A Truly Co-operative Roadside Market 
A n INCREASING INDUSTRY,—Anyone who has 
traveled by auto during the past Summer must 
have been impressed by the large number of road¬ 
side markets. Some of these stands have a crude 
appearance and are in no way attractive, while 
others are so arranged that you can hardly pass by 
without stopping to strike a bargain. There is one 
market that I have passed at least half a dozen 
times during the past season that has always made 
a particular appeal to me. The owner evidently had 
some sense of salesmanship, because his market 
always looked attractive, even when others were 
beginning to wane. Determined to find out more 
about this particular market. I stopped a few days 
ago to get as much first hand information as I could 
from the owners. Mr. and Mrs. Hall. I have in¬ 
cluded Mrs. Hall with as much emphasis as Mr. 
Ilall for reasons which the reader will see later. The 
facts in this case cannot be complete, as Mr. Hall 
related them so rapidly and so enthusiastically that 
my pencil could operate only fast enough to touch 
the high points. 
A SPECIAL INSTANCE.—When I arrived at the 
a businesslike manner he produced a very attractive 
card, at the top of which was the caption, “Tourist 
Inn, Phone 4.1 Y 1M." Underneath this was printed, 
“Lodging—Meals if Desired. W. S. Hall. Stanley. 
N. Y.” At the bottom of the card was a parting shot 
to the customer in case he might forget where he 
bought some of the products: “On the main road 
from Buffalo to Albany, six miles west of Geneva. 
10 miles east of Canandaigua." As soon as I had 
read this and noticed my surroundings I realized 
that I was visiting no common roadside market. 
The geniality of the owner gave me courage to ask 
a few questions. As I was interrogating him I 
found myself being piloted toward the house and 
into the cellar where some of the reserve supplies 
were kept. It will be noticed that in listing the 
things that were for sale I included dill pickles at. 
the head of the list. This was intentional, because 
the dill pickles are one of the big items of sale and 
one that the market is famous for. As I passed into 
the cellar I noticed cask after cask of dill pickles 
in brine and some of the dill plant still piled on the 
casks. I did not go any farther for a time, but 
did not have to have some help for all this work 
his eyes twinkled and he remarked: “She ropes 
me in sometimes." I found later that Mr. Hall did 
Help considerably in getting the products together 
in the house and she in turn helped with the road¬ 
side market. We just pause here to add this for 
emphasis. Here is but an example of the way they 
work together: One night a few years ago. before 
they had the roadside market, they were marketing 
their strawberries at Auburn. On one particular 
day the market was flooded and they were unable 
to dispose of the entire If* crates of strawberries 
■which they had on their load. They were compelled 
tc take eight crates of berries home. They were 
not discouraged by their experience, for as soon as 
they got home they set about finding some means 
of caring for the berries before they could spoil. 
"Before we finished our job that night.” Mr. Hall 
stated, "we had made .‘>00 cans of jam.” These were 
sold on the roadside market later. 
WHERE THE GOODS COME FROM.—Having 
noticed that the market is always well supplied. I 
asked Mr. Hall if the products were all from their 
The Roadside Market All Ready for Business. Fig. 501 
farm Mr. and Mrs. Hall were just getting the dis¬ 
play out for the day, and when 1 told them I would 
like to photograph it they hustled around, and while 
I did not have to wait long. I thought as 1 waited 
that there was hardly any farm or home product 
that Could be found in that section that was not 
included in the array which they brought out. I 
attempted to list the things as they brought them 
out, and here is a list that will surprise you. 
at least it did me: Dill pickles, marmalade of 
various kinds, strained honey, jam. canned penis 
pickled cucumbers, tomato catsup, peach marmalade, 
mixed pickles grapes, Hubbard squash, beets. Sum¬ 
mer squash, Lima beans, tomatoes, onions, cauli¬ 
flower, pie pumpkins, cabbage and a showcase for 
the linked goods, sweet elder, buttermilk. In tie' 
background I noticed that there was a blackboard, 
and on it the sale Of dressed Belgian hares was 
called to your attention. Thinking that this prob¬ 
ably was an old sign. I asked Mr. Hall about it. and 
he quickly replied that they had sold a large number 
during the past week. "Oh. yes,” he said, "we have 
SO on hand now.” 
I low IT STARTED.—When I started to converse 
with Mr. Hull I asked wliat his name was, and in 
halted Mr. Hall and asked him how he came to start 
all this. “Well.” he replied, "I can answer that best 
by telling a story. I have a neighbor who is a 
Swedish follow, and four years ago. while at his 
farm. I saw some dill growing, and he asked me if 
I did not want some of it to make myself some dill 
pickles. I accepted some, and as a result we put 
down a crock for our own use. This idea seemed 
to grow, and the second year 1 put down 119 gal¬ 
lons, the third year 44r> gallons, and we have now on 
hand 1,100 gallons of dill pickles." 
As he finished liis story lie took me over to an 
open barrel where the pickles were still in the brine, 
and there he showed me how he had packed them 
by using first a layer of grape leaves and dill and 
then a layer of pickles and another layer of grape 
and dill, and so on. 
GARDEN. BAKERY AND CANNED GOODS,— 
As for the garden truck. Mr. Hall stated that he 
had always been interested in the garden and took 
great pride in the products which he raised. With 
these vegetables and the fruit from the nearby or¬ 
chard the roadside market was begun. Mrs. Hall 
contributed her part by adding the baked goods and 
canned goods. When i asked Mr. iiall if Mrs, Hall 
own farm. He replied that most of them were, but 
that some, like peaches, were sold for the neighbors 
on a commission basis. Mr. Hall stated that they 
sold this past season between 200 and ”>00 bushels 
of peaches for neighbors. Their commission was 10 
cents a bushel. Some of the peaches were from 
farms five miles from the State road. There was 
one other interesting fact about the commission 
business which is carried on here, and that was with 
regard to pears. The local farmers’ co-operative 
packing house shipped a large number of pears. In 
packing them they found some pears that were too 
ripe to be included safely in the pack. Mr. Hall 
sold all of these at the roadside market on a com¬ 
mission basis. This enabled him to round our his 
display and at the same time the packing house was 
able to dispose of a product that would otherwise 
have been wasted. Honey was also sold on the com¬ 
mission basis. The commission business should not 
he misconstrued, because in conducting it I was im¬ 
pressed with the spirit of helpfulness which Mr. 
Hall had for those who were not so well located as 
he. In my visit to the cellar I neglected to mention 
the large amount of berry juice which* was being 
stored for making Summer drinks, A large number 
