The Loss Of the Working Horse In Rural England (Part 1)
The horse, a sight common on most farms was phased out on most by 1958 when there were less than one hundred thousand working horses left on farms in Great Britain by 1958 [1] . The horse, the source of power on most farms was indispensable, even when steam power arrived to power labour saving machines such as the threshing machine. How else could the land be ploughed, harrowed, rolled, sown and the crop harvested? Horses were used in haytime and all other aspects of heavy work. Tractors, the modern replacement for the horse, once unreliable and expensive became cheap and more reliable as time progressed. Manufacturers such as Massey-Ferguson, Ford and David Brown all made cheap tractors that were not just used for pulling trailed implements. The Little Grey Fergie was the first mass produced tractor equipped with a Power Take Off (PTO) used to implements such as power balers and muckspreaders. The Grey Ferguson was also attired with a hydraulic three point linkage and a front loader c...