Abstract
THE report of the recent conference on “Recent Developments in Market Gardening” held at Rotham-sted contains a great deal of information which is not readily available in a collected form. Two of the classical market garden areas, the Bedfordshire early potato and brussels sprouts district and the equally well-known spring cabbage, brussels sprouts and fruit area of Evesham are treated in detail from the point of view of the practical grower, and the subject is also considered from the point of view of the canner, whose part in the industry is becoming increasingly important. In recent years market gardeners have found their province invaded by large-scale farmers, who have in part substituted vegetable growing for the less profitable crops of their ordinary rotation. These men, whose methods form the subject of one of the papers, have several advantages not possessed by the smaller cultivators; plentiful animal manures, large-scale mechanical methods, and a possibility of converting unsaleable surplus into live stock products. The reply of the genuine market gardener has been to move towards greater intensification, and to retire into districts as yet inaccessible to large-scale methods. The conference as a whole leaves the impression that abundant production of market garden crops is relatively easy to secure. It can in fact be an embarrassment, and every additional outlet whether by preservation, more economical distribution, or the education of the public taste, needs careful investigation. Copies of the report, price 2s., can be obtained from the Secretary, Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden, Herts.
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Developments in Market Gardening. Nature 131, 395 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/131395a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/131395a0