+-----------+----------+----------+----------+
| Month. | 1906. | 1907. | 1908. |
+-----------+----------+----------+----------+
| January | L31,035 | L18,545 | L29,180 |
| February | 34,647 | 25,541 | 30,541 |
| March | 50,232 | 42,611 | 35,185 |
| April | 30,809 | 50,418 | 42,681 |
| May | 22,980 | 21,767 | 23,129 |
| June | 17,641 | 18,358 | 16,904 |
| July | 3,386 | 4,509 | 3,467 |
| August | 1,646 | 1,539 | 1,081 |
| September | 852 | 736 | 953 |
| October | 4,481 | 3,180 | 4,504 |
| November | 17,506 | 15,763 | 15,097 |
| December | 18,669 | 30,674 | 27,080 |
| +----------+----------+----------+
| Total | L233,884 | L233,641 | L229,802 |
+-----------+----------+----------+----------+
_Hothouse Culture of Fruit and Flowers._--The cultivation of fruit and
flowers under glass has increased enormously since about the year 1880,
especially in the neighbourhood of London, where large sums of money
have been sunk in the erection and equipment of hothouses. In the parish
of Cheshunt, Herts, alone there are upwards of 130 acres covered with
glass, and between that place on the north and London on the south
extensive areas of land are similarly utilized. In Middlesex, in the
north, in the districts of Edmonton, Enfield, Ponders End and Finchley,
and in the west from Isleworth to Hampton, Feltham, Hillingdon, Sipson
and Uxbridge, many crops are now cultivated under glass. At Erith,
Swanley, and other places in Kent, as also at Worthing, in Sussex,
glass-house culture has much extended. A careful estimate puts the area
of industrial hothouses in England at about 1200 acres, but it is
probably much more than this. Most of the greenhouses are fixtures, but
in some parts of the kingdom structures that move on rails and wheels
are used, to enable the ground to be prepared in the open for one crop
while another is maturing under glass. The leading products are grapes,
tomatoes and cucumbers, the last-named two being true fruits from the
botanist's point of view, though commercially included with vegetables.
To these may be added on the same ground dwarf or French beans, and
runner or climbing beans. Peaches, nectarines and strawberries are
largely grown under glass, and, in private hothouses--from which the
produce is used mainly for household consumption, and which are not
taken into consideration here--pineapples, figs and other fruit.
Conservative estimates indicate the average annual yield of hothouse
grapes to be about 12 tons per acre and of tomatoes 20 tons. The greater
part of the space in the hothouses is assigned to fruit, but whilst some
houses are devoted exclusively to flowers, in others, where fruit is the
main object, flowers are forced in considerable quantities in winter and
early spring. The flowers grown under glass include tulips, hyacinths,
primulas, cyclamens, spiraeas, mignonettes, fuchsias, calceolarias,
roses, chrysanthemums, daffodils, arum lilies or callas, liliums,
azaleas, eucharises, camellias, stephanotis, tuberoses, bouvardias,
gardenias, heaths or ericas, poinsettias, lilies of the valley, zonal
pelargoniums, tuberous and fibrous rooted begonias, and many others.
There is an increasing demand for foliage hothouse plants, such as
ferns, palms, crotons, aspidistras, araucarias, dracaenas, India-rubber
plants, aralias, grevilleas, &c. Berried plants like solanums and
aucubas also find a ready sale, while the ornamental kinds of asparagus
such as _sprengeri_ and _plumosus_ nanus, are ever in demand for
trailing decorations, as well as myrsiphyilum. Special mention must be
made of the winter or perpetual flowering carnations which are now grown
by hundreds of thousands in all parts of the kingdom for decorative work
during the winter season. The converse of forcing plants into early
blossom is adopted with such an important crop as lily of the valley.
During the summer season the crowns are placed in refrigerators with
about 2 degrees of frost, and quantities are taken out as required every
week and transferred to the greenhouse to develop. Tomatoes are grown
largely in houses exclusively occupied by them, in which case two and
sometimes three crops can be gathered in the year. In the Channel
Islands, where potatoes grown under glass are lifted in April and May,
in order to secure the high prices of the early markets, tomato
seedlings are planted out from boxes into the ground as quickly as the
potatoes are removed, the tomato planter working only a few rows behind
the potato digger. The trade in imported tomatoes is so considerable
that home growers are well justified in their endeavours to meet the
demand more fully with native produce, whether raised under glass or in
the open. Tomatoes were not separately enumerated in the imports
previous to 1900. It has already been stated that in 1900 the raw
tomatoes imported amounted to 833,032 cwt., valued at L792,339, and in
1901 to 793,991 cwt., valued at L734,051. From the monthly quantities
given in Table VII., it would appear that the imports are largest in
June, July and August, about one-half of the year's total arriving
during those three months. It is too early in June and July for
home-grown outdoor tomatoes to enter into competition with the imported
product, but home-grown hothouse tomatoes should be qualified to
challenge this trade.