The London Market-Gardens : Flowers, Fruits, and Vegetables, as Grown
for Market. By C. W. Shaw. (37 Southampton Street.)— This book is primarily meant for purposes of trade, but private growers and amateurs may learn not a little from its pages. As for consumers, they will learn all they want to )mow about the sources from which their wants are supplied, and will have a melancholy satisfaction in knowing that somebody must be better off for the very considerable margin that there is between the prices which they pay to the retailers and the prices which the retailers pay to the growers. Ladies who have been charged sixpence per pound for strawberries for jam will learn, with some surprise, that £26 per ton is what the growers commonly obtain (strawberries for the table are a different affair). This, at least, is what the jam-merchants pay, £26 per ton means, we may add, for the benefit of those who are out of practice in mental arithmetic, a little more than 2 d. per pound. A source of wonder of late has been the marvellous success with which strawberries are sent to market. They are packed, it seems, with orach-leaves, but then, only certain kinds must be used.
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