Farm Mechanization: Mechanical Power

Animal power did have major drawbacks—the animals had to be fed and they consumed an estimated 20 percent of all the food grown on farms. Steam power provided an alternative, and it was applied to farm equipment in the mid-nineteenth century; but it had many drawbacks as well. Steam-powered equipment was bulky, heavy, expensive, and mechanically complex, and the machines had a tendency to explode. As a result, horses and mules did most of the work on American farms. They pulled plows, disks, harrows, planters, cultivators, mowers, and reapers.