Life on the Farm

Life on the Farm. Animals. Animals were used on the farm to provide food for the family, as a source of income and to help the farmer with hard labor in the fields. Dairy cows were kept to produce milk, beef cattle were raised for meat and chickens provided both meat and eggs. , Farmers depended upon horses to pull their plows, mowers, wagons and buggies. Although the work that horses performed has been replaced by machines, we still use the term “horsepower” to refer to the amount of work a machine does in terms of the number of horses it replaces. , Image Jersey dairy herd belonging to Porter James (PJ) McCoy, grazing on his farm on Lane Road where the Legg barn later stood. , The role of horses began to change in the early 1900s when small traction engines, “tractors,” became available. Tractors didn't need feeding and never grew tired. Farmers could run them from sunup to sundown. But they came at a cost – tractors and fuel were expensive. To afford them farmers had to produce and sell more crops, which was possible because they were now more efficient.