The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1909-10-20
THE EVENING BANNER
FRANK / DOVE. EDITOR anu publisbe
Auto Travel Good Roads and Markets

|
Auto Travel Good Roads and Markets
The best market in the world for
producers as a rule is the home mar
ket, provided 1t is properly developed
The farmer who can retail his prod
uce gets more for it than he can if
Obliged to sell it to some man who
ships the same to a distant city, in
volving the payment of several pro
fits in transit from farmer to consum-
err
Some farmers regard the automo-
bile as an enemy because it scares
horses at times, but teams are becom-
| ing accustomed to horseless equip
ages and the next generation of
! colts will think nothing of passing a
| benzine buggy. provided the animal
! is carefully trained. On the other
hand the automobile will do more to
develop the home market for YER
mont farmers than any other single
influence that can be named. The
auto is tending to revive stage coach
days in a sense. People are getting
away from the beaten path of the
steam cars through the use of the
auto and the necessity of stopping
places is helping to revive the cross
roads hotel and the country board
ing-house The esteemed Brattle-
boro Reformer cites a case in point;
"A hotel keeper in a small town
not far from Brattleboro has been in
terested in ascertaining just what the
transient automobile traffic meant
to him in dollars and cents. Since
the opening of the touring season he
has kept careful record of this par
ticular branch of his business and
finds that $40 machines visited his
hostelry. These machines brought
him 224O guests whose average hotel
bill was $l25 making the proprietor's
gross receipts from this resource 81
300
1.-THE hotel man says that fully
three-fourths of the, automobile tour
lists who visited him this summer
were strangers to his house. The no
tel in question is not located on the
main line between New York and the
White mountains nor does it possess
all the luxuries for which auto tour
lists are willing to pay
"The case, however, is a good illus
tration of the value of automobile
traffic to any community and the i'm
portance of good roads and good ho-
tells in cultivating this traffic. Every
season the number of machines that
pass through Brattleboro either to or
from the mountains increases and
there is no reason why there should
be any decrease as long as we keep
pace with the procession in the mat !
ter Of highways?
It Is safe to say that host of ho- !
tel keepers in different parts Of the |
state have had experience not unlike |
the one discussed by the Reformer, |
and the use Of the auto for touring !
purposes is certain to rapidly in
crease in Vermont as well as else
where. The result will be more hO- |
tells in all parts of the state.
But every country hotel visited by
auto parties must have eggs and milk !
and poultry and veal and mutton and |
potatoes and green corn and host /
of things the farmer produces, and
if the farmers in the vicinity of the
hotel mentioned by the Reformer
could be interviewed, they would be
able to tell of largely increased in
come from the sale of whatever they
had in this line The chances are
that the demand was greater than
the supply because the farmers in
question had not planned for any new
market of this sort, but next season
they will know and do better.
The most effective. way to secure
this auto travel and the consequent
demand for hotel accommodations
and the consequent demand for good
fresh meats and fresh vegetables and
fresh fruit, is to make the roads in
the vicinity as good as possible. The
owners of motor cars have wireless
communication with each other and
when they are mapping out tour
they naturally select the roads that
have commended themselves to other
touring parties. A poor road will do
more to cause auto parties TO shun
a community than anything else. so
a word to the wise road-maker in
each town ought to be sufficient
We believe the automobile will do
more for the summer tourist business
in Vermont than any other means of
travel and a combination of good
roads, neat and homelike hotels with
good food splendidly cooked, togeth-
err with well directed public
ity for our varied attractions, will
make the Green Mountain state a
Mecca on the part of those who want
to enjoy this noble pleasure ground"
and thus build up profitable home
markets for our Observation-Disclosures