years the large "gentleman" market-gardeners steadily displacing the
smaller and all the single-handed men. The subject is so important
that I will take one of two instances in detail. I have seen a
gentleman market-gardener, eight miles or so from Covent Garden,
growing strawberries, several acres in each patch. He had young men
(a separate staff) out at daybreak to keep the birds off. The small
gardener, growing a few long beds of strawberries, is ruined by the
birds, whether he lets them eat or goes into the expense and labour
of netting. The gentleman has his own large spring-vans waiting;
these vans are fitted for fruit, and as the pickers gather the
strawberries they deliver them in small and frequent parcels to the
packers. The moment the first van is laden it starts at three miles
per hour and travels to Covent Garden itself, where the strawberries
are delivered to the fruit-dealer, who buys them wholesale of the
gentleman-gardener. The small grower has to get his strawberries to
the local railway station, and to arrange to get them from the London
terminus to market; his trouble and expense are considerable; but,
more important still, his strawberries do not come into the hands of
the wholesale dealer in the "condition" that the large grower's do.
This large grower admitted that he was paying L12 an acre per annum
for some of his land; he added, "My labour per acre, and even my
manure per acre, costs so much that I do not think about a few pounds
rent more or less." These gentleman-gardeners are on the average
better educated than the small market-gardeners; they travel about
the country, gather hints, and pick up new good varieties of
strawberries, etc. From their scale of operations and varied sorts of
strawberries they can, even in rough wet weather or in drought,
always supply to their wholesale dealer some fruit. In fine, they
beat the small grower at every point; they undersell him at Covent
Garden; they outbid him for desirable garden-land within reach of