352 



Brined Onion Industry. 



large sizes. These prices are, however, low, and due to the 

 exceptionally abundant crop of this year. Last year the first 

 grade fetched 8os. per hogshead, and the other sizes were 

 correspondingly dearer. 



Freight rates are quoted from Rotterdam to London, from 

 which it appears that about 2s. 6d. to 3s. per hogshead, or at 

 least 10s. per ton, must be added to the Rotterdam prices for 

 brined onions in order to get at the actual cost of the goods to 

 the London pickling firms ; and something must also be allowed 

 for the cartage from the wharf or station, as the case may be, to 

 the picklers' premises. 



Railway charges from Biggleswade to King's Cross vary from 

 9s. 2d. per ton for a single ton, to 6s. 3d. per ton for 4-ton lots. 



The foregoing observations embody the principal points 

 brought out by the inquiries made with regard to the Dutch trade 

 in brined onions. The social and economic conditions under 

 which the industry is conducted in the Netherlands differ in 

 many respects from those existing in this country, and these 

 differences must be taken into account in any attempt to 

 institute a comparison between the expenses of cultivation on 

 the Dutch small holdings and on the large market gardens in 

 the Biggleswade district. For instance, it has been suggested 

 that the cost of labour in Holland is so much cheaper than in 

 this country, that it has enabled the Dutch exporters to under- 

 sell the British producer. But it has already been pointed out 

 that the Dutch gardeners may themselves be regarded as 

 labourers, inasmuch as they perform practically the whole of the 

 work on their holdings, with the aid of their wives and children. 

 They are a sober, hard-working class with little or no ambition, 

 and their standard of living is of the humblest description. In 

 seasons of low prices, such as is the case this year, the Dutch 

 cultivator is worse off than a labourer, as his net profits would not 

 represent a return for his work equivalent to the wages ordi- 

 narily paid to male labourers in the neighbourhood, which range 

 from 15s. to 20s. a week. When prices are high his profits 

 naturally rise, but after he has paid his rent and manure bill they 

 seldom much exceed the weekly wages of a day labourer. So 

 that, though wages in Holland are actually not much less than 

 those paid in the market gardening districts in this country, they 



