338 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



larger markets, and sales would be made at their full ralue and 

 for ready cash payment. 



In regard to apples, large quantities of which are some years 

 raised in the State, the advantage of regular market days or 

 fairs for their sale, would be very great. As they are a bulky 

 article, their transportation to market is no trifling affair. Sis 

 or eight barrels are usually taken at a load in a one-horse wagon, 

 requiring on an average thirty trips to sell a crop of two hun- 

 dred barrels, besides the time consumed in finding purchasers. 

 Now if the farmer were sure tliat on a particular day in the fall, 

 dealers would attend the fair in his neighborhood, and make 

 large purchases of this fruit for shipping or for re-sale at the 

 larger markets, he could take with him samples of his different 

 varieties, and thus dispose of liis entire crop, to be delivered at 

 the cars or in the city, as might be agreed upon. By this 

 comparatively small outlay of time and money, his net profit 

 would be vastly greater than it now is. In the same manner, 

 onions and other vegetable crops might be disposed of with 

 advantage, both to the seller and the buyer. 



And here we are reminded of an incidental advantage to bo 

 derived from these fairs, and one by no means to be overlooked 

 in forming a correct estimate of them. Some crops, such as the 

 apple, for example, are extremely variable, being one year 

 abundant in some parts and scarce in others ; and another year, 

 vice versa. Some crops too, such as the onion, are raised in 

 large quantities, in some sections of the State, and not at all in 

 other sections. Now an abundant supply of any commodity 

 gluts the market, and often reduces prices to a ruinous extent. 

 Hence, where there is an excess of these crops beyond the 

 demand for home consumption, it could readily be disposed of 

 to purchasers from a distance, who would be drawn to the local 

 fairs by the knowledge of this very contingency. 



Besides the opportunity thus afforded for traffic at these fairs, 

 they would be attended with peculiar convenience to the 

 farmer in hiring laborers. He is now put to great trouble and 

 uncertainty in obtaining such as are needed — doubtless owing 

 in part to the fact that native labor has been of late largely 

 superseded by foreign. But even this labor cannot always 

 be commanded at the time it is most wanted by him. He 

 cannot spend much time in the busy season in riding round for 



