311 
early and so largely from Holland, and are usually so plentiful ae 
cheap, that many market- ardeners in Great Britain have ceased t 
w them. Radis i 
Channel Islands, completely RN English produce. Very large 
importations are made from Holland of beetroot and red cabbage for 
pickling, which, until recently, were s iet tty cultivated in England. 
But it is in the ease of onions that there has latterly been the most 
extraordinary increase in importation. Onions were regarded as an 
almost safe-paying crop if the weather were favourable, but in the last 
two years prices have been so forced down by foreign oopeution, that 
in many years, especially in 1894, the growers have los 
some instances was imposs sible to dispose of bates in the last 
on, 
In 1875, 1,695, E bushels of onions, valued at 321,3162., were 
imported into Great Britain, mainly from Holland, Belgium, France, 
and Portugal—Holland being by far the largest exporting country, Th 
amount of this importation in 1884 was 3,474,746 bushels, valued at 
481 ,4271., from Germany, Holland d (which sent 1,481. 543 bushels), 
Belgium, France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Egypt. In 1894 no less 
than 5,288,512 bushels of onions, of the value of 765,040/., came from 
abroad. 
is noteworthy that the imports of onions mud Holland have 
considerably deereased since 1885, but those from Germany, France, and 
Spain have much increased. ‘The Mee of onions pmi Egypt have 
more Bas quadrupled in the past de 
s, again, were formerly petit sources of profit to British 
ers and 
OS . Early and quick- -goni ng varieties were put in and 
dug d to supply the demand for pots and other crops were 
got in taken off during t the autum er dern of very early 
"interfere much with English growers of po tatoes, and threaten - 
interfere with potato-growers in the Channel Islands, whose potatoe 
are not ready in any quantity until the first week in May. ‘The arrivals of 
new potatoes commence about Christmas time, and ara in increasing 
quantities until the Channel Islands season begins. The average impor- 
tation of potatoes for the first six months of the i three years from 
Franee, Lisbon, Canary Islands, Malta, the Channel prece and ther 
pouttties was 1,764,258 ewts., of an average value of 710. 
The importation of potatoes from the Channel Islands insi in May 
and odatini until August. The average ce of potatoes im mported 
from this source for the four aea June, July, Au —of the 
last three years was 1,171,216 cwts., of an irene value of 521, 1417. for 
each of the three periods, 
The average annual importation of potatoes of the last three years from 
parts of the world x itm country amounted to 2,846,754 ewts., of an 
average value of 962,45 
‘The volume of aa potatoes has, however, decreased considerably 
during the past quarter of a century, and the character of the trade has 
changed in a great and significant degree. For the three years ending 
1875, the average annual importation of potatoes was 5,363,136 ewts. 
For the three years ending 1885, the annual average importation was 
3,297,867 cwt. Since 1880, some of the large ME countries which 
formerly sent potatoes in the late summer and a n have greatl 
diminished their supplies, as they could not oxide. wit the English 
