Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-09-22 | Page 26 | Farmers own Big per Cent of all Autos

BIG PER GENT OFSpTOS Overland Sales Manager, Edmonds, Cites Factory Distribution Statistics to Support Contention. Automobiles in this country are saving food, helping the fanner raise more crops and to do it with less money, according to Salcsmanager Kdmonds of the Browning Brown-ing Automobile Company, local Willys-uverland Willys-uverland distributors. Commenting upon the usefulness of the automobile to the farmer, Kdmonds tiuotes as his authority for this statement state-ment facts which have been coected through a research by the Willys-Overland Automobile company, covering a period pe-riod of a year. "Taking the sales of Overland automobiles automo-biles to the farmer in 1H17. we find that, while the farmers of America represent .13. a per cent of the population, they bought 53.1 per cent of the automobiles nold by our company, and this same proportion pro-portion la assumed to exist in the ownership owner-ship of automobiles in general. "The farmer is buying automobiles because be-cause thev have done more to lighten labor la-bor and change his entire plane of living liv-ing and doing business than any other Invention since the harvesting machine," said Edmonds, j "The government estimates that it re quires five acres cf land annually to feed each horse. On this basis, assuming that each automobile on a farm replaces one horse, the automobiles in use on the farms today alone are enough to release more than 10,000,000, acres of land, sufficient suf-ficient to feed three and one-third million mil-lion people. "In the business of farming the automobile au-tomobile has become invaluable. With it one farmer can raise more products and reach more markets. It helps him make up for the depleted labor supply and at the same time aids him in cultivating cul-tivating more acres himself, more intensively. in-tensively. How the Auto Helps. "The bushel of wheat in the granary is not going to do any good until it gets to the mouth of the fighter. This requires re-quires transportation. And here the automobile au-tomobile not only helps to raise more crops, but transports them as well. "So the motor car is helping the ; farmer to raise more crops with less men, carry his product to market and buy more government bonds with the proceeds pro-ceeds which could not be his without the aid of the automobile. "In the harvest time a needed repair part no longer delays the farmer. His son, daughter or wife quickly goes to town and returns with the needed part in so short a time that the delay -i3 negligible. But think of the change it has wrought in his daily life. Pass the machines on the way to and from the city markets, loaded with butter, eggs, produce and perishable products. The automobile makes the farm thirty miles from town as valuable with its use as the one five miles out, which depends upon the horse. "This has increased land values as is evidenced by any government report on the subject which shows that in the aggregate ag-gregate it represents many millions on both farm and suburban property. "The isolation of the country is gone and in Its place have come the educa- . tional and market advantages of the city, more contentment on the part of the farmer's families. The combined advantages advan-tages of both city and country belong to the farmer with a nltor car. "It is no longer a question of the farmer far-mer being able to afford a motor car. He can no longer afford to be without one. For the farmer without an automobile automo-bile pa!s for one whether he buys it or not."