HOPKINTON, R.I. (AP) – Metal clinks against rocks embedded in the soil as four of Jim Cherenzia’s horses pull his harrow through seven acres of hay.

Cherenzia rides behind in a small cart, rolling gently over the grass as the cultivator’s blades cut into the dirt. The air fills with a chorus of the creaking harrow, harness bells and occasional soft snorts as the procession moves steadily through the field.

“There’s nothing more enjoyable than plowing hay with a horse,” Cherenzia said.

He is one of a small but dedicated number of farmers who employ draft animals – horses, mules and oxen – rather than tractors and other machines to do work around the farm. While they embrace modern conveniences in other parts of their lives, these farmers take pleasure in their animals’ slower pace and say shunning tractors has environmental benefits and helps them save money on gas.

Cherenzia uses Percherons – large, sturdy war horses originally bred in France – to plow and spread manure. Over the years, he has used them to log, bale hay and plant corn, and in warm weather, he hitches them to carriages for weddings and other events.

“Tractor’s probably a whole lot more sensible,” said Cherenzia, who owned one briefly in the 1970s. “But I’m trying to make some nice horses too. And it’s enjoyable.”

The U.S. Census Bureau stopped tracking the number of farms using animal power after 1960, when it counted 4.7 million tractors and 3 million horses and mules used for work. Today, there’s no good estimate on the number of farmers using draft animals, but it’s probably tens of thousands, said Leah Patton of the American Donkey and Mule Society, which has 4,500 members.

Tim Huppe, who owns BerryBrook Farm and BerryBrook Ox Supply in Farmington, N.H., estimated there are 3,500 oxen teams in New England. The oxen are good workers and good for the environment, he said.

“A lot of small farmers don’t want tractors leaking on their land,” Huppe said. “If you look at the whole package, you’re not buying any petroleum, and all the waste, the manure, goes back on the land.”

“And you can eat them after too,” he added. “New Englanders are very thrifty.”

Most farmers make a lifestyle choice when they decide to use only draft animals for work, said Chet Kendall, a farmer and economics professor at Brigham Young University-Idaho.

A fifth-generation fruit farmer, he began studying the economics of draft animals after using them on his farm in North Ogden, Utah.

Kendall, 53, once used a tractor, but he traded it for horses to keep his four children involved in the family business. His 15-year-old son, he said, “definitely had a preference for coming out and working with the horses.”

Draft animals are not always cost effective, he said. Large, commercial farms require machines that can work around the clock without tiring. But small farmers can come out ahead financially in a number of ways.

Horses, donkeys and oxen reproduce, while tractors do not. The animals cost a few thousand dollars or less and can be used for plowing in the spring, hay rides in the fall and logging in the winter. A tractor costs tens of thousands of dollars and may not work well in all of those situations.

The machines also depreciate like cars, while animals can be trained and sold at a profit.

“The more you use the tractor, the less it’s worth. The more you use a horse, the more it’s worth,” said Gail Damerow, a farmer and editor of Rural Heritage magazine in Gainesboro, Tenn.

Damerow said she sees many farmers who use what she calls “appropriate power.”

“They’ll use their animals in the spring when it’s too wet to use equipment,” she explained. “And then they’ll use equipment when they are in a hurry.”

As gas prices increase, Damerow said she’s fielded more questions about things like road regulations from farmers who want to use their animals for a wider variety of tasks.

John Trombley, 53, of Carney, Mich., has had horses and mules for several years and uses them to cultivate his field and pull a wagon. He enjoys it so much that he began taking teams to church on Sundays, something that has a side benefit: saving on skyrocketing gas prices.

“It’s fun, and it never hurts to save a few dollars at the same time,” he said.

Trombley said he knows some farmers who are doing more with their animals because of the cost of fuel. But driving animals makes economic sense only if farmers have enough land – about 40 acres – to grow food for them, he said. Otherwise, they pay more for commercially grown hay.

Trombley, who also teaches math and computers, said the animals give him a break from the hectic pace of modern life. He turns off his cell phone when he climbs onto the wagon and steps back to a simpler time.

“If I come home from school,” he said, “and it’s been a stressful day, the best thing for me to do is hook up the team and go for a ride. In 15 minutes, the stress is gone.”

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On the Net:

Side Hill Farm Web site: http://www.sidehillfarm.com

BerryBrook Ox Supply Web site: http://www.berrybrookoxsupply.com

Rural Heritage magazine Web site: http://www.ruralheritage.com

AP-ES-06-10-06 1211EDT