170 WE FARM FOR A HOBBY 



should not be an adornment to the landscape. And 

 there are certain advantages to roadside selling. 

 In the first place, an indifferent stand would be 

 big business in comparison to what we do. It elim- 

 inates delivery, offers an opportunity for the dis- 

 play of goods, can be operated seven days a week, 

 and catches transient as well as steady trade. Yet 

 the objections to roadside marketing are serious 

 enough to make me hesitate. Business is pretty 

 much at the mercy of the weather and the seasons: 

 a rainy week-end can put the kibosh on the week's 

 gross. Hereabouts roadside selling is practically at 

 a standstill from December to April, not because 

 it is impossible to carry on in cold weather but 

 because the city people who compose the bulk of 

 the trade hesitate to venture out into the country 

 in winter. It is vulnerable to the attacks of com- 

 petition; one successful stand is an invitation to 

 all the neighbors to go into business. Either a road- 

 side market must involve a considerable capital in- 

 vestment or it must be almost an integral part of 

 the home. The thought of this invasion of one's 

 privacy is repugnant, and in the country, where we 

 must do most of our own policing, it is not safe. 

 Whether right in the home or segregated from it, 

 if a roadside market is to succeed there must be one 

 or more persons in constant attendance. The num- 

 ber of things I myself have not stopped to buy sim- 

 ply because I could see no one around to wait on 



