The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-07-21
AN INDICTMENT
OF THE CITY HORSE
transportation Expert Shows
why Horses Should Be Re-
placed by Motor Trucks.

.sThe war has speeded up transporta-
fiona $ we'll as production" says w. I.
Flckling of the New York Fulton Truck
Company "It has led also to intensive
thinking as contrasted with taking things
for granted. We are beginning to doubt
intelligently; to ask why In this. the
most progressive Of all railroad operating
nations. one link in the delivery chain
should be pathetically weak, needlessly
expensive. archaic in its relation to mod
trn city conditions.
Before the war sent water rates Sky
ward one could ship a barrel of flour
from Minneapolis to Jersey City by rail.
then by water to Liverpool and again by
rail 10 Birmingham for less than he
could move said flour from Jersey City
20 Brooklyn through the usual truck
Ing channels. Rehandling costs money,
but congestion costs more money, and
congestion Is the middle name OF Mr..
City Horse. Look at West street, New
York: Atlantic avenue. Boston. or the
Loop In Chicago. II you doubt this.
In downtown New York particularly
all street traffic Is limited to the speed
Of the slowest moving unit, which In this
case IL the horse truck moving at about
two and half miles an hour. Fully
o. per cent. of the expensive waits due
10 Jams are chargeable to horse drawn
vehicles. Substitute motor vehicles for
the anachronlsms and our streets. mar
row rs they are. will handle three times
the present traffic. They will be cleaner
and safer and eventually who knows
but that we shall get a chance to build
surfaces adapted to motor vehicle needs.
The part which such obsolete and
costly trucking methods play in the high
cost OF living may be appreciated when
the estimates run all the way from $780,
100000 to $60O.000,000 as the cost OF
getting New York city's food from the
terminals to the buyers door-not from
the farms. Just from the terminals That
this sum could be cut in half with motor
delivery and modern freight handling
machinery is beyond serious question
But the city horse himself is the
greatest waster of food that we have.
Transfers agree that $50 bushels of oats
and five and half t. is Of hay are re-
CURED each year to pr perly feed hard
working horse. This represents the aver
age yield OF FIVE acres OK good land. Some
feed minimum of hay and go strong on
oats or mixed feed. but the average is
about the same
ION this basis the 121 900 horses in
New York would require 3o,7s0000
bushels OF oats, worth at s1.04 a bushel,
s4201l,200. They would require $685.
800 tons OF hay, worth sl4.641 900, or
total of s56.662.2Oo for hay and oats
alone
These figures can be checked In crop
values allowing Ave acres to horse
The COS 900 acres would produce at 80
bushels an acre lS,15O000 bushels OF
oats worth Si8,ST6 900. or 100000 tons
OF hay worth s26.62O. 900. The same
acreage devoted to wheat would pro-
duce 9.o75,0OO bushels. or enough to
give one and n half bushels to every
man. woman and child In New York
! lac
$4,000 horses In New York consume
enough food in one year to keep a quar-
Ter Of a million persons fed for that pc
rod
Counting reserve horses we can as
sumo that one truck will do the work
81 six quadrupeds. and on this basis
e0l70 trucks would replace the truck
ing and delivery energy Of all New
Works. horses
As We have said. there are 1o1 900
work houses in New York, which means
'sat 1913 stables averaging 75 horses
each would he needed were we able to
concentrate all these animals in stables
~ this size. But the horse must be
housed near his work. and az a result
we have between 5000 and 5000 stables
scattered through the cross streets OF
Manhattan and other borouChs and
housing all the way from l TO 600 horses
each. These stables cover in the ag-
gregate over seventy acres Of land, some
~ IL very valuable And remember that
some OF those stables are four. five and
six stories high.
Think OF the economic waste. In
addition TO spending 1855. 200 n year
70 feed him, think OF giving over to an
unslnitary and obsolete transportation
unit a great fly breeding establishment
New York land nearly equivalent in
area to that part OF Manhattan Island
from the Battery to city Hall.
The city horse is not content with
eating ten times his own weight each
wear. hut he must have 80 square feet
If stable room FOR himself. his food and
his equipment. Which il to say that his
housing displacement is three times that
Of the motor truck, while his energy as
aga covering ability is one-sixth as
much This remember, while limiting
the stop truck to the city.
a " truck takes up a third less
space on 'ryboat than two horses viii
dray. same ratio more than holds
good on the street and at the LOADING
platform From the stablng standpoint
there Is no long tongue on the motor
truck. so II can be placed bumper tc
bumper and hub TO hub with brother
truck No space provision is necessary
Tor harness, and gasolene ts certainly
moro compressed as to energy value
'Nan Is hay. Any way you look at II
the power truck outclasses the horse
Furthermore the $4,000 horse teams
placed end TO end would make IA col
pnn $40 miles long. while the 10000