Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1920-02-18
GooDTHINGsHAyEHARD START
So Writes Mr.. Groh Concerning the
Wide Sleigh Controversy

Editor CENSOR Following up my
article in the Censor favoring the wide
sleigh and in encountering views writ
ten IN protest, which are a most ma
tural opposition. trust that it viii not
be amiss TO turn more light in the
direction that is darkened. Very tru-
iy operate sort of repair shop for
farm implements and machines, but it
lis a misguided impression for a per-
son to have, thinking that most peo-
pie favoring the wide sleigh are look
| ing for a Job. Three weeks ago a
farmer came to the shop by recon-
mend of his blacksmith to have some
machine work done on repairs for his
windmill. The job was done in 35
minutes; he handed me dollar which
was more than asked and said keep
the change, ! would have given two
dollars for that; new one costs about
four, besides it would take so long to
get it from the factory and / would
be out of water" And his view of
the wide sleigh is, that it is alright
and wish we had it; here have been
all day getting that little job done,
when if / could have used the car it
would have taken only a short time
and my time at home would have been
worth few dollars to me; but there
the car stands in the shed and / have
had my team out on the road all day"
Another party having wood-saw-
| ing outfit decided to buy a wide sleigh
as he had so much trouble to keep
from tipping over; so called on a
farmer to buy the one he had, and was
not using on the road. The farmer
said'No sir,you can't have that sleigh,
| want to use that on the farm here -
So there are three not looking for a
job and many more are known of. A
party went by today with load of
hay; he came mile and half, and
said that he tipped over three times.
We need not guess but that ne wished
to have a wide sleigh.
We find that very many farmers are
interested IN some means of propell-
ing car in winter and state plans of
various attachments. Wide rims, run
ners and cranks with push bars, aero
plane -propellers, rotary snow pillow,
etc. Some others would have the pa
troll man continue his work all winter
and clear the roads with a snow pillow
driven by tractor. Now this all
comes from farmers and is very evil
dent again that there are only a few
WIN ina hOb WdIJ W use LflelE cars
in winter if they could. Then if they
were all chased off to that part of the
country where they do not use sleighs
and If there was any one left, they
would soon get lonesome enough to
call them back, finding it absolutely
impossible to spare all those people.
have noted in a Minneapolis pub
LEGATION, that wholesale house there
has added a stock of wide sleighs to
the others, which proves that there is
a demand for them, and their business
field being in latitude usually having
more snow than here. That / think
rubs off the bunglesome part quite
nicely.
To shovel way for the wide sleigh
does not require twice the width of the
narrow sleigh. The latter requires
four feet, and in deep cuts, six feet.
Even at that the single trees would
cut into the banks some and horses
would crowd. The ordinary set of
doubletrees are some over six feet
wide and the wide sleigh would be
about five and one half feet over all,
which gives no reason to shovel eight
to twelve feet wide for the wide sleigh
when it is only eighteen inches wider
than the present sleigh. In changing
the narrow sleigh to the wide one, the
waste would be very small. The new