96 PRODUCTION UNDER GLASS 



Sussex fruit-growers obtain in return for the rates they 

 pay. There is no combination among the fruit-growers 

 of Worthing and the neighbourhood, each of whom 

 consigns independently to the salesman he favours. 

 Although, therefore, the total weight of the produce 

 carried per train is considerable, the large number of 

 separate consignments, sent by different consigners to 

 thirty or forty individual consignees, involves much 

 handling and much clerical work, while the nature 

 both of the commodity and of the services rendered is 

 held to justify the scale of railway rates charged. 

 These rates certainly constitute a grievance with some 

 of the Worthing growers, who argue that, when market 

 prices fall (partly because of either excessive production 

 or defective marketing, but mainly because of heavy 

 foreign imports), the railway companies should reduce 

 their charges proportionately, without regard, as it 

 would seem, to the question whether or not they would 

 still get a reasonable return from the traffic carried on 

 under the exceptional conditions here indicated. 



A more legitimate grievance is the burden of local 

 rates, the average assessment for which on glass-houses 

 in the borough of Worthing works out at 117 per acre. 

 Mr. Sams was especially forcible on this point in the 

 evidence he gave before the Departmental Committee- 

 ' Every pound of fruit,' he said, * that I send into 

 market is weighted with a certain amount of rates and 

 taxes. Every pound I send to London bears a propor- 

 tion of rates and taxes. Of course, it is infinitesimal 

 on a pound, but there it is, and the foreigner sends his 

 produce here without any of those burdens.' 



Fruit and vegetable production under glass is generally 

 supplemented at Worthing, as elsewhere, by the cultiva- 

 tion of chrysanthemums, which are first grown in the 

 open, and brought into the glass-houses when the grapes 



