4 BULLETIN 931, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
from men who had owned their machines six months or less, and 
those from men who are using their trucks primarily for custom work 
or in connection with other business, and only incidentally for farm 
work were also excluded. Thus all of the 831 reports which form 
the basis of this bulletin are from men who are practicing the general 
grain and live-stock farming characteristic of the corn belt and who 
own trucks which were purchased new and which have been in use 
long enough to enable their owners to form an intelligent idea of 
their worth. 
LOCATION AND SIZE OF FARMS. 
The number of reports from the different States, the average size 
of the farms, and the average number of crop acres per farm are 
given in Table I. The average size of these farms where motor 
trucks are owned is considerably greater in every State than the 
average size of all farms. For instance, the reports of the 1910 
census show that the average size of all farms in Illinois was only 
129 acres, in Indiana 99 acres, in Iowa 156 acres, and in Missouri 125 
acres. The number of acres planted to crops on the farms studied is 
also large, the average number of crop acres per farm being 248. 
Seventy-two per cent of the farms have over 160 crop acres and 21 
per cent have more than 320 crop acres. 
Table I. — The number of reports from different States, average size of farm, 
and average number of crop acres per farm. 
State. 
Num- 
ber of 
reports. 
Size 
of farm 
(acres). 
Crop 
acres. 
State. 
Num- 
ber of 
reports. 
Size 
of farm 
(acres). 
Crop 
acres. 
114 31 fi 
239 
214 
230 
274 
228 
260 
233 
Southeastern South 
Dakota 
154 
17 
471 
245 
Indiana 
52 
216 
44 
32 
86 
116 
267 
285 
466 
286 
381 
324 
301 
Iowa 
Southern Wisconsin 
Total 
160 
831 
Missouri 
Average 
347 
248 
Eastern Nebraska 
All the reports included from the States of Kansas, Nebraska, 
South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin are from men operating 
farms in the sections where corn is one of the principal crops. Every 
one of the 831 reports is from a man who raises corn as one of his 
principal crops, and in most cases the raising and feeding of hogs is 
an important enterprise. Reports from farms where dairying is the 
principal enterprise are not included. 
DISTANCE TO MARKET. 
Probably the most striking point concerning these farms is their 
great distance from market as compared with other farms in the same 
section of the country. Only 14 Der cent of these farms are less than 
