CHAPTER VIII 



PRODUCTION UNDER GLASS 



A RESORT to the growing of fruit, flowers, and early 

 vegetables under glass is one of the chief measures of 

 defence adopted by the British cultivator in meeting 

 foreign competition. It enables him (as stated by the 

 Lincolnshire grower referred to in the last chapter) to 

 overcome somewhat the disadvantages of his climate, 

 and place himself more on a level of equality with 

 producers in lands which have earlier seasons or more 

 genial skies, so that he himself can start sooner, or keep 

 on longer, and have opportunities which he could not 

 possibly hope for if he depended entirely on what he 

 could grow in the open. 



So well has this position been understood that the 

 advance made in production under glass during the last 

 quarter of a century, and especially during the last 

 decade, has not been surpassed by the progress in any 

 other branch of industry connected with the land, and 

 already there is an outcry in various quarters of over- 

 production. Whether or not the fault, if any, lies less 

 in over-production than in want of better distribution is 

 a matter on which opinions might differ ; but the fact 

 remains that at present there is no evidence of a check 

 being given to the continued growth of a very big 

 business, thanks to which, combined with the changed 



