126 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



potatoes and grain, and winter fruit which are produced in 

 Massachusetts, might be sold in an hour at market, and a great 

 saving of time and labor might be made by the farmer. 



In some sections of the State we find a farmer of an estab- 

 lished reputation, with a fine farm, well cultivated, and situated 

 not far from a village, who says he can readily sell at his door 

 all he desires to dispose of. He does not feel the need of a 

 market. There may be a few such instances ; but the mass 

 of farmers, we believe, suffer greatly from the want of a 

 " market," and if the large farmers who do not feel this want, 

 would decline to sell from their farms, they could institute 

 the " market" almost in a single season. 



But we are confident that there is no farmer in the State 

 who would not feel the benefit of a market. He is now called 

 by the butcher from his meadow or his plough, one day to sell 

 a calf, the next day, a fat ox, the next day, a pig. One man 

 wishes to buy hay, to trade for a cow, or to buy his crop of 

 apples or potatoes, or another calls him for an hour to sell him 

 what he does not want. But if he wishes to purchase a cow or 

 an ox, a horse, or any other indispensable article, he has to 

 look for it, and perhaps to scour the country round at the loss 

 of much valuable time. Give him a near and ready market, 

 where he can buy as well as sell, and he surely feels the 

 advantage in common with any other citizen. But the benefit 

 does not end here. In a short time he will reduce his farm to 

 a few crops and a more special culture, and will find the farm 

 which he now deems profitable and satisfactory, not a daily 

 burden, with its multitude of various and harrassing cares, but 

 a pleasure and a profit which he now knows little of. 



The committee are satisfied from the experience of the year 

 that a " market " should be held in the neighborhood of a 

 hotel, or other place of daily resort, where refuge and refresh- 

 ment may be had both for man and beast. They should be 

 held as often as once a month, in all cases. But how can they 

 best be inaugurated ? This is our recipe. 



Find a broad street with an open field on either side, inclosed 

 by wooden fences. The owners of these lots will furnish them 

 gratuitously for the uses of the market. Let them receive 

 their compensation in a very small fee for every animal entered 

 for sale, and a very large one — the more the better — for such 



