1174 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



labourer, as his net profits would not represent a return for his work 

 equivalent to the wages ordinarily paid to male labourers in the neigh- 

 bourhood, 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 do not enter so largely 

 into the cost of production, because the Dutch grower of Silverskins 

 employs little outside labour, and is content to work on his holding for a 

 return which in some seasons is not equivalent to the wages of ordinary 

 labourers. 



" On the other hand, his outgoings for rent are higher per acre than 

 those ruling in this country, and he can claim little advantage on his 

 manure bill. It is clear, therefore, that, even under the most favourable 

 conditions, the net profits realised by the cultivator of Silverskins in 

 Holland would be quite inadequate to satisfy the social requirements of 

 agriculturists and market-gardeners in this country. 



" In connection with this question of the relative cost of labour it must, 

 however, be observed that in the Netherlands all the expenditure involved in 

 dealing with the crop after it is gathered is borne by the brining factories. 

 And in the case of the cost of peeling, which is the largest item in the 

 labour bill, there would seem to be a difference of nearly one penny per 

 peck between the prices paid to Dutch peelers and those quoted by the 

 Biggleswade growers. The former received one penny per kilo., which is 

 under l\d. per peck of peeled Onions, while at Biggleswade the price paid 

 is stated to be Hd. a peck. 



" These differences, however, have not been of sufficient influence to 

 enable the brining factories to place their goods on our markets at prices 

 persistently lower than those at which English goods have been quoted ; 

 and, in fact, the evidence collected by the Board both in the Netherlands 

 and in this country has gone to show that the prices paid by pickling firms 

 for first quality Dutch Silverskins in brine delivered in London have, 

 in some seasons, been higher even than the prices quoted for home 

 produce. It is, indeed, a mistake to assume that the increasing demand 

 for Dutch Silverskins in this country is to be explained by reference 

 merely to the question of prices. Nor is it to be explained by any real 

 difference in the quality of the Onions, since the Silverskins grown in 

 Holland do not possess any inherent properties which make them 

 intrinsically superior to the Onions of the same species produced in this 

 country. The secret of the success of the Dutch competition is to be 

 found mainly in the fact that the Onions exported from the Netherlands 

 present, on the whole, a better appearance and more readily meet the 

 requirements of the pickling firms, because more effective methods and 

 greater care are employed in their preparation for brining. The organi- 

 sation of the brining industry in the Netherlands has enabled the factories, 

 by collecting their supplies of raw Onions from a large number of growers 

 and by the use of improved apparatus, to send to this country large con- 

 signments of Onions in brine possessing greater uniformity in size, shape 

 and colour than it seems possible to obtain by the methods at present 

 adopted at Biggleswade. It is just this uniformity in the bulk which the 



