MARKET DAYS. . 337 



among us, that should meet all our requirements, that would 

 then be the one to receive the most attention to propagate it in 

 its purity. "Why ? Because quick sales, large prices and a 

 certain market at our very doors, would operate as a stimulus 

 to such stock raising, and it would be seen that it would pay, 

 when we returned from the market with the proceeds. 



So too we should raise our pigs, instead of being dependent, 

 as for years we have been, on New York and Ohio for our 

 supply, notwithstanding the disease which has proved of late so 

 fatal to those brought from those States. The loss from this 

 source to the farmers and drovers of Massachusetts has been 

 immense. Can any one say, in view of such a loss, that its 

 recurrence should not be guarded against by increasing the 

 number of breeding sows, and making a home market for their 

 litters by the establishing of regular markets for their sale ? 

 They can readily be taken to market in wagons fitted for the 

 purpose, or they could be driven in droves, if grown to be shoats, 

 and the supply, it is safe to predict, would not for a long time, 

 if ever, exceed the demand. And here too, as in the case with 

 milch cows, there would be greater inducements, by the estab- 

 lishing of such markets, to bestow more attention to breeding 

 than has as yet been practised among us. 



Let us come now to farm products other than live stock, — 

 how would they be affected by the establishing of these fairs ? 

 Some products, such as hay for example, would hardly be 

 offered for sale, unless it should be pressed in bundles so as to 

 be made available for transportation. Wherever grains were 

 grown in any considerable quantities, they would rarely fail of 

 finding purchasers at these fairs, for it is well known that the 

 supply of these has not for a long time been at all adequate to 

 the wants of the State. And it is equally well known that the 

 Indian corn and the rye raised in New England, is far superior 

 in quality to that imported from the Middle and Southern 

 States — for domestic consumption, indeed, no one having tasted 

 the former would use the latter, unless from slieer necessity. 

 Butter, cheese and eggs, articles that are now frequently sold at 

 the door to travelling agents, or at country stores, and without 

 any competition to enhance their price, would be brought to 

 these fairs in sufficient quantities to attract purchasers for the 



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