Bennett Buggies and Hoover Carts-Horse Drawn Cars From the Depression

During the Great Depression in Canada, gas was expensive. So people started stripping their cars down and pulling them with horses. They named them "Bennett Buggies" after their Prime Minister.



In the US, many farmers took the rear axle assembly off of their cars, added a bed and long handles, and called it a "Hoover Cart," after their President. They were particularly popular in South Carolina, where several Hoover Cart Rodeos took place.

I like it. Now most wagons around here have car tires on them and bench seats from vans! If I had enough property I'd definitely have some horses, I loved training and riding when I was younger.

I always think about horses as being expensive! I wonder what the cost comparison would be these days?

Horses eat EVERY DAY whether you work them or not.  Tractors and cars can set a week or a month and not cost you.  But if you have enough land, you can grow your feed.  

I have had this cost discussion with Amish friends.  If you rate it on the amount of work done, a good team of horses is a little cheaper than a good used small tractor for $/acre operating cost.  But that assumes you use that team 6 days a week 52 weeks a year.  If they get any vacation, the off time feed makes them more expensive.  And that doesn't account for your time.

During the depression, people were not far removed from horses.  Most farmers still had a team in use, saving the one tractor for field work.  They still had the tack and skill.

This picture has been in my notes for years, fascinates me, same type of thought as the ones above. Oxen and goats were used to pull things for centuries, horses are not the only options.

R Scott wrote:

I have had this cost discussion with Amish friends.  If you rate it on the amount of work done, a good team of horses is a little cheaper than a good used small tractor for $/acre operating cost.  

Yes, but did you put a value on the manure end of things. Having just lost my supply of safe horse shit (lady moved off the island), too often people only consider the "value" of the inputs, not the outputs. The tractor only outputs stuff into an atmosphere that doesn't particularly need more of it. My 1 1/2 year old horse shit+ bin grew awesome zucchini and other squash last year. (the + would be veggie scraps, the odd dead animal, etc).

I said something similar at a Farm Meeting I was at where a fellow was presenting on farm spreadsheets and how to analyze costs vs profits. I asked where the line was for the fertilizer he got out of his small pig operation. WE HAVE GOT to stop thinking of such things as a waste and a nuisance and that "mucking out the barn" is a chore which just has to be done but only has value in the clean barn, rather than future fertilizer and an important source of carbon. I'm all for building soil in situ, but having some quality compost for top-dressing certain demanding crops that I like to eat, or for jump-starting some soil in a degraded area, has *real* value!

Pearl Sutton wrote:This picture has been in my notes for years, fascinates me, same type of thought as the ones above. Oxen and goats were used to pull things for centuries, horses are not the only option.

This! I think Water Buffalo were milked traditionally, as are goats. It was pointed out on a BBC series I've been watching that old oxen were considered food, but horse meat not so much at least in North America. It's why locally, I consider horses over-sized, expensive pets. Horses did at least provide fiber for very hard-wearing fabric - usually upholstery.

Love this post.
Thank You, Jeremey!
A tractor is all I have for transportation at this time.

Used vehicles are going for at least 2 times what they are worth in this neck of the woods.
So, I'm saving and waiting.

A dependable vehicle is very expensive to purchase.
Add in the monthly costs and it has become a luxury expense for some of us.

I can have nearly everything delivered.  I'm finding sources for stuff that are cheaper than they would have been in town.  Even after paying for shipping.  

I'm elderly and disabled.  So dependable is very important regarding transportation.

It would take $5,000 minimum to get me safely and legally on the road.

I have a couple Toyota Camery's  for parts.  I could strip those down.
Some of my Amish neighbors use small pony's rather than horses.
$5,000 would last a long time if I found a small pony with a Toyota carriage!