go PRODUCTION UNDER GLASS 



the open. Most of these consignments come to London. 

 Ashwellthorpe, a Norfolk village with a population of 

 just over 700, consigns in a year, to towns in the North 

 and the Midlands, 13 tons of tomatoes and cucumbers, 

 supplemented by smaller lots of fruit and cut flowers. 



The general progress of the industry is well indi- 

 cated by the following extract from the ' Fruit-Growers' 

 Year-Book ' for 1905 : 



At the present time there are some 1,500 acres in England 

 covered over with glass, which, if stretched in one straight line, 

 would form a glass hot-house a good deal longer than the length of 

 England, and about 10 feet in width. Fifty years ago the acreage 

 covered by glass-houses did not exceed much more than a couple 

 of hundred. From the 1,500 acres of glass-houses are produced 

 annually about 6,000 tons of tomatoes, 2,000 tons of peaches, and 

 1,500 tons of grapes. 



The borough of Worthing offers the best opportunities 

 for a study of large-scale cultivation under glass, as 

 carried on in a particular district ; for there not only are 

 definite figures available in respect to the houses, but 

 the fact that all the produce is consigned by rail to the 

 London or other markets allows of a better idea being 

 formed of the actual proportions of the output than is 

 the case with those districts nearer London from which 

 so much would be sent to market by road. 



Climatic conditions along the Sussex coast are 

 specially favourable to fruit, vegetable, and flower cul- 

 ture under glass, and since the pioneer effort in this 

 direction at Worthing a quarter of a century ago the 

 enterprise has stretched out in each direction, until it 

 now embraces a coast-line some ten miles in extent. 

 But Worthing remains the capital of the Sussex glass 

 industry. The number of glass-houses within the 

 limits of that borough is now 1,220. Placed end to 

 end these houses would give a total length of over 

 miles. The largest is 861 feet long and 20 



