OPEN TYPES OF PUBLIC MARKETS. 5 



tection of open markets, but for the most part curb markets are 

 unprotected and sheds are constructed only in markets situated on 

 special market tracts. 



The essential feature of a retail market is, of course, the restriction 

 of purchases to consumers as distinguished from dealers. Such a 

 market, if it is a " producers' market," furnishes an opportunity for 

 direct dealing between producers and consumers. Open retail mar- 

 kets may also admit hucksters or wagon and push-cart peddlers as 

 salesmen. Such dealers are usually admitted under certain restric- 

 tions. 



In a few large cities along certain street curbs open retail markets 

 exist in which the salesmen are entirely nonproducers. For the most 

 part, however, open retail markets are producers' markets or pre- 

 dominantly so. 



Open wholesale markets, like the retail markets, may be situated 

 along curbs, in the center of broad streets, or on special market 

 property. Such markets exist for the convenience of producers of 

 large quantities of farm produce who desire to sell in large quanti- 

 ties, and for the convenience of grocers, hucksters, hotels, restaurants, 

 and other purchasers who desire to buy in large quantities. Whole- 

 sale markets, like the retail markets, may be unprotected or may be 

 equipped with structures designed to facilitate trading. 



While in many communities wholesale and retail public markets 

 are maintained as separate institutions, in other communities com- 

 bined wholesale and retail markets are operated. In some combina- 

 tion markets the two methods of trading proceed simultaneously, but 

 in general it is considered the better practice to confine them to 

 separate periods. In small communities where there is a danger 

 that the small supplies available will be exhausted by wholesale pur- 

 chasers, it sometimes becomes necessary, if the retail market is to be 

 preserved, to have the earlier period devoted to retail trading. In 

 larger cities, however, where neighboring production is more fully 

 developed and where there is a more definite classification of large- 

 scale and small-scale producers, the more normal arrangement is fol- 

 lowed of setting aside the early morning hours for wholesale trading 

 and the later morning hours for retail dealing. 



OWNERSHIP AND CONTROL. 



Open public markets may be further divided into subtypes on the 

 basis of ownership and control. Open public markets of the several 

 kinds already mentioned may thus be owned or controlled by munici- 

 palities, organizations or associations of producers, or commercial 

 corporations. 



The great majority of the open public markets in the United 

 States are municipally owned. This would seem to indicate that 



