AGRICULTURE 



in the Sandy and Biggleswade district elicited the fact that the principal holdings run from 50 to 

 300 acres, while a few reach 400 or 500. 



It is scarcely possible to mention any market-garden stuff which is not included in the list of 

 Bedfordshire produce. Formerly, one of the principal crops was that of onions. In fact, one of 

 the largest growers of this crop tells us that formerly the ' district held the monopoly of the onion 

 trade.' But the foreigner has intervened. Spanish, Egyptian, and Dutch onions now command 

 the market. As this branch of industry formerly caused a great demand for labour, at special 

 seasons of the year, the effect of the comparative cessation of the trade has been very seriously felt. 



Among the principal other market-garden crops are kidney beans, parsley, brussels sprouts, 

 cauliflowers, broccoli, cabbages, savoys, vegetable marrows, carrots, parsnips, turnips, Scotch kale, 

 lettuce, as well as leeks, cucumbers, asparagus, sea kale, radishes, red cabbage, spinach, rhubarb, &c. 

 Potatoes and green peas are largely grown by both market gardeners and the ordinary farmers. 



The produce is distributed very widely both north and south, Sandy supplying many northern 

 cities and districts, and Biggleswade sending a larger proportion to London and the south. The 

 amount of trade done may be judged of by the fact that Biggleswade sends away an average of 

 some fifty railway wagon loads a day. In the busy seasons the daily consignment is enormous ; 

 for example, Sandy has sent off 100 tons of market-garden produce in one night. Mr. Edwin Pratt 

 has taken much trouble to gather statistics, and he says in his Transition in Agriculture that the 

 average annual total of parsley alone sent to the one city of Glasgow is over 600 tons ; and as 

 many as 40 tons of carrots have been sent to Glasgow in a day, representing 57,600 bunches of 

 10 carrots each. Mr. Pratt has also compiled a table of vegetable traffic via the Midland Railway 

 alone, which shows that from the smaller stations (exclusive of Sandy and Biggleswade) in one year 

 5,413 tons of vegetables, besides 6,444 tons of old potatoes, were sent away. A very heavy and 

 often unmanageable crop is that of vegetable marrows, and in prolific seasons it becomes impossible 

 to market profitably a great part of the crop. In 1905, for example, large quantities of marrows 

 were allowed to rot on the ground. 



The economic eflfects of this industry are distinctly perceptible in the increased population of 

 such towns as Sandy and Biggleswade, and of a number of villages. In fact the market-gardening 

 villages are almost the only ones in the county which have not participated in the general decrease 

 of the rural population. Naturally, the market-gardening holdings give employ to much more 

 labour than does the ordinary modern farming. One cultivator estimates, for example, that 

 500 acres of market-garden land employs fifty more hands throughout the year than farming 

 would do, and states that a certain holding of 50 acres gives constant employment to fourteen 

 hands. 



With the increase of market-gardening has also taken place an increase in fruit-growing, on 

 what may be called an agricultural scale ; and even flower-growing on considerable areas has been 

 introduced into several places in the county. New orchards are in evidence in all directions, as 

 well as areas of small fruit, and a continuously-increasing amount of culture under glass. In 1905 

 the number of acres under small fruit was 424, and under orchard culture 1,099. ^^ *he case 

 of orchards where grass or any crop is grown under the trees, the area is also returned in those 

 tables respectively. The fruit-growing, doubtless, receives encouragement from the Duke of 

 Bedford's valuable Experimental Fruit Farm, which will be noticed under another part of this 

 article. 



Among the small fruits may be mentioned strawberries, large quantities of which are sent away 

 north and south in the season from the neighbourhood of Greenfield (between Flitwick and Flitton), 

 from Pavenham and from several other places. Walnuts deserve mention as a Bedfordshire produce, 

 fine trees abounding in all parts of the county, while there is at Kempton an old walnut plantation 

 which is said to have originally consisted of as many trees as there are days in the year. The flower 

 culture mentioned above is carried on principally in the neighbourhood of Biggleswade ; though 

 patches of field culture of flowers are to be found elsewhere, not to mention several extensive areas 

 held by nurserymen. 



The history of agriculture in Bedfordshire would not be complete without a notice of the 

 various local voluntary and state-aided institutions which have been carried on for the purpose of 

 improving the processes, and spreading a knowledge of the principles, of agriculture. 



The Bedfordshire Agricultural Society was founded in 1801 by Francis, the fifth Duke of 

 Bedford, ' to whom,' says Mr. J. Foster, writing about the event, ' we justly look up as the author 

 and patron of all our rural improvements.' The society holds a show every year, at which prizes 

 are awarded for all kinds of stock, and for dairy and poultry produce. Among the prizes offered 

 during the early years of the society's existence were four each year to the Bedfordshire ' farmers 

 who shall produce a plough and team which shall plough half an acre of land in the best and 

 cheapest manner (not less than five inches deep), within the space of three hours and a half.' 

 Premiums were given to Bedfordshire labourers in husbandry who had brought up the greatest 



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