BIG CONSIGNMENTS 107 



pennyworths the quantity grown at Sandy is such 

 that 16 tons have been sent to Glasgow from Sandy 

 during a single week. The average annual total of 

 parsley forwarded to that city alone (apart from liberal 

 supplies for Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Leeds, 

 Halifax, Bradford, Newcastle, etc.) is over 600 tons. 

 Glasgow would seem to be still more partial to bunched 

 carrots than she is to parsley,* for of these she took 

 from Sandy in the month of July, 1905, no fewer than 

 261 tons, a quantity increased to 341 tons in the follow- 

 ing month. As many as 40 tons of bunched carrots 

 have been sent from Sandy to Glasgow in a single day ; 

 but, to show the amount of labour which such traffic as 

 this may involve, I may mention that this total weight 

 represented 57,600 bunches (of ten carrots each), and 

 that every bunch had to be counted as it was thrown 

 into the waggons. From Sandy to Glasgow the vege- 

 tables go express in a goods train originally started 

 from London. The number of growers at Sandy is 

 about 140, but only a dozen or so of these come under 

 the definition of ' large/ and a considerable proportion 

 would be individuals holding 2 or 3 acres each. 



I am glad to be able to supplement the facts already 

 mentioned as to the traffic from Biggleswade and 



* In regard to parsley production in Scotland, Mr. Gillies says, 

 further, in the letter he has been good enough to send me : ' This 

 year (1905) I grew fully 30 acres of parsley. Of course, the 

 output varies very much with the seasons, and the sale likewise 

 varies according to the time of year. Some seasons the plague of 

 plenty is very severe. In such seasons I have turned out from 

 10 to 15 tons in one week, but the price on such occasions does 

 little more than repay the cost of pulling the crop and placing 

 it on the market. Of course, it would not do if the crop was always 

 so abundant, and the price so low. My system of growing parsley 

 is quite different from that of the Biggleswade district men. I 

 should not like to grow parsley unless I could lift double the ton- 

 nage per acre which the Biggleswade men appear to do. - On the 

 other hand, the Biggleswade growers, owing to climatic conditions, 

 can at times command a high figure per ton for their crops.' 



