Vol. LXXVIII. 
Published Weekly by The Rural Publishing Co., 
333 W. 30th St., New York. Price One Dollar a Year. 
NEW YORK, APRIL 19, 1919. 
Office at New Aork. N. Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879. Xo. 4530. 
A Roadside Market in New England 
Getting the Entire Consumer’s Dollar 
EG INNING IN PEACHES.—The following ac¬ 
count of selling fruit on a well-traveled State 
road might interest some of your readers and give 
them an idea of what may be done, even.if they live 
a considerable distance away from such a good road 
as ours. By co-opera¬ 
tive selling several 
small farmers might 
do what no one of 
them could afford to 
do alone. The follow¬ 
ing will give you some 
idea of what we have 
tried to do on a State 
road in South Sud¬ 
bury. Mass. In the 
Summer of 1915. 
peaches were ‘‘dirt 
cheap.” 29 cents or 
thereabouts, to the 
grower in Connecticut, 
and not more than 
twice that to 
Massachusett 
were nearer to the 
markets. Our first 
crop was coming along, 
on young trees, with 
the finest of fruit, good 
size and color. There 
was no prospect of 
getting a fair 
our white peaches the 
commission men 
wouldn't even consider 
handling; they were 
“too thin-skinned.” 
“clingstones,” too deli¬ 
cate to “stand up 
well”; all true enough, 
but as avo had 50 per 
cent white peaches 
soon to ripen we were 
up against it to find a 
market for them. We 
found our market (but 
no thanks to the com¬ 
mission men) and have 
held it ever since. To, 
the best of the writer’s 
memory, every pound 
of fruit since that first 
year has been retailed 
direct to the consumer, 
the best fruit in tresh 
form, the windfalls as 
jellies, marmalades or 
preserves. We can’t 
say “never again” to 
the middleman on 
fruit, b e c a u s e we 
never did, but it they e\'er come after any there 
will be “nothing doing” on a sale to them. We 
figure that on any surplus in the future the farmers’ 
exchanges that are now being formed can take care 
of us. 
FINDING A STAND.—It was the State road about 
a mile from the farm that saved the situation. Other 
farmers on nearby highways had already tried the 
scheme and made it work, so the end of August. 
1915. l took my car and looked up likely selling 
sites along the Boston to New York turnpike. As 
luck would have it, about the only piece of land with 
a “for sale” sign up was at the foot of a right of 
way from the farm to this main road. Here Avas 
an ideal setting for any kind of a stand, a curve in 
the road, at the t p of a slight rise that made it 
easy for cars to stop and'start; a fine group of lilac 
bushes near an old cellar hole, and three splendid 
elms out front along the road. The real estate 
dealer was phoned the same day. lie came to the 
lot and enough money Avas paid down then and 
there to bind the deal. Labor Day Ave started selling 
at three o’clock, and by supper time had disposed of 
$33 worth of peaches. It was encouraging. We 
sold something every day that Aveek. 
I HE ROADSIDE MART.—The cellar hole AA'as 
cleaned out. repaired and whitewashed, a rough 
stairway put down into it and a two-inch plank 
flooring over the whole made, with hatch and pad¬ 
lock attached to afford protection at night. A $30 
Avhite tent (12x15) completed protection against the 
weather. Rainy days the salesman stood in the tent 
dooi and A\ent out to meet a car only when it 
stopped. This cellar ‘was about 40 feet back from 
the load, so on fair days the fruit AA'as sold out at 
the roadside and any left at night Avas carried down 
cellar, put on shelves 
off the floor, and then 
taken out to the stand 
again the next morn¬ 
ing. The stand built 
was a table with sur¬ 
face sloping toward 
the road (the better to 
display the wares). It 
was solid, of tAA'o-inch 
chestnut, four feet 
wide, 12 feet long, 
with 0)/,-foot posts at 
each corner supporting 
a green and white can¬ 
vas roof over the whole 
(to shade the preserves 
and ripe fruits, and 
also give cover from 
rain). Table and posts 
were painted green, an 
attractive color to 
show off the fruit. This 
same stand has done 
us Avell these past four 
years of selling. Avitli 
the addition last year 
of wooden,, shutters 
that Avent on at night 
(locked) and saved 
moving the unsold 
fruit down cellar and 
back again. 
THE TEA HOUSE. 
—The tent sufficed the 
first two years, and it, 
or something not much 
more substantial, could 
have been made to an- 
SAver a Avliile longer, 
only AA-e felt that with 
several thousand young 
trees coming on we 
should have hard Avork 
disposing of the crop 
in the near future un¬ 
less Ave did something 
in the line of extenshe 
advertising at the 
start, so as to have 
the buyers there Avhen 
the larger crops came. 
The idea of a tea house 
occurred to us. and 
after looking about a 
bit, instead of building 
we bought and and moved onto the cellar hole an 
old house that Avas built around 1730. Today Ave 
ha\ e an attractive tea house, kitchen on the AA'est 
wing and preserving kitchen on the right, these 
parts being of new construction. The house origi¬ 
nally had four rooms doAvustairs, a central chimney 
feet AA'irh four fireplaces, one on the inside 
corner of each room. The chimney was torn down 
and built up again out of the old bricks, exactly as 
originally, the partitions between these four rooms 
Selling the Melon Crop at a Roadside Market. Fig. 170 
