6 Hints on Vegetable and Fruit Farming. 



have equal facilities of transporting vegetables to the markets, 

 and of getting manure from the London stables and cow-sheds 

 by rail. Market-gardeners undoubtedly have made large profits, 

 and naturally object to their reduction. The amount of capital 

 they require per acre necessitates large returns, but it is main- 

 tained that farmers can produce vegetables without much ad- 

 ditional capital, at a profit that will completely satisfy them. 

 Then it is said that sometimes there are gluts of vegetables, and 

 that greenstuff is wasted or sold at unremunerative prices. As it 

 is mainly in the articles of cabbages and greens that gluts occur, 

 and it must be said that these are not of frequent occurrence, 

 farmers would be able to feed their sheep with them, and thus 

 have an advantage over market-gardeners. But gluts are chiefly 

 caused by the growers crowding all their produce into two 

 or three markets in London even from long distances, and 

 generally from the want of adequate means of distribution ; for 

 it is certain that only a comparatively small radius around the 

 London markets feels the full effect of an excessive supply of 

 vegetables. The same holds with regard to large towns, such as 

 Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, to which market growers 

 from far and near send all their vegetables without any reference 

 to the demand. The area of the distribution of a market is 

 necessarily limited. Multiplication of markets implies large 

 outlays of money and additional cost ultimately to the consumers 

 for tolls. Markets also necessitate middlemen, whose large 

 charges above the cost price of the articles are also paid by 

 the consumers. In order to get the actual market value of their 

 commodities and to give the same benefit to consumers, pro- 

 ducers must combine to form Supply Associations in various 

 parts of large towns, or make arrangements and contracts with 

 retailers to send them certain vegetables. This applies to fruit 

 equally as to vegetables and to most other products of the farm. 

 The large and increasing importation of foreign vegetables is 

 used by some as an argument against more vegetables being 

 raised in England ; but cabbages and greens of all kinds are 

 not imported to any extent, being too bulky, and the season for 

 imported cauliflowers and other vegetables practically is over 

 before the English season has begun. The season of imported 

 fruits likewise is for the most part over before those grown in 

 this country are ripe. It is thought that a large trade might be 

 established with France, Holland, and Belgium in fruit grown 

 in England, coming as it does when the season of the common 

 fruits of the Continent has passed. There also is a wide field 

 for energy in the adoption of systems like those of the market- 

 gardeners at Vaugirard and other places near Paris, of growing 

 early vegetables under bell-glasses, and frames and lights. 



