126 SPECIAL VEGETABLE CROPS 



Quadring Siding, which will be sought for in vain in 

 the railway time-tables. It is literally a siding con- 

 structed in the special interests of the local growers; 

 yet from that one spot an average of 10 waggon-loads 

 of celery, representing a total of about 40 tons, will be 

 despatched every working day in the week for a period 

 of at least two months. A ton of celery represents 

 100 bundles of 12 heads each, so that 1,200 heads of 

 celery will go to the ton, and 40 tons will comprise 

 48,000 heads. An acre of celery produces from 15,000 

 to 20,000 heads. 



But Quadring Siding is merely one point of despatch 

 in a celery-growing district which extends from Boston 

 to Surfleet (ten miles) in one direction, and to Swines- 

 head (six miles) in another, one-half of the area com- 

 prised within these distances being devoted to celery. 

 The growers around Surfleet (population, 941) will 

 also send off their 40 tons of celery a day. Haxey 

 does even better than Quadring Siding or Surfleet, for 

 there, taking the season through that is to say, from 

 the middle of September to the end of February the 

 average consignments of celery for the district will be 

 equal to 20 trucks, or about 80 tons, a day. This is 

 exclusive of large quantities of potatoes, carrots, beet- 

 root, cauliflowers, turnips, mangolds, etc. 



Another important centre for celery production is 

 the Ramsey and St. Mary's district in Huntingdon- 

 shire. At Ramsey (population, 4,823) there are about 

 400 acres planted with celery ; an average of 5 waggon- 

 loads, or 20 tons per day would be despatched during 

 the season, and the total output for the season is over 

 3,000 tons. The acreage at St. Mary's may be put at 

 about no, and there also the average daily loading during 

 the season would be 5 trucks (20 tons), with 10 trucks 

 in a day as a maximum, and the consignments for the 



