28 
HOUSE & GARDEN 
Every farm that is worthy of the name entails a considerable amount of hauling and 
heavy cartage. Here is where the motor truck comes in because of its speed, power 
and capacity 
But how about the individual problems of 
the man who wants a car for his place, 
whether it be an estate, a real farm, or a 
small place? What are the specific things 
he can expect of it? What type of car is 
best? What equipment necessary? What 
is the wear and tear expense? 
The answers to all these questions must 
be, in the nature of the case, more or less 
conditional. But the man without previ¬ 
ous experience who is thinking of buying 
a utility car may get from them some points 
that will save him trouble, time and money. 
To take the first question first, what are 
the things one can do with a car on the 
farm ? Undoubtedly where the car saves 
most time is in getting the product to mar¬ 
ket or shipping point, and for this purpose 
some form of truck is generally used, al¬ 
though there are hundreds of small places 
whose chief products are eggs, berries or 
some vegetable specialty, where the back 
part of the tonneau serves as the truck and 
does for hauling back the small bulk of 
supplies needed, such as two or three bags 
of grain at a time. With a heavy canvas 
so formed that it can be quickly thrown 
over the back seat and floor and “stay put,” 
this is a perfectly feasible plan if a little 
care is used in loading and unloading and 
not too much weight put on. 
Light and Heavy Trucks 
When it comes to the regulation truck, 
there are all sorts, many of them especially 
designed for different kinds of work. There 
is not space here to go into great detail, 
but experience has proved in many cases 
that it is more economical both in original 
outlay and in upkeep and running expenses 
not to get too heavy a truck. In other 
words, select your machine to handle the 
average load it will have to carry, rather 
than choose one capable of handling regu¬ 
larly your maximum load, as you probably 
would in selecting horse equipment. With 
the amount of time saved by motor trans¬ 
portation it is usually possible to split up 
any extra heavy carriage into one or two 
additional trips. 
Another question to be considered is solid 
versus pneumatic tires. While the former 
have been and probably will continue to be 
best for very heavy loads and heavy wear, 
for ordinary conditions they are likely to 
be less satisfactory in the end. As I once 
heard a practical repair man say in answer 
to the contention that solid tires were 
cheaper, “the expense of solid tires is in 
the engine,” and over rough roads that is 
undoubtedly true. Speed is also an import¬ 
ant consideration for farm work, for the 
time saved in making the return trip with 
a fairly fast car will often offset additional 
tire or gas expense in getting the load to 
market in good time. 
There is one type of farm car which 
would seem not to have been fully developed 
as yet, although there undoubtedly would 
be a big field for it, as is evidenced by the 
number of attempts one sees to improvise 
something of the kind on the part of car 
owners. That is the combination runabout 
and light truck, something to take the place 
of the popular horse-drawn “democrat” 
wagon. For less than fifteen dollars one 
can now get a light truck body to fit the 
chassis of one of the 
most popular low- 
priced cars, requiring 
but the removal of 
four bolts to change it 
from a runabout to a 
light truck. There has 
also recently been put 
on the market a suc¬ 
cessful chain drive ad¬ 
dition by which one of 
these light cars may be 
converted into a per¬ 
fectly practical one-ton 
truck. In using the 
original chassis of a 
light car for truck pur¬ 
poses, it is a good plan 
to reinforce the rear 
axle with one of the 
several braces made 
for the purpose, and 
also to invest in a pair 
of solid rubber “bump¬ 
ers” which prevent the 
springs from being driven down below a 
certain point in going over hummocks, road 
holes, etc., such as one encounters. 
Trailers and Other Devices 
Another way of utilizing the car for farm 
purposes, which has been rapidly increas¬ 
ing in favor during the last few years, is 
by the employment of “trailers.” These 
are of various forms and sizes, but the 
principle is to get the weight of the load 
to be carried on to a third pair of wheels 
so that the rear car springs will not be 
overloaded, and at the same time to keep 
the load so near the car that it will be prac¬ 
tically part of it. The trailer has of course 
the additional advantage of leaving all the 
space in the car itself available for pas¬ 
senger use, and of eliminating the danger 
of disfiguring it. Trailers in use have proved 
practicable for all sorts of hauling, and 
where an occasional load only is to be taken 
to or from town, or supplies taken along 
as on a camping or fishing trip, they are 
the simplest and cheapest solution of many 
a haulage problem. 
Tire expense for service cars, trucks, 
trailers, etc., is of course an important item. 
A considerable percentage of this expense 
may be saved by utilizing worn passenger 
car shoes for “re-treaded” or double-treaded 
tires. The expense of having two old tires 
converted into one is much less than the 
cost of a new tire, and while the double- 
treaded tire is not as neat looking, it will 
frequently give just as long service as a 
new shoe, and of course cut the expense. 
Where a simple truck body with open 
top is used, a tarpaulin of suitable size 
should be provided and always carried along 
to protect the load from dust as well as 
from rain. It should be provided with a 
number of short pieces of rope, with rings 
or eye-bolts along the side, so that it may 
be quickly put in place and held tight over 
any size or shape load that is likely to be 
put on. 
In the main, these are the varied uses to 
which the farm car can be put. The man 
with ingenuity may find even more pictur¬ 
esque jobs for his motor, but it is more ad¬ 
visable to use the car as a car than to set 
it to sawing logs and such. For the whole 
value of the car on the farm lies in the fact 
that it is ready for use at any moment, 
which is more than can be said of the aver¬ 
age team. 
In a thousand and one ways the car is practically useful. It 
would take a well-trained team to stand still enough for this 
operation 
