8 Commercial Gardening 



will not escape. Enough has perhaps been said to incite the intending 

 fruit grower or market gardener to drive as hard a bargain as he can on 

 the question of rent. 



In the matter of income tax the market gardener, whether fruit grower 

 or not, will find another case in which he is singled out from other agri- 

 culturists for specially unfavourable treatment. Under recent Finance 

 Acts the maximum assessment for a farmer is fixed at one-third the annual 

 value of the lands in his occupation; if, however, he makes less than this 

 he can claim to be assessed under Schedule D and show accounts. He 

 therefore enjoys an exceptionally favoured position. Not so the poor 

 market gardener, whether fruit grower or not. He is assessed under 

 Schedule D on the lines of Schedule B, that is, he is assessed upon an 

 assumed profit per acre, and it is astonishing how high the ideas of the 

 assessors are. 



In order to save himself from being fleeced by these gentlemen, every 

 market gardener must keep full and accurate accounts of his business. As 

 between the market gardener and the farmer the provision is exceedingly 

 unfair. If one-third the annual value of the lands in occupation is a fair 

 average of the income derived by a farmer from the land he occupies, it 

 is equally fair for the market gardener, whose rent will oftentimes be four 

 or five times that of the farmer. 



But the distinction between market gardener and farmer is becoming 

 more and more difficult to maintain, for every year farmers are making 

 more and more inroads into what were once market gardeners' crops, and 

 by the competition induced on the markets shaving more and more 

 valuable corners off the market gardeners' profit. No market gardener 

 wishes to see any additional burden put on his brother agriculturist who 

 farms, but he does think the time is past when he should be singled out for 

 special milking by the tax gatherer. 



4. THE CONDITIONS OF THE HOLDING 



It goes without saying that the best condition of all is to secure the 

 freehold of the land; then all those influences resulting from a cultivator's 

 energy, which go to improve the value of the holding, will work for his 

 and not for another's benefit; but, as already remarked, it may be taken 

 for granted that few will find it in their power to secure the freehold of 

 sufficient land of the quality and in the position desirable for market 

 gardening. The negotiations for a contract of tenancy must be conducted 

 with great care, and it will be wise to secure professional advice. The 

 market gardener will soon find, if he ever expected it, that he cannot 

 obtain the conditions that please him best. He will be a lucky man if, 

 when the agreement is signed, it is not a much more valuable instrument 

 to the landowner for the protection of his real or supposed interests than 

 for the tenant, who probably has had to pay all the cost of it. 



