , or clear an area for other purposes .
Some modern granger preserve to use horse - drawn equipment instead of gas - power ones because of theirbetter ecological impact .
7. Hay Baler
You know the uphill battle it can be to roll up enough snow in a ball to make a snowman . Well , the same can go for bale hay . Hay baling auto feature a throttle engine climb up to the baler itself that suck up up the hay and shoots it out in a bale . Horses rive these bad boy around the farm so no piece of hay goes unbaled . Baling was such a lively ontogenesis because it meant that the hay could be squeeze into depot which was then kept to feed the livestock .
Although many modern motorized fomite are n’t permitted in Amish communities , some have allowedgas - powered hay balers .
8. Field Roller
While it may look like something used to pave a route or drop a Looney Tunes character , champaign rollers actually wear thin many hats on the farm . excogitate in the mid-1860s , these huge rock slabs were used to grade ground that ’s been fag up by livestock , break up grease clods after plowing , and/or rollover cum to advertise them into the dirt . It ’s one of those pieces of equipment that does n’t look very impressive from the jump , but without it , the farm would sure flow apart .
9. Disc Harrow
First patent in the 1860s , thedisc harrowis a gadget that features a quarrel of sharp discs . This razor - sharp piece of equipment is used to help prepare champaign for constitute by breaking up crap clump and destroying weed .
If you ’ve ever had to till up a garden to prep it for spring planting , then you hump what kind of back - break off labor it can be . Thanks to the horse - suck up disc harrow , you do n’t have to have your chiropractor on hurrying dial .
10. Wooden Buck Rake
Once harvested hay has been crease into row , abuck rakecould be used to labor each words into a atomic pile . First mentions of this profligate on stereoids start around 1865 , but the concept stretched well into the 20th century . But today , most buckrakes are made to be attached to the front of a tractor .
11. Metal Hay Rake
Typically extract by one or two cavalry , themetal hay rake(aka hay dump profligate ) made it easy to gather up cut and cure eatage , or hay , from the William Claude Dukenfield . manufacture in the 1870s , the horse - soak up hay roue was just another feature in this monolithic agriculture equipment boom that was the 19th 100 .
12. Manure Spreader
When you ’ve got Equus caballus on hand you ’ve got free fertilizer , but no one ’s volunteering to be on manure - spreading responsibility . This is where the horse - drawnmanure spreadercame in ready to hand . Early manure spreaders became widely available just before the turn of the century and featured large wooden paddles , though today ’s versions are typically made out of metal .
These Equines Aren’t Horsin' Around
Although forward-looking farming really started taking shape in the 19th 100 , all of those fabulous feats of engineerings would n’t have been potential with the horse undertaking used to make them work . Before the combustion locomotive engine was a gleaming on the horizon , Equus caballus were the glue that kept most farms running . And in some cases , they ’re still the glue that obligate farms today .
