THE POSITION AT HOME 69 



More Markets Wanted. 



Writing on the subject of markets in its issue of March 30th, 

 1912, the Flower, Fruit and Vegetable Trades Journal said : — 



With the increased acreage under cultivation, the fruit industry 

 demands more and better markets in London and the provinces. 

 It is absurd that in London alone there should be so few wholesale 

 markets. Those existing are inadequate, shut in, and over- 

 crowded, the worst case being that of Covent Garden Market. 

 The time has come when there should be founded open markets 

 in the inner circle of the London suburbs. Markets in such places 

 would prove a great boon to suburban dealers and greengrocers, 

 and also to those growers who at present have to send their 

 vehicles right into the crowded heart of London. .... Many more 

 markets might well be established in the great industrial centres 

 in the north. 



Marketing Methods. 



Whether, too, there be any glut on the leading markets 

 or no, and whatever the market to which produce is con- 

 signed, there is the consideration that the individual grower 

 is, in any case, generally at the mercy of the commission 

 agent with whom he deals. 



Our marketing methods were subjected to very severe 

 criticism at a conference of fruit-growers in the Common- 

 wealth of Australia held at Hobart, Tasmania, in October, 

 191 1. One speaker, Mr. W. D. Peacock, whose firm, he said, 

 had exported in a year 196,000 cases of their own, apart 

 from consignments on commission, gave an account of his 

 experiences in England, saying, among other things : — 



The trouble in London was that there were so many people 

 receiving fruit, and so many putting it on the market at the same 

 time. There was no co-operation in any shape or form. With 

 regard to Covent Garden itself, it was a commercial disgrace. 

 There was really no system there, and it was an absolute impos- 

 sibility for any man to follow his fruit through there and know 

 exactly what he made. There was no system and many of the 

 brokers kept no books. ... All through he had not the slightest 

 doubt he was being got at, on Covent Garden, and he had no 

 doubt he was being got at now. 



In discussing marketing methods in general, and in point- 

 ing more especially to the want of an outlet of such a nature 



