1922.] The Worthing Fruit Growjnc; /niji.stry. G8 



of Worthing and the Channel Islands. 'I'Ik^ North I.ondoii nit n 

 gather their crop in the morning, load it on motor lorries at tho 

 packing sheds, whence it is taken by road to Covt nt Garden in 

 less than two hours. Worthing is sixty miles from Covent 

 Garden, and, although three attempts liave been made to estab- 

 lish a motor-lorry service, they have all failed to compete success- 

 fully with the railway. The Worthing men do, however, pack 

 in the morning and load the fruit train which leaves Worthing 

 station at 12.30 mid-day, the produce arriving at Covent Garden 

 between 4 and 5 in the afternoon. In the mjilter of trans- 

 port the Guernseymen are at an even greater disadvantage ; th(^ 

 G.W.E. and the L. and S.W.E. give an excellent service of both 

 passenger and cargo boats, but, even so, the produce does not 

 reach Covent Garden until the morning of the second day after 

 despatch. 



The difficulty of transport is a real one, but it is not sufficient 

 to explain Worthing's recent slow progress. 



The Worthing Glass-Houses. — The lay-out of the Worthing 

 nurseries is faulty and uneconomical. For the most part the 

 houses are small, and they are scattered and heated by a multi- 

 plicity of small boilers set in an equally large number of stoke- 

 holds, awkwardly placed and difficult of access. The Worthing 

 pioneer, and, unfortunately, his successor of to-day. thought in 

 terms of houses : the Lea Valley man. on the other hand, has had 

 the experience of earlier growers to build upon, and has always 

 thought in terms of acres. While the Worthing grower has 

 thought of putting up houses in which to force stufP, the Lea 

 \'al]ey man has conceived the idea of covering in acres of ground 

 with glass, in order to grow produce under artificial conditions. 

 His lighter and therefore cheaper structures, involving less 

 capital outlay, and the large saving efiPected in transport, have 

 enabled him to produce at a lower cost than either of his princii^al 

 competitors. 



Crops. — In the matter of packing great strides have been 

 made. It seems almost incredible in these 'days, when 

 " trunks " are chiefly used for packing chrysanthemums, that at 

 one time the favourite package for cut bloom was th(^ Is. cri^ss- 

 handle basket. There are men still engaged in ]i;u'king at 

 Worthing who used to pack chrysanthemums in the cross-handles 

 The cultivation of the chrysanthemum Is carried on (extensively 

 in the district, the mid-season and hfo varieties h-Zuyx " lifted 

 to follow cucumbers, tomntoes. nnd ;::rapes. whicli with the 

 chi-vsantlicmnms form the l(\idin!j: cro])s gi-(nvn locally. "Nfusli- 



