53 



AGRICULTURAL ORGANISATION 



owing to the absence of information concerning small plots 

 of land of less than one acre, not included in the recognised 

 " farming area " of the country. The number of such plots 

 was given in the Allotments Return, published in 1895, as 

 579,133. Whatever the present number, it is certain that 

 the vegetables grown on them, for sale as well as for con- 

 sumption by the occupiers and their families, would, in the 

 aggregate, greatly increase the official " output ' figures. 

 Taking, however, the figures as recorded for the year 1908 

 we get the following items : — 



The values of a large number of other crops include — 

 Mustard, £107,000 ; asparagus, £42,000 ; parsnips, £36,000 ; 

 lettuce, £34,500 ; sea kale, £32,000, and beetroot, £26,000. 

 Considerable areas are devoted to the growth of crops for 

 seeds. The gross value, for instance, of 5,400 tons of clover, 

 mangold, turnip, swede, vetches and trefoil seed produced 

 on 13,700 acres in 1908 was £132,000. There is, again, a 

 large number of crops not of sufficient individual importance 

 for separate tabulation. Still another series consists of 

 crops indefinitely described as flowers, grass, green crops, 

 salad crops, root crops, herbs, bulbs, etc. The amount of 

 land devoted to these two groups of crops in 1908 was 

 30,000 acres, and the gross value of the produce from them 

 was estimated at £352,000. 



Flowers. 



The cultivation of flowers for sale on the market has like- 

 wise undergone considerable expansion of late years. " In 

 many parts of England," says the Board of Agriculture 



