MARKET DAYS. 343 



and pencil in hand let him call on his neighbors and talk over 

 the matter freely with them, and then note down what this one 

 and that will do to help on the fair, specifying the articles 

 they would severally agree to carry to it. The power of asso- 

 ciated action and the force of example, would in this way 

 operate quietly but eifectually. A few such men — young men, 

 if they can be enlisted — will act like leaven to leaven the whole 

 mass. 



There -need be no regulations made and published as to the 

 buying and selling, not even that the sales shall be for cash 

 payments, which would certainly be the most desirable mode of 

 trade. The fair would be the farmers' exchange — just as the 

 merchants have their exchange in the city — where they meet 

 to transact business, and self-interest and mutual convenience 

 make the bargains. Neither are there needed any public yards 

 or buildings for the display of animals or other products of the 

 farm ; but they would be offered for sale at particular points, 

 which would soon become well known to the public. On the 

 23d of June last, Sanford Howard, of the Boston Cultivator, 

 attended' a cattle fair at Kilmaurs, in Scotland. In a letter 

 published just afterwards in that paper, he says: "there were 

 there about four hundred head of cattle, mostly Ayrshire cows 

 and heifers, the greater part of which changed hands, although 

 the market was dull. They were collected in the principal 

 street in the village, the lots of the different owners being kept 

 separated by men and dogs. The purchasers looked over the 

 animals, and having decided on the ones they wanted, and 

 asked the price, made offers, at the same time extending their 

 hands. If the offers were accepted, the parties shook hands 

 and that consummated the transaction." The whole is a very 

 simple affair — as simple as Columbus making the egg stand on 

 its end — if we would but take hold in earnest and determine 

 to have it succeed. Only make a beginning by collecting 

 together on a fixed day and at a fixed place, agricultural pro- 

 ducts and men in sufficient numbers, and the market is estab- 

 lished. Tlie success of one such day would be almost sure to 

 command success on the next, and after a few such days the 

 market day would become a permanent and popular institu- 

 tion, and would be noted in the almanac, as the different terms 

 of the courts are noted. 



