MOTOR TRUCKS ON EASTERN FARMS. V 
There has evidently been a tendency on the part of some of these 
men to purchase trucks which experience has shown to be too small 
for their needs. While 444, or 64 per cent, prefer the size they now 
own, only 13 of the entire number prefer smaller sizes and 239 prefer 
larger sizes. However, the 1 -ton size is preferred by nearly three 
times as many men as any other size, and only about 1 man in 25 
prefers a truck of over 2 tons capacity. 
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES. 
There are advantages in the ownership of a motor truck, but just 
how great these advantages are and which should be given the greatest 
weight are questions unanswerable by the man who has not had 
experience with a truck. A summary of the answers of 638 of thes'e 
truck owners to the question "What is the principal advantage of a 
truck for farm use?" is given in Table II. 
Table II. — The "principal advantage" of a motor truck as reported by 638 farmers. 
Principal advantage. 
Number 
reporting. 
Per cent 
of total. 
577 
19 
15 
13 
9 
5 
91 
3 
2 
2 
1 
1 
Other. . 
Total 
638 
More than 90 per cent of the owners believe that time saving is 
the principal advantage. There are other advantages, of course, but 
in the minds of these farmers this is the principal one. While only 
15 of the men report that the principal advantage of the truck is 
that it enables them to go to a better market, a much larger number 
are going to a better market now than before the purchase of their 
trucks. Going to a market which is farther from their farms is 
simply a matter of taking more time for marketing, and part of the 
men who say that saving of time is the principal advantage find that 
the truck saves them sufficient time to enable them to go to the 
better market. 
The fact that such a small number consider the saving of horses, 
the reducing of expense, and added convenience as the principal 
advantages of the truck, indicates that the amount of time which 
the motor truck will save, which may incidentally result in reaching 
a better market, is the item which should be given paramount impor- 
tance when considering the purchase of a motor truck. 
Disadvantages of the motor truck were reported by 283 men. 
(See Table III.) Of the remaining 470 farmers 297 did not answer 
8335°— 20 2 
