1909.] Strawberry Growing in Hampshire. 191 



dent on larger growers or carriers for the conveyance of the 

 fruit to the station; in districts far removed from rail, as 

 much as 6d. or 8d. per basket is expended in carriage to 

 station, railway freights, and salesmen's commission. 



Autumn Cleaning of Beds. — A further item in the annual 

 expenditure is the cost entailed in cleaning the plantations 

 of weeds, clearing up straw, and trimming plants after the 

 fruiting season is over; these operations will cost from 10s. 

 to 155. per acre. 



Marketing of Fruit. — Great strides have been made of 

 recent years in regard to the methods of packing and transit 

 of fruit, and the Swanwick and District Fruit Growers' Asso- 

 ciation, Ltd., have done much to encourage progress in 

 this particular direction. The London and South Western 

 Railway Company provide every facility for the transit of 

 fruit by supplying specially contructed vans fitted with tiers 

 of shelves, on which to place the handled baskets, a form of 

 package long adopted among Hampshire growers. An extra 

 staff of railway servants is also in attendance at the several 

 stations in order to deal effectually with the respective con- 

 signments. The Midland Railway Company likewise supply 

 fruit vans for the conveyance of fruit to the Midlands and 

 counties further north. 



The figures quoted in the following table are typical of 

 some of the rates charged by the railway companies for the 

 conveyance of fruit to various centres. 





At company's risk. 



At owner's r 





Per cwt. 



Per cwt. 



Town. 





d. 



s. d. 



London (Covent Garden) 



I 



II 



I 9 



Aberdeen 



9 



5 



7 0 



Belfast 



6 



8 



5 10 



Cardiff 



3 



0 





Blackpool 



5 



8 



5 3 



Dundee ... 



8 



8 



7 0 



Glasgow ... 



8 



0 



7 0 



Leeds ... ... 



5 



2 



4 6 



Manchester 



4 



10 



4 6 



Southampton 





6* 





The varying capacity of baskets and their disposal when 

 empty have presented a somewhat acute problem both to the 

 grower and the salesman. In Hampshire the slender wicker 

 basket is in common use, but its varying capacity and the 

 difficulty of estimating the exact weight of contents detracts 

 from its usefulness, and it is likely to be superseded by a form 



