190 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
be loaded on the truck while the trailer carries fertilizer, 
manure, cement, soil, lumber or anything else. When 
a planting job is to be done at a distant place, not easily 
accessible by railroad, the truck and trailer may be em¬ 
ployed for transporting not only the stock and other ma¬ 
terial but also the men who are to do the work, thus gain¬ 
ing several hours’ time which would otherwise be lost in 
waiting for a railroad train. Even on the nurseryman s 
own grounds the trailer may be used efficiently in trans¬ 
ferring stock that is to be set out or taken up, since the 
trailer may be detached and loaded or unloaded while the 
truck is making another trip. Similarly, large shipments 
may be hauled from freight cars in a short time. 
Moving Large Trees 
It is possible, by means of a trailer, to haul large trees 
where it would be out of the question to move them by 
truck alone, for it is impracticable to transport satisfac¬ 
torily by truck any object longer than 25 feet. 
Almost every nurseryman is called upon at times to 
move such trees, as when some customer wishes a favor¬ 
ite specimen transplanted or desires full-grown trees set 
out to produce an immediate effect. The difficulties in¬ 
volved in doing such work by teams and wagons or 
motor trucks are many, and the expense is great, 
whereas, by the aid of properly equipped trailers, the 
operation may be carried out with facility and at low 
cost. 
There is no doubt of the ability of the trailer to handle 
large and cumbersome objects far more unwieldy and 
heavy than anything the nurseryman is called upon to 
transport. It is a common practice for steel beams or 
girders from forty to sixty feet long, and weighing many 
tons, to be transported by means of trailers. During the 
World War trailers were, employed by the Government 
for hauling spruce, logs cut in the Oregon and Washing¬ 
ton forests for ship building ainl other purposes. A 
trailer and truck can easily handle three or four spruce 
logs totaling 6,000 feet of lumber and weighing 21 tons. 
Another remarkable example was the moving, last 
year, of a still weighing 30,000 pounds from Casper to 
Salt Creek, Wyoming, a distance of 50 miles. A five-ton 
truck and two 2%-ton trailers were used, besides a 2-ton 
truck as a “pusher,” on steep grades: Part ,of the trip 
was over virgin soil, where there were no roads. The 
transfer required 10y 2 hours. In striking contrast to 
this, a still of the same size had, a short time’before, been 
taken over the same ground by means of teams, 36 horses 
and 10 men being required, and the job consuming 30 
days. 
Low Cost, and Operating Expense 
The low cost of the trailer, as compared with that of a 
motor truck, is a point of special interest. Since the cost 
of a four-wheel trailer is only one-fourth to one-third 
that ol a truck of equal capacity, it follows that depre¬ 
ciation and interest on the investment are less in the case 
ol the former. The price of a one-ton trailer ranges from 
about $300 to $600; that of a two-ton, $500 to $900; 
three-ton $850 to $1500; live-ton, from $1200 to $1700. 
It is remarkable that, although the use of a trailer with 
a truck or automobile greatly increases the load capacity, 
the additional operating expense for running the truck 
is usually not more than 25 per cent, of which from 15 
to 20 per cent represents the cost of additional gasoline 
consumed by the truck. A second driver is, of course, 
not required. 
The upkeep of the trailer is also considerably less than 
that of a truck, as there is no complicated mechanism to 
get out of order. Expensive storage facilities are unnec- 
cessary as the trailer may be kept under an open shed 
or even left outdoors if protected with a cover. The 
charge due to tire wear is low; in fact, the total expense 
for repairs is usually remarkably small. A striking in¬ 
stance of this is embodied in the experience of a firm us¬ 
ing a fleet of ten trailers in a line of business in which 
they are subjected to hard and rough daily use. For a 
period covering thirteen and a half months the total ex¬ 
pense for repairs averaged only $16.27 per trailer, or 
about $1.20 each per month. 
In many States the law does not require the registra¬ 
tion of trailers and even where such registration is re¬ 
quired, the fee is usually nominal. Insurance and tax 
charges are also correspondingly low on trailers. 
An Example of Trailer Economy 
A concrete example will bring out the saving effected 
by the use of a trailer. Suppose a nurseryman had a 
one-ton truck, and that his occasional maximum load re¬ 
quirements increased to two tons. He could obtain this 
increased load capacity either by adding a one-tori trailer 
to his equipment or by purchasing another one-ton truck. 
In the first case his operating expense would increase 
about 25 per cent, at the most; in the second, it would 
jump 100 per cent. Moreover, since the second truck 
would cost from two to three times what a trailer of the 
same load capacity would cost, he would lose much more 
on his investment with the former standing idle than if 
he had a trailer which was not being used. On the other 
hand, if he exchanges his one-ton truck for a two-ton 
truck, the cost per ton-mile will mount rapidly when the 
truck is not used to capacity, whereas he might use his 
one-ton truck to capacity most of the time and suffer 
comparatively little loss on account of the trailer stand¬ 
ing idle part of the time. In other words, if he uses a 
one-ton truck, with a trailer, he will have the advantages 
of the two-toii truck with little more operating expense 
than the one-tonner would entail, and considerably less 
than it would cost to operate the two-ton truck. A one- 
ton truck, with Semi-trailer, Would give him the advan¬ 
tages of a three-ton truck at greatly reduced cost. 
Types of Trailers in Use 
The principle of the trailer has, of course, been made 
use of since the earliest times, being embodied in the 
horse-drawn wagon, for it was found that a horse could 
haul much more than he could carry. However, it is 
hardly more than ten years since specially designed 
trailers began to be built. It was early realized that the 
ordinary wagon would not stand the severe strain of 
constant use over rough roads at high speed behind an 
automobile or motor truck. The unyielding iron-tired 
wheels and the absence of adequate devices to overcome 
the jarring resulting from rattling and bumping over 
roads, soon causes the ordinary wagon to rack itself to 
pieces. The most approved types of trailers are there¬ 
fore made with anti-friction bearings in the wheels anil 
embody the best features of automobile and motor truck 
construction, besides such other features as are neces¬ 
sary to meet special conditions. 
