88 UPWEY, DORSET 



being a butcher, one a coal-merchant, and one a milk- 

 seller, etc. The market-gardeners all keep a pony 

 or donkey, and take their produce into Weymouth 

 market. 



A certain number of them grow a large amount 

 of strawberries, and make a good thing out of them 

 by giving ' strawberry teas ' to a very great number 

 of visitors who come down for this purpose out of 

 Weymouth. There seemed to be a growing opinion 

 that fruit paid better than vegetables. That market- 

 gardening is a profitable industry might be surmised 

 from the high prices which were given alike by 

 those who bought their freeholds and by those who 

 rent their holdings ; and this in spite of the fact 

 that the prices did not seem to have been artificially 

 raised by the usual competition of neighbouring 

 landowners wishing to add to their estates, or of 

 people desirous of acquiring land for other than 

 economic purposes. 



Price of Land and Rental. 



The average rental for small plots of land about 

 the village seems to be about 5 an acre, and the 

 selling price runs as high as 250 an acre. I was 

 told that one market-gardener with 2 acres of land 

 and a very small house pays a rent of 60. 



Acquisition of Holdings. 



The greater number of the holdings seemed to 

 date from 1867, when an estate came into the market, 

 175 acres of which, situated about the village, was 



