The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1916-04-01

for them as soon as they. get gopd
roads. Dairy men who sellamilkssor
cream at wholesale, and truck grow
ers, have adopted the motor truck as
rapidly as possible. The. superiority
of the motor truck over horse drawn
vehicles for heavy transportation has
long since been established and where
the transportation problem is so i'm
portant partsyof the business as it
lis in the production of milkaor cream
in large quantities and in truck grow
ing, there is really no question about
the ACCESSIBILITY Of using motor trucks
instead of. horse delivery.
The adaptability of the motor truck
for the big general farm is a sques-
tion of greater interest at the present
time, because farmers engaged in
dairying or in truck growing are very
flew in number as compared to the
general farmer. Everyone asks, can
the motor truck in it's various sizes
be economically adapted to the gen.
eral farm of one hundred acres and
up.
The writer feels that the use of
motor trucks of one size or another
on general farms will be more or less
warmly; discussed for a year or two
yet, and then accepted as practical
nd the motor truck will be quite gen.
orally adopted on the average sized
farm up TO- the largest.
The motor truck is of particular
value on long distance hauls. If
one is in the habit of marketing his
crops, at. town three miles away be-
cause the next market even though
good deal better is fifteen miles
away, he may lost considerable money
| in years time by not being able
to. sell on the best market. Fifteen
miles is rather, prohibitive distance
for teams with heavy loads, and GER
tainly twenty-five miles is an imprac-
ticable distance for teams. The mo-
tor truck, however, makes hauling
twenty-five miles in any direction,
perfectly practicable. The motor
truck can. successfully negotiate with
just as bad roads and as heavy loads
as teams can. So the question of
roads is not very large factor as
between horses and trucks but as a
matter of economy either for the
horse Or the trucks, good roads are Of
absolutely inestimable value.
If it would mean anything to a
farmer to increase his heavy hauling
or. market radius to a distance of
TWENTY-FIVE or thirty or even forty
miles in exceptional cases, then that
should be taken into consideration
with regard to the purchase of a
truck.
Like every other piece of machin-
cry, the more, a truck is used the
greater will be, the return on the in
vestment. 1t is customary for three
or four: farmers to buy small
shredder outfit or hay baling outfit
or. even a small threshing outfit in
partnership. Where two or three or
four farmers would like to- try out a
medium sized motor truck for their
purposes; it will work out very ad-
vantageously, for them to- buy truck
in partnership. II the truck can be
kept busy between them, there is
absolutely no question about it's be-
ing a, very profitable investment. If
it develops later: on that more than
one truck is needed for the partner
ship or that each of the partners can
use truck for his own purposes en-
tirely, they will all have the advan=
tage of the experience with the first
truck and the additional investment
will not seem to; be an experiment.
I The man who thinks he could not
! finance the purchase of a truck could
afford to sell off twenty acres Of
land which it requires to feed four
head Of horses ,aoyear and buy a truck
with the proceeds and still have as
much land left for crop purposes as
he had before, after feeding his
horses.
If four head. of horses are worth
$500, their value would purchase
seven or eight head of good cattle
and the twenty acres of horse feed
could be added to the support of these
additional cattle or2of more hogs if. it
is tpreferredrto, keep hogs.
From these commercial considera-
tions, It is plain to see that sentiment
and the love Of building great works
is but the beginning, of the Jefferson
Highway. and that. it's real purpose
and value is economic and practical.
It is easy, to, believe that in a few
years the, Jefferson Highway will be
not only a great artery of Interstate
tourist, but a great highway of COM
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