The automobile and truck have had a profound effect upon agriculture and farm life. Since their appearance on American farms between 1913 and 1920, trucks have changed patterns of production and marketing of farm products. They deliver such items as fertilizer, feed, and fuels; go into the fields as part of the harvest equipment; and haul the crops to market.
To acquaint Nebraska farmers with the advantages of truck transportation, a tour of the latest truck models was arranged in the summer of 1920. “A six-day truck tour through east-central and southeast Nebraska, July 19 to 24, will be conducted by the Motor Tour association under the auspices of the Omaha Automobile Trade association,” reported the July 1920 issue of The Motorist, published in Omaha. “At least twenty-five trucks will take part in this tour, representing practically all of the leading commercial vehicles sold by Omaha distributors.
“It will be strictly a non-competitive demonstration tour. There will be no effort to sell trucks along the way. The prices of the trucks will not even appear on the uniform signs. There will be no attempt at speed.
“The itinerary calls for a total of 380 miles, about 60 miles a day. In the larger towns the trucks will probably stop two hours. They will give demonstrations of farm hauling at every opportunity.
“Speakers will accompany the trucks and give addresses all along the route, preaching the doctrine of good roads and of truck transportation. A jazz band will give brief concerts in all the towns and there will be other features of interest.
“But primarily it is a demonstration of what trucks can do to solve the present day transportation difficulties-to show in a most convincing manner to the farmer, what a truck would mean to him-if he doesn’t own one already.
“Trucks will range all the way from the 1/4-ton speed wagons, to the big two or three-ton burden bearers. Some of them will be equipped with pneumatics and some with solid tires: but the former will be most numerous.”
The Motorist reported that one of the trucks would carry a farm lighting plant that would light the truck parking area overnight. The caravan was planned to include a number of passenger cars carrying officials, press representatives, and other dignitaries. Truck master for the tour was to be Charles Gardner, an Omaha automobile dealer.
