VARIOUS DISTRICTS 109 



the Midland Company's system in the same district. 

 In this way a still better idea will be gained of the 

 total produce of the district as a whole. It is also 

 especially interesting to see how various of the smaller 

 country stations, which the ' through ' passenger 

 would scarcely deign to notice, or, noticing, would 

 regard as very insignificant places, may nevertheless 

 be centres of agricultural activity, bringing, one may 

 hope, a fair return to the local residents engaged 

 therein. 



Martock (Somerset), which has a population of under 

 2,000, is still another centre of market - gardening 

 enterprise, combined with a certain amount of fruit- 

 growing. The quantities sent away from the district 

 in an average season may be put at 1,500 tons of 

 apples, 3,000 tons of parsnips and carrots, 100 tons of 

 cabbages, 200 tons of turnips and swedes, 50 tons of 

 peas, 15 tons of onions, and 250 tons of potatoes 

 practically the whole being for human consumption. 

 Some of these crops are of a speculative character 

 that is to say, they are grown on the chance that frost 

 in the Midlands and the North may curtail the sup- 

 plies there, and lead to an increased demand, with 

 good prices, for the Somerset produce. Should that 

 eventually come off, the Martock growers do well. 

 Otherwise they have to accept the situation, and use 

 up the crops in question locally for feeding live stock, 

 or in other ways. 



Taking the district comprised within Suffolk, Cam- 

 bridgeshire, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, and those portions 

 of Essex that are beyond convenient cartage distance, 

 the quantities of market-garden produce cabbages, 

 broccoli, onions, radishes, etc. brought to London on 

 the Great Eastern Railway averages 26,000 tons a 

 year. This, of course, is exclusive of the very con- 



