138 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 266 



The wives' earnings came mainly from miscellaneous work like taking in 

 washing, sewing, and occasionally doing some housework for the neigh- 

 bors. There were, however, several wives in both areas wlio worked in 

 industrial plants during some part of the year. 



Marketing Methods and Problems in Part-Time Farming 



Although production for sale was as a general rule of j^rimary considera- 

 tion only in seasonal part-time farming enterprises, a considerable amount 

 of products was sold also by regular part-time farmers. The percentage 

 of operators selling some of their products was 67 in Lowell area and 

 77.4 in Taunton area, and the value of products sold amounted to 36.2 

 per cent and .54.3 per cent, respectively, of the value of the total output of 

 part-time farming enterprises. Judging from the fact that in the town 

 of Holden over one-third of the total value of agricultural products sold 

 by local producers came from part-time farming enterprises, the latter 

 may be in some cases an important source of food supply for the market. 



Table 4L — Pui>cipal methods of marketixg agricultural products by 

 part-time farmers. 



Lowell area Taur.ton area 

 Place of sale* 



\umber Per cent Nutnber Per cent 



Neighbors 36 1,6.8 22 33.8 



Stores 33 J,2.9 24 36.9 



Dealers and buyers 6 7.8 16 SJf.6 



Places of employment S 10.4- 5 7.7 



Peddling, stands and other 11 H.S 5 7.7 



*Some operators sold their products through two or more different channels. 



Table 41 shows the markets through which the products of part-time 

 farming were sold. "The neighbors", including other part-time farmers, 

 offered the nearest market and the one used most frequently by operators 

 in Lowell area, with stores a close second. In Taunton area these two 

 market outlets were not used so extensively as in Lowell area; but more 

 operators sold through city dealers or buyers, in tb** former area than 

 in the latter. Other methods of marketing were employed bj' a few in 

 both areas, but were of less importance. 



Inasmuch as the products are sold largely on the local markets, they 

 enter into direct competition with products su])])licd by regular farmers. 

 The main difficulty in meeting the competition of part-time farming enter- 

 prises lies in the extreme irregularity of production. During a time of 

 industrial depression with attendant slackening in emi)loyment, most of 

 the operators begin rapidly to expand their iiroduction. and as a result 

 the local markets become oversupplicd with agricultural products. This 

 tends to depress local i)rices, thus causing losses to regular farmers. 



Credit Facilities and Part-Time Farming 



Judging by the amount of mortgage credit used by the operators, the 

 availability of good credit facilities is of considerable importance in the 



