This is a new, hybrid kind of farming, as the indispensable solar input is augmented by non-renewable anthropogenic energies derived overwhelmingly from coal. The new arrangement requires more animal labor than human labor, and as working horses (and mules in the American South) need grain feed—mainly oats—as well as fresh grass and hay, their large numbers make substantial demands on the country’s crop production: about one-quarter of all American farmland is devoted to growing fodder for draft animals.
