20 



VII. Supply. 



Public markets have failed, when they have failed in Mas- 

 sachusetts, for lack of supply rather than lack of demand. II 

 farmers can furnish at these markets a steady and liberal supply 

 at fair prices, there is a consuming public in this State ready 

 to come and buy it. But the public will not readily patronize 

 a market where there is small supply and a narrow range of 

 choice. 



VIII. Demand. 



The public markets have made many farmers realize the 

 tremendous demand and buying power for food that exists in 

 this State. The market has brought the 'farmer face to face 

 with large numbers of the consuming public, where heretofore 

 he has dealt only with a few commission merchants or retailers, 

 or the fifteen or twenty families on his private route. The 

 public market, when successful, results in more produce being 

 sold near the point of production, and so less unnecessary long- 

 distance shipping. 



To illustrate the consumption of foodstuffs of a small Massa- 

 chusetts city, compared with the production of the farming 

 territory contiguous to it, the following table shows the sum- 

 mary of a food survey made of the ^ city of Leominster by the 

 Board of Agriculture in 1916. Leominster is a city of 16,000, 

 and is surrounded by good farming territory, the principal crops 

 being apples and milk. The consumption figures were taken 

 from the retail stores, and so do not include the amounts sold 

 directly by farmers nor what is bought in surrounding towns. 

 The production figures were secured directly from the 60 farms 

 which market their produce in this city. 



