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public market is to be opened near them will furnish an incen- 

 tive to many farmers to increase their acreage. The city of 

 Boston is planning to open its retail markets early in April, and 

 this experiment will be watched with interest. 



T'. Cash and Carry. 

 It is doubtful if a public market should attempt to deliver 

 orders. The high cost of living comprises three distinct factors, 

 — food, service and credit. The public market is an attempt 

 to furnish another method of buying for that part of the con- 

 suming public which is willing to pay cash and carry home 

 their purchases, and the markets will meet with best success if 

 they confine themselves to a cash and carry basis. And the 

 public market will not perform any useful function unless it 

 proves profitable to both farmer and consumer. For this reason 

 the consumer cannot expect the farmer to sell his produce a 

 peck at a time at wholesale rates, nor, on the other hand, can 

 the farmer expect the consumer to pay him the price com- 

 manded by a store which has to charge for delivery, credit and 

 bad debts. Somewhere between these extremes lies the eco- 

 nomic public market price. The public market will not sup- 

 plant either the wholesale distributor or the retailer, but will 

 furnish an opportunity to trade for buyers and sellers who are 

 willing to take the trouble to use it. It is almost superfluous 

 to say that there should be no effort at price fixing on the part 

 of those in charge, but daily information on the course of prices 

 and the available supply, as furnished by the Market News 

 Service of the United States Department of Agriculture, will be 

 most useful in enabling both buyer and seller to trade more 

 intelligently. 



VI . Daily Market. 

 In cities where demand justifies it, a daily market will be 

 more satisfactory to farmers than a two or three day a week 

 affair. During the summer a large proportion of the produce 

 sold on these markets is highly perishable in its nature. A 

 farmer who is growing such products in any quantity has some- 

 thing to sell every day, and if the public market is only occa- 

 sional and intermittent will naturally form other connections for 

 the sale of his produce. 



