WORTHING 91 



feet wide. The total superficial area of the glass 

 used in roof construction for all the houses in the 

 borough is over 3,500,000 feet. The total length of 

 the piping used for heating purposes would exceed 136 

 miles. Some of the growers have artesian wells in their 

 own grounds, and small windmills or steam-engines to 

 pump the water they want in their business ; but the 

 majority are supplied by the Worthing Corporation (at 

 a sliding charge which varies from 6d. to is. per 1,000 

 gallons), and the quantity annually registered by the 

 water-meters thus used is 18,000,000 gallons. The 

 local authorities estimate the aggregate cost of erecting 

 the glass-houses (including sites), at 165,000, and they 

 put the gross estimated annual rental value at 13,727, 

 and the rateable value at 8,259. 



The number of master growers in Worthing is eighty- 

 two. Numerically speaking, most of these are ' small ' 

 men, of whom a considerable proportion were once 

 labourers, or little better, and have * worked their way 

 up,' more or less. The ' large ' growers do not exceed 

 a dozen, but of these one alone occupies an eighth of all 

 the glass in the borough. The question whether the 

 small or the large growers have the better chance at 

 Worthing, under the present conditions of low prices, is 

 one upon which opinions differ. The large men have 

 the advantage of capital and good business connections, 

 but a hard-working small man, with a few hundred 

 pounds and two or three sons as industrious as himself, 

 will often obtain better proportionate results, because he 

 and his family helpers will work for longer hours, and 

 do more in those hours than the large grower can hope 

 for from his hired workers. So the all-important item 

 of the cost of production is relatively less in the one 

 case than in the other. 



As confirming this view which I gained on the spot 



