552 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Dec. 



The present rates of the commission dealers 

 are 50 cents per 100 lbs of beef ; veals 30 cents, 

 and sheep and lambs 16| cents per carcass ; 

 potatoes and apples 25 cents per barrel ; poul- 

 try, butter, beans, &c., five per cent on sales, 

 which are guaranteed ; that is, if the articles 

 are trusted out, it is at the risk of the commis- 

 sion man. The farmer or consignee is paid 

 the fall amount as soon as a sale is effected, 

 and often a portion of the money is advanced 

 on receipt of goods. 



For the past ten years we have met the 

 sellers of live stock at tliis market weekly, 

 many of whom sell that of their own raising. 

 We have heard them discuss very freely all the 

 regulations and practices of the market, and if 

 any "prevalent usage" of commission- men or 

 others was antagonistic to their interests we 

 should have heard of it. The "prevalent 

 usages," and whatever there is of "system," 

 are such rules and regulations as parties have 

 established for their mutual benefit, and which 

 are changed as convenience and interest re- 

 quires. The simple fact is that the market was 

 never established; it grew up, and whoever 

 investigates the subject will be surprised to 

 find how nearly the thing still "grows of it- 

 self." A farmer who wishes to come to mar- 

 ket with a single car-load of cattle or sheep or 

 swine pays no more for transportation or yard- 

 age than a regular drover, and he has the 

 same rights and facilities for selling his own 

 stock that a drover has, excepting, perhaps, 

 experience in the business, and the same is 

 true of other kinds of produce. 



Question 5. Amount of license (if any) re- 

 quired of tarmers, and other municipal restriciions 

 or reqirements in respect to their sales. 



There is no market license required by the 

 city. The other part of the inquiry has been 

 answered already, as far as we are able to 

 do so. 



Some five years ago, while the question of 

 a free market was under consideration by the 

 city government, the following petition was 

 signed by Jeremiah Russell, of West Cam- 

 bridge, who had then been in the business 

 thirty- 1. ar years, and by fifty-one others, and 

 presented to the committee to whom the sub- 

 ject had been referred : — 



To the Commiiiee on Free Markets: — 



Gentlemen:— We, the undersigned market men, 

 from the towns and farms in the vicinity of Bos- 

 ton, being in the farming and producing business, 

 and bringing our produce and that of our neigh- 



bors to Fanenil Hall Market for sale, would re- 

 spectfully represent to your Honorable Committee 

 that the privilege that we now have at the market 

 is all that we ask. We dispose of our produce just 

 as we please, from one cent's worth to the^wnole 

 load, as it suits our convenience aiid interests. We 

 have the privilege of standing wii'h our wagons at 

 the said market as long as ic is necessary far the 

 sale of our produce, and, if we prefer, we can re- 

 tail from house to house ^11 over the city. We,- 

 therefore, most respectlully request that the pres- 

 ent regulations of said market may remain as they 

 are at the present time, believing them to be all 

 that the producers need or ask tor. 



And the following by S. F. Woodbridge, 

 who had been in the business twenty years, 

 and by thirty-nine others : — 



To the Market Committee: — 



We, the undersigned beef and mutton butchers, 

 being in the business of buying and slaughtering 

 beef and mutton, and bringing the same to Fancuil 

 Hall Market for sale, wou'd respectlully represent 

 the present regulation of the market is all that we 

 ask for, and that any alteration in the present 

 system would not be of any benefit to either seller 

 or purchaser. We most respectfully request that 

 the present regulations may be continued. 



UNION" CATTLE MARKET. 



Cambridge Cattle Market is soon to be given up. 

 The division of the estates of the old proprietors, 

 Messrs. Porter and Meacham, together with the 

 demand for the land occupied by the yards for 

 building purposes, have made the abandonment of 

 this market necessary. Anticipating this event, 

 the managers of the Fitchburg railroad purchased 

 in Watertown, several years ago, some thirty acres 

 of land well located and admirably adapted to the 

 purposes of a cattle market. Having received 

 notice that the yards at Cambridge must be closed. 

 President W. B. Stearns of the Fitchburg Rail- 

 road, with some of the directors, visited some of 

 the principal cattle markets of the country to ex- 

 amine the plans and arrangements which have 

 been adopted for the convenience of buyer and 

 seller, and for the comfort of the beasts. The 

 proprietors of the present Boston cattle markets 

 have been slow to adopt the modern improve- 

 ments that have been enjoyed for some time at 

 Albany, Chicago and elsewhere, particularly in 

 regard to shelter of animals from storms. But in 

 the grounds at Watertown it is the object of those 

 who have the charge of the work, not only to 

 adopt the conveniences of the best markets, but to 

 make such improvements as experience here and 

 elsewhere have suggested. 



At the commencement of operations at the Union 

 Cattle Market, a stone culvert the whole length of 

 the ground was laid. Into this, pipes will dis- 

 charge the drainage of the yards, which are to be 

 constructed, not on the surface soil, but on gravel, 

 under much of which is a layer of broken stone. 

 Both stone and excellent gravel are found on the 

 grounds, and a large amount of grading is now 

 being done. 



We visited the location a few days since, but as 



