FARM MOTOR TRUCK OPERATION. 13 
RETURN LOADS. 
The percentage of time which a truck is run without a load has a 
direct influence on the cost per unit of hauling with it. If the owner 
hauls a load of produce to market and takes back a load of supplies 
to the farm on the return trip he reduces the expense and time spent 
in hauling practically half. (See fig. 7.) The reports of the men 
who gave information on this point in 1920 showed that, on the 
average, they had loads both ways for their trucks on about 26 per 
cent of their trips. Thirty per cent of the owners, however, stated 
they never had return loads. The fruit, truck, and crop farmers 
reported having return loads for their machines a much smaller 
percentage of the time than did the dairy and general farmer. 
Fig. i. — Return loads reduce the expense of hauling. 
ROAD HAULING FOR WHICH TRUCKS ARE NOT USED. 
It does not necessarily follow that because a farmer owns a motor 
truck he can do all his road hauling with it. The reports from 61 
per cent of the 310 owners of these machines who answered the 
question " Did you use horses for any hauling on the road (that is, 
from and to the farm) in 1921 ? " stated that they did, the average of 
such hauling with horses being about IT per cent of the total road 
hauling done. On this basis, for all farms reporting, about 10 per 
cent of the total road hauling was done with horses, and the re- 
mainder with trucks- 
No inquiry was made concerning the reasons for using horses for 
road hauling, but in 1920 about two-thirds of the truck owners re- 
porting stated they used their horses to some extent for road haul- 
ing, and of this number nearly half gave as their reason for so doing 
