MARKET GARDEN CULTIVATION DURING QUEEN VICTORIA'S REIGN. 397 



Onions. — The introduction of the Spanish and Tripoli Onion 

 has had a considerable effect in improving our English varieties. 

 The market gardener finds a considerable sale for bunched young 

 Onions during the spring and early summer months. When I 

 read that over 6,000,000 bushels of Onions, valued at £684,000, 

 were imported into this country in 1896 we cannot consider that 

 we are overburdened with our home supply. 



Potatos. — These are in every respect the leading vegetable 

 at present in use amongst us. The small market gardener has 

 to a very great extent given over the cultivation of this and 

 certain other vegetables to the farmer-gardener, if I may so 

 designate those large growers who combine farming with the 

 production of market crops. There were 563,741 acres of 

 Potatos grown in Great Britain in 1896. These were estimated 

 to produce 3,562,235 tons. Out of this quantity Lincolnshire, 

 our largest Potato-producing county, grew 57,638 acres, produc- 

 ing 400,709 tons ; whilst Yorkshire grew 51,495 acres, yielding 

 326,849 tons. There does not seem to have been any great 

 increase in the quantity of Potatos grown recently in this 

 country. The Great Northern and Midland Railways have 

 established depots for the convenience of this trade, and as many 

 as 1,100 truck loads of Potatos arrived at the Great Northern 

 depot in one day last season. Great as is our Potato production 

 there is still a large foreign importation, chiefly of early varieties, 

 from the Canary Isles, Jersey, and the Mediterranean, as well as 

 from Holland, the value of which is about .€1,000,000 a year. No 

 vegetable has been so prolific of varieties grown as the Potato. 

 Most of our new ones only last a few years, to be in turn 

 superseded by so-called improvements supposed to possess better 

 qualities. The great object of the Potato raiser is to secure 

 (1) a plentiful cropper ; (2) a good eater ; (3) a disease resister* 

 Of late years the system of spraying has been introduced to 

 accomplish the latter object. 



Broccoli and Cauliflower have been greatly improved and 

 their period of growth extended chiefly by the introduction of 

 Veitch's Autumn Giant, which was a grand example of a new 

 variety fulfilling a decided trade want. Cauliflower and Broccoli 

 might also be quoted as examples of the distance vegetables can 

 be carried for market. Our remotest English county, Corn- 

 wall, supplies us with many thousands of crates of these useful 



