INTRODUCTION 



Market gardening in its widest sense, comprising every 

 department of productive commercial horticulture, must 

 always rank in populous countries amongst the most 

 important industries connected with land cultivation. 

 Though mainly concerned in providing a material 

 portion of the food of the people, it also contributes 

 largely to the health, to the pleasures, and to the 

 artistic tastes of all classes. The concentration of 

 workers in the cities has increased the necessity for 

 abundant fresh fruits and vegetables, and the demand 

 has advanced rapidly ; while the self-supplying members 

 of the community have been reduced in numbers by the 

 depopulation of rural districts, and the totally inadequate 

 provision of garden ground to urban residences. With 

 increased facilities for the economical distribution of 

 produce, there can be no reasonable doubt that for 

 many years market gardening will extend over greater 

 areas of land ; the domain of the farmer will be more 

 and more invaded, and the wider adoption of intensive 

 methods of cultivation will gradually bring back to 

 usefulness thousands of acres that have almost become 

 derelict under out-of-date and exhausted systems. 



The enormous proportions assumed by imported 

 fruits, flowers, and vegetables, together with the in- 

 creasing number of home growers, have naturally 

 created a keen and general competition attended by 

 reduced prices, leaving, even under the best systems, 

 narrow margins of profit. Such competition, too, 

 will probably become still more acute in the future, 

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