THE president's ADDRESS. 



255 



last year upwards of £6000 worth of seed potatoes was imported 

 to this locality from Lincolnshire alone. Until very recently the 

 Penzance gardeners had their seed potatoes generally from Som- 

 ersetshire. It is to be remarked that at the present time nearly 

 all the early potatoes are sent from Penzance to the northern 

 markets (instead of to London), and this year a very large por- 

 tion of the brocoli went in the same direction : and it is possible 

 that in future nearly the whole of the brocoli will go northward 

 with the potatoes, as the London market is now abundantly sup- 

 plied from the Channel Islands, and from Cherbourg.* I sub- 

 join the following statemant of the acreage under cultivation, 

 and the crops grown in the Penzance district, which I hope may 

 be interesting.! 



A new stimulus to production has been given to Cornish agri- 

 culturists by the great demand for dead meat and butter for the 

 London market. The quantity of dead meat and butter, and 

 other produce which is now sent from Cornwall and the western 

 counties, to the London market, is very great. 



In the present state of competition between the western rail- 

 ways it is not easy to obtain, nor would it, perhaps, be fair to 

 publish, exact statistics on this subject. Some time since, when 

 an accident occurred on the Cornish Railway which created a 

 stoppage for several hours, it was said at the time that several 

 hundred tons of dead meat, which were on their way to London, 

 were accumulated at the place where the stoppage occurred. 

 The quantity of meat exported from one small station, by only 

 3 or 4 butchers, amounted, in 1875, to nearly 300 tons. 



* I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. John Thomas, of Gulval, for this in- 

 formation. 



