I've been looking into the history and mechanisation of agriculture over the past 200 years or so, it's a pretty fascinating history.
As of 1800, you still had largely wooden plough, with an iron ploughshare, drawn by a horse or oxen. The acre is actually a unit of work -- the amount of land a man and horse could work in a day, and the German term, Tagwerk (literally, "day's work") directly reflects that. The working time wasn't a full 8-hour day, as the animals would both tire and needed to forage. I believe ~4 hours was more typical.
By the mid-19th century, all-iron, and finally, steel, ploughs were available. In the United States, the first combination ("combine") harversters were drawn by teams of up to 40 horses. (Simply managing the daught of those animals, distributed through swingletrees, was a significant undertaking.)
As of 1900 or so, the U.S. had a population of ~20 million horses, peaking at 25 million by 1920. These consumed 20% of the agricultural production of the country. Cities such as New York had populations upwards of 200,000 horses,
with concommitant impacts on street pollution and hygiene.
(Interestingly: railroads increased the demand for horses and mules as these were the best solution to the "last mile" problem of bringing goods and people to and from railway depots.)
The first viable tractors started appearing shortly after 1900, and didn't have tremendous power by modern standards (20hp is pretty common). (There were some earlier mobile designs, and even stationary traction distribution systems based on steam power.) Once reliable, these were popular as they could be worked all day, fuel was cheaper than feed, and there were no vet bills.
I find the history of this (and other ag elements) pretty fascinating. Much of the information is drawn from Vaclav Smil's Energy in World History (1992) which discusses the evolution of history from a lens of energy and fuel sources. He's revised the book tremendously with Energy and Civilization, out just this year.
> The working time wasn't a full 8-hour day, as the animals would both tire and needed to forage. I believe ~4 hours was more typical.
This was actually one of the most surprising takeaways of doing farm work with a horse, needing to take frequent breaks to let the horse and the farmer rest for a while. Of course I knew there was going to be breaks, but their frequency and duration surprised me. It was much harder work for the horse than I had anticipated (but it's good exercise and not harmful to the animal).
And it was perhaps what made it so much more enjoyable than working with machines. Even though it's hard physical labor, you take a break for oats, drinks and scratchies for a while and bond with the animal and the rest of the crew. It wasn't the least bit monotonous or boring the same way as doing 2x4h stints in the cabin of a tractor or in front of a computer.
As of 1800, you still had largely wooden plough, with an iron ploughshare, drawn by a horse or oxen. The acre is actually a unit of work -- the amount of land a man and horse could work in a day, and the German term, Tagwerk (literally, "day's work") directly reflects that. The working time wasn't a full 8-hour day, as the animals would both tire and needed to forage. I believe ~4 hours was more typical.
By the mid-19th century, all-iron, and finally, steel, ploughs were available. In the United States, the first combination ("combine") harversters were drawn by teams of up to 40 horses. (Simply managing the daught of those animals, distributed through swingletrees, was a significant undertaking.)
As of 1900 or so, the U.S. had a population of ~20 million horses, peaking at 25 million by 1920. These consumed 20% of the agricultural production of the country. Cities such as New York had populations upwards of 200,000 horses, with concommitant impacts on street pollution and hygiene. (Interestingly: railroads increased the demand for horses and mules as these were the best solution to the "last mile" problem of bringing goods and people to and from railway depots.)
http://www.cowboyway.com/What/HorsePopulation.htm
The first viable tractors started appearing shortly after 1900, and didn't have tremendous power by modern standards (20hp is pretty common). (There were some earlier mobile designs, and even stationary traction distribution systems based on steam power.) Once reliable, these were popular as they could be worked all day, fuel was cheaper than feed, and there were no vet bills.
I find the history of this (and other ag elements) pretty fascinating. Much of the information is drawn from Vaclav Smil's Energy in World History (1992) which discusses the evolution of history from a lens of energy and fuel sources. He's revised the book tremendously with Energy and Civilization, out just this year.
https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/energy-and-civilization