2 BULLETIN NO. 770, U. $. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
¢ 
to these consuming centers. These producing areas have been pushed 
further and further from the centers of population by the encroach- 
ment of the city proper. Gardeners and dairy farmers who, a few 
years ago, were faced with a short haul to the nearby market, now 
find the horse-drawn vehicle of other days entirely inadequate to 
cover the increased distance to market. Here the motor truck has 
offered itself as a transportation medium capable of working effec- 
tively within a much wider radius than the horse and wagon. The 
development of rail facilities for the short haul has not kept pace: 
with the development of crop producing districts near the larger 
centers of population. The rapid growth of the truck manufacturing 
business during the past five years in itself would have directed the 
attention of manufacturers to rural territory as a profitable sales field. 
Summing up, it will be seen that three general causes have con- 
tributed to the exploitation of the motor truck industry in rural terri- 
tory. These causes, as we have noted above, are substantially as 
follows: (1) the growth of our larger cities and the consequent develop- 
ment of nearby producing areas to provide for part of the food needs 
of these cities; (2) the failure of the railroads to keep pace with the 
expansion of their short haul business; (3) the development of the 
motor truck manufacturing interests and the consequent extension of 
their sales campaigns. The crisis in the transportation field, brought 
about by the national war emergency, has afforded stimulus to the 
development of rural motor transportation more powerful than any 
other general influence. Doubtless the motor truck, in any event, 
would have established itself as a factor in the rural field. Ordinarily 
this establishment would have been a-slow process, involving the many 
preliminary steps customary in introducing a new method of transpor- 
tation. War conditions precipitated action by creating a very unusual 
demand for transportation facilities of all kinds. Persons interested 
in the motor truck found the field made ready by emergency condi- 
tions over which no individual or group of individuals had control. It 
has been necessary only to develop the field of action properly. Such 
development necessitates or presupposes a certain familiarity with the 
problem as a whole. A suspicion that such familiarity did not exist 
among those interested in developing rural motor routes was borne out 
by preliminary investigations, initiated by the Bureau of Markets. An 
attempt was made to conduct a general preliminary survey of rural 
motor routes established or in process of establishment. The general 
purpose of the survey was to secure basic information regarding the 
desirability of establishing such routes, the methods undertaken by the 
beginners in this field, and the measure of success which had been 
attained during the early period of operation. 
Material collected in the survey mentioned above shows considerable 
