Vegetable Growing for Market 69 



Gluts. But the market is sometimes glutted, and the increasing fre- 

 quency of the gluts forces upon one the question whether the process 

 of concentration has not gone far enough, and whether there are not 

 places in England where the supply is still not equal to the demand, or 

 where a more efficient supply would not stimulate a demand worth the 

 while of growers to cater for. In June, 1910, when good Paris Cos 

 Lettuces were being sold in London at 2d. the score, in Margate the 

 only Lettuces a careful investigation could discover in the retail shops 

 were leathery, bolting, Hardy Cos, and these were priced at 2d. each! 

 Similarly, the only Radishes one could see were aged, ill-washed speci- 

 mens, such as any market gardener worthy of the name would have 

 thrown to the rubbish shoot. If the related experiences of visitors is 

 to be relied upon, other watering-places fare no better in this matter 

 of a regular supply of fresh, well-grown vegetables. 



Here, then, it would seem is an opening in a field not already worked, 

 in which the man who is prepared for the thought, skill, and effort 

 necessary to maintain a constant supply of vegetables properly grown 

 and presentably put up should reap an adequate reward. But indeed this 

 question of the distribution of market-garden produce, which has been 

 growing in urgency for years, is fast becoming acute, as the sudden 

 emergence of market gardening into a fashionable occupation and the 

 development of the "small holdings" movement combine to put more 

 produce on to the market. 



Are the gluts caused by over-production? Is it not rather that a 

 faulty and outworn system of distribution fails to convey to the con- 

 sumer the full benefit of the lowness of price in the wholesale market, 

 which of itself would react on the demand and provide an alleviation 

 to the producer by giving him larger sales in return for lower prices? 

 There are tens of thousands of young people "living in" in the great and 

 small emporiums of London and the suburbs, not to mention the cities 

 of the provinces. Are their tables ever adequately supplied with vege- 

 tables, no matter how cheap on the market? Does the fact of Lettuce 

 at 2fZ. a score ever result in the bread and butter of their tea-table 

 being economized by the accompaniment of the crisp and cooling leaves 

 of the salad? There is room for a great movement to reorganize distri- 

 bution and stimulate demand; and if the increasing encouragement of 

 production is not to result in disaster it must be taken in hand at 

 once. 



Rent. The rent to be paid will depend upon the quality of the land 

 and its distance from market. The rich land of the old Fulham market 

 gardens, within 6 ml. of Covent Garden, was cheaper at 7 per acre 

 than is that to which some of the dispossessed growers have been driven 

 at a quarter that sum. Land which naturally contains many of the 

 constituents that make fertility can be taken at a higher rent than can 

 land in which they must be supplied by the cultivator. It is there- 

 fore impossible to lay down any general scale of rent; it will be found 



