34 
BULLETIN 910, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
0.480 ton; for f-ton trucks the load is 0.926 ton; for the 1-ton 
trucks, 1.196 tons; for lj-ton and lj-ton trucks, 1.734 tons; and 
for the 2-ton trucks, 2.464 tons. The costs per mile of haul for the 
trucks of different sizes divided by these figures give the costs per 
ton-mile. 
Table XXI. — Cost of hauling with trucks of different sizes. 
Size of truck. 
-1-ton. 
*-ton. 
1-ton. 
If- and 
lj-ton. 
2-ton. 
$0. 082 
.070 
$0. 127 
.070 
$0. 119 
.075 
$0. 190 
.075 
$0,203 
Total 
.152 
.241 
• .502 
.197 
.313 
.338 
.194 
.308 
.258 
.265 
.421 
.242 
°78 
Cost per mile of haul (37 per cent idle running) 
.441 
179 
SAVING OF HIRED HELP. 
The saving of time is given by these men as the greatest advantage 
in the use of a motor truck, but the saving of time will not be of any 
financial benefit to a farmer unless he uses the time thus saved on 
other work, or unless it enables him to reduce the expense for hired 
help. 
These men were asked whether or not their trucks reduce the 
expense for hired help, either man or horse, and, if so, to estimate 
the amount thus saved per year. Of 711 men who answered the 
question as to whether the truck reduces the expense for hired help, 
562, or 79 per cent, said that it does, and the remaining 149 that 
it does not. 
Three hundred and fifty t>f the 562 estimated the amount thus 
annually saved, and the average of these estimates is $324. This 
figure can scarcely be taken to represent the actual amount which 
the labor bills of these men have been reduced since purchasing their 
trucks, but rather as their estimates of the amounts by which their 
bills would be increased if they did not now own trucks, and if they 
were doing the same amount of work they are now doing. 
Eighty-four per cent of the operators of fruit farms think that their 
trucks reduce the expense for hired help. This is a slightly higher 
percentage than is reported for any other type of farming. The 
average of the estimates of those of this 84 per cent who attempted 
to place a value on the amount of help saved is $364. 
The owners of the larger trucks make higher estimates of the 
amount that their trucks reduce expenses than do owners of the 
smaller ones. The averages of the estimates of the owners of the J- 
ton, f-ton, and 1-ton trucks, who report that their trucks reduce the 
bill for hired help, were all between $250 and $300, the average of 
the estimates of the owners of the l|-ton and lj-ton trucks was 
