68 Commercial Gardening 



a fairly regular load all the year round, and the distance is 12 ml. or 

 over, whether with good roads or bad, the motor, both as to cost and ease 

 of organization, will prove preferable to the horse. The following figures 

 of actual cost were given by Lieut.-Col. R. E. B. Crompton, C.B., in a paper 

 read before the Institute of Civil Engineers: 



COST OF CONVEYING MARKET-GARDEN PRODUCE TO MARKET BY STEAM 

 TRACTORS AND TRAILERS (September, 1906) 



Distance to first market 12ml. 



Average number of journeys to this market per week ... 12 



Distance to second market ... ... ... ... ... 5 ml. 



Average number of journeys to this market per week ... 4 



Sundry journeys to station 8 



Number of tractors employed 3 



Number of trailers employed ... ... ... ... ... 5 



Average load out ... ... ... ... ... ... 6 tons. 



return load, sometimes manure sometimes empties 3 



Total annual mileage of three tractors ... ... ... 16,640ml. 



Average annual mileage per tractor ... ... ... ... 5,546 



Per mile. 



d. 



6-058 

 1-730 

 0-432 

 1-103 

 0-432 

 3-456 

 0-811 

 0-605 

 0-757 



340 15-384 



Not only is convenient access to market important, but the character 

 of the market itself is a matter worth consideration. When one talks 

 of market, most people's minds turn towards London. It is said to be 

 easier to get Worthing Tomatoes in London than in Worthing, and 

 that the supplies for Brighton go up to London first. Let anyone go 

 over the flower-carpeted fields of the Scilly Isles in spring and ask what 

 is the goal of all the wealth of blossom, and London will have chief 

 place in the reply. Ask of the proprietors of the acres of Broccoli that 

 clothe the fertile slopes around Penzance, where they turn their anxious 

 thoughts in spring, and London will come first. Long lines of wagons 

 laden with market-garden produce may be seen every night wending 

 their way along every road leading to London, and in the early morning 

 the fruiterers and greengrocers will start out in their vans and carts 

 along the same roads, and often bring back some of the stuff almost 

 to the very place whence it started. It is truly amazing to contemplate 

 the quantity of produce disposed of every day in the metropolis. 



