546 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



to local inspection, there ought to be Government inspection of all perish- 

 able food at the ports of entry. They are of opinion that if this had 

 been done in the past much foreign fruit which has found its way to 

 some of the jam factories would have been destroyed as being unsound, 

 with great advantage to the British fruit grower and to the public 

 generally. 



The Labour Difficulty. 



75. Several witnesses complained that the industry was seriously 

 handicapped in their districts by the difficulty of obtaining labour, or, at 

 least, the right kind of labour. For example, Mr. King, a fruit grower in 

 Huntingdonshire, stated that there was a great scarcity in his district, 

 and attributed it to the absence of cottage accommodation. Mr. Sinclair 

 made the same complaint as regards East Lothian. Mr. Wise, the agent 

 for the Toddington estate, said that it was very difficult to get- the right 

 sort of men. All these witnesses complained, it will be observed, of the 

 difficulty of getting regular labour throughout the year, which, as we have 

 seen, is a very large item on a fruit farm. Others complained of the 

 difficulty of obtaining pickers — notably Mr. Trevethan, Mr. King, and Mr. 

 Sinclair. These two grievances are quite distinct, and may be dealt with 

 separately. 



76. With regard to the question of regular labour, the absence of 

 cottages in country districts and the disinclination of landowners to 

 build them undoubtedly lie at the root of the difficulty. It costs so much 

 to build cottages at the present day, largely in consequence of the elaborate 

 and extravagant by-laws in force in many country districts, and the rent 

 which can be obtained for them is so small, that very few people are 

 willing to build them, for the simple reason that they do not pay. The 

 result is that labour is either unobtainable in some districts, or else the 

 workmen have to walk a long distance, as mentioned by Mr. King. In 

 either case the development of an industry which employs a great deal of 

 labour, like the fruit industry, is seriously retarded. It should be observed, 

 however, that these complaints came principally from those districts 

 where fruit is not grown on a very large scale, and where, probably, it is 

 to some extent a new industry, suddenly causing a great additional 

 demand for labour. No such complaints were made from Kent, Worcester- 

 shire, or any of the larger districts. Mr. Wise explained that at Todding- 

 ton they had solved the cottage difficulty by building themselves, thirty 

 cottages having been erected at an average cost of £450 a pair, and let for 

 £5 per annum each, which meant that the landlord received practically no 

 interest upon the capital expended ; but, he said, it was worth while " to 

 put up a good cottage to house a good man, if they could get one," and 

 added that they regarded it as part of the business of the fruit farm. No 

 doubt the same plan has been adopted in other large fruit-growing 

 districts. But the difficulty remains wherever the industry has been 

 recently introduced, and the Committee feel that some steps should be 

 taken to endeavour to mitigate it. They suggest that in England the 

 present building by-laws should be amended in country districts, so as to 

 reduce the unnecessarily high cost of building cottages at the present 

 time. They also desire to draw attention to the fact that District Councils 



