86 Small Holdings in Hampshire. [may, 



of the strawberry growers are London, and large provincial 

 towns, including Glasgow, Liverpool, and Manchester. Around 

 most of the larger towns in the south of the county, the farmer 

 has entered the ranks of the market-gardener, not only as a 

 grower of vegetables and fruit, but as a cultivator of flowers. 

 It will behove the prospective small holder to give facts like 

 these his careful consideration, particularly if his livelihood 

 must depend on the production of vegetables by spade culture. 

 These large growers are responsible in a great measure for 

 periodic gluts on the market of one or more vegetables, which, 

 if too often repeated throughout the season, must severely 

 cripple, if not completely ruin the small man. 



I have repeatedly seen runner-beans offered in Portsmouth 

 Market for less than 6d. per bushel in the height of the 

 season ; peas, is. per bushel ; marrows, 3d. per dozen ; while on 

 many occasions broccoli and cauliflowers have been sold at 

 equally unremunerative prices. 



The increase in the number of allotments throughout the 

 county, together with existing private gardens, may also be 

 held responsible for flooding many small towns with vegetables 

 in the height of the season ; for this and many other reasons 

 the cultivation of vegetables as a sole means of livelihood must 

 be undertaken with caution. 



It is not to be expected that Hampshire will compare with 

 the Midland Counties of England as regards its railway facilities, 

 but for a county south of London it is well served, chiefly by 

 the London and South Western Railway. Apart from its 

 more important enterprises in connection with shipping at 

 Southampton, this Company has within the past few years 

 opened several light railways, the chief of which is that 

 running from Fareham to Alton along the Meon valley, a 

 district possessed of much fertile soil, in which small holdings 

 of the mixed farm type might with advantage become 

 .established. 



The district between Alton and Basingstoke, although 

 possessing similar facilities, does not present the same induce- 

 ments [to the small holder, principally owing to the heavy 

 retentive nature of much of the soil, which might be classed 

 as woodland ground. As the district is thinly populated there 

 is practically no local market, and the cost of placing small 



