48 The Profitable Culture of Vegetables. 



can do upon the land and unless he is blessed with children 

 who are old enough to render him efficient assistance, or has 

 some other source of help within his family circle, he will 

 have to engage paid labour. This all tends either to decrease 

 the output or to increase the cost of production. As a recom- 

 pense this outlet for the produce is free of the ruinously low 

 returns which too frequently come from a glutted market, and 

 the grower is usually able to obtain prices which are fairly 

 steady and remunerative. 



The particular branch which will be adopted by the small- 

 holder may be decided by circumstances over which he has 

 little or no control. In many cases he is obliged either 

 to take whatever land is offered him by the authorities of 

 his district, or other bodies or persons who have the disposal 

 of land for this purpose, or go without a holding. Although 

 such land may not exactly conform to his ideal either as 

 regards quality or situation, it may yet be good in many 

 respects and capable of being worked to profit along some 

 lines, although not those desired. If a holding is taken under 

 such circumstances and it is situated in a locality where 

 market gardening is already carried on it would be wise to be 

 guided by the practice of the neighbourhood, at any rate until 

 experience is gained and personal initiative is safe. 



It is obviously impossible to indicate any particular branch 

 of the market gardening business which would be the most 

 suitable in all circumstances, but it is certain that isolated 

 individuals on holdings at a distance from markets will find it 

 almost impossible to compete successfully with growers who 

 work large areas with every advantage in the way of labour- 

 saving appliances. That being so, it would appear that in the 

 majority of cases, at least until the number of small local 

 markets is greatly increased (and such a development is ex- 

 tremely desirable) the most promising methods by which to 

 dispose of produce are either co-operation or direct supply. 

 Co-operative distribution appears, theoretically, to make it 

 possible for small-holders to secure some of the advantages 

 arising from an aggregation of capital, but such schemes are 

 still, more or less, in the experimental stage and are not suffi- 

 ciently numerous at present to be of any assistance to the 



