Public Markets in Massachusetts. 



R. B. ANNIN, JR., 136 STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, MASS. 



Introduction. 



All who study into agricultural conditions must realize that 

 the most important factor in the business of farming is the 

 question of marketing. Can I sell my goods at all? Can I 

 sell them at a profit? Where, when and how shall I sell them? 

 These are questions that every business man must ask himself, 

 and the farmer is a business man. The reason for decreases in 

 agricultural production is in most cases not because the farmers 

 do not know how, but because it does not pay. A market 

 must be provided for all goods manufactured or produced, and 

 the market price must be above the cost of production, other- 

 wise the industry fails. 



The question of marketing produce is one of the first magni- 

 tude and importance, and a question whose ramifications 

 extend far and wide. There is no one best way to sell farm 

 products; the best method will vary with the locality, the 

 product, the man and the type of business. The public 

 market place is no cure-all or panacea for either the seller or 

 the buyer. In some parts of the country the public market has 

 been successful; in others a failure. The whole question of 

 public market places will bear further careful study. They 

 have not been given a thorough enough trial in this State to 

 either acclaim them as a success or condemn them as a failure. 

 The object of this circular is to briefly review the experiences 

 of the towns and cities in the State which have tried out 

 public market places, and to present certain conclusions which 

 this experiment of 1917 seems to justify. 



The Public Market Law. 



The first organized move to establish public market places 

 in Massachusetts was taken in 1915, when the State Board of 

 Agriculture introduced a bill in the Legislature authorizing 



