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Show TlC7ClliSE! AFTERV!LLa EASY Mules and Horses Would Make It Impossible, Says Packard Official. "If I'nde Sain had to Jppend on horses and mules for his army transport servie. tlin Mexieao expedition in pursuit pur-suit of Villa would l)e an utter impossibility." impos-sibility." This is the statement of C. K. Morion, special field representative of the Packard Motor Car company, on his return from a four weeks' observation observa-tion trip along the southern border and fi'rrn!3 the line in Mexico. Mr. Morton said: It's a simple matter of arithmetic to prove the horte and mule useless in keeping; open a long line of communication com-munication in the southern republic. Let ub consider the line our soldiers are now maintaining between Columbus, Co-lumbus, N. M., and the present front. When I left, a few days ago, this was a distance of 360 miles into Old Mexico, a round trip of 730 miles necessary for every load of supplies carried in. The Packard Pack-ard trucks, capable of ten miles an hour even in that trackless desert, make the round trip in seventy-two hours of actual travel; Army regulations call for seventeen seven-teen miles per day as the maximum travel for mules." This would mean more than forty-two days for the trip. At this rate; a six-mule team cannot haul sufficient load to keep it alive for the journey, not to speak of carrying finv supplies for the fighting men. ach mule i fed three quarts of oats three times each day, which means for six mules nearlv two bushels per day. In the desert going, sixty-nine sixty-nine bushels of oats would make a capacity load. But in the forty-two days on the road the mules would consume nearly seventy-one bushels. And the above figures do not take into account the food and water for the driver and his guards and the water which must be carried, car-ried, In some parts of the country, for the animals. The trucks, on the other hand, handle an almost capacity load of supplies for the men in the field, besides the rations ra-tions for drivers and guards and a supply of gasoline and lubricant. The life of the expert drivers and mechanics who accompany the Packard trains is a strenuous one. The men are traveling through a country that is practically a desert: they have been made the target or snipers on several occasions, luckily luck-ily without serious consequences, and In all wavs are leading tne lives of regular soldiers. They are even served their rations from army mess outfits, which travel with them under the care of enlisted cooks. The truck trains camp wherever night overtakes them, and making camp is a reminder of one of the oldest principles of warfare. The twenty-seven trucks making up the train "are maneuvered into the formation for-mation of a hollow square, within which are parked the officers' touring tour-ing cars. Then the men roll np in their blankets and sleeping bags for their rest. Needless to say, there is a strong guard posted every night, the men doing picket duty In two-hour shifts from dark until daylight. |