COUNTRY LIFE
Urbanised Vegetables In a " harmless hamlet," with whose social and economic ways I am familiar, the many people who wish to buy vegetables go to the local greengrocer. The greengrocer goes to a semi- wholesaler who lives about eight miles away, and circulates his lorry twice a week. This man in his turn gets his vegetables from Covent Garden. Covent Garden gets a great many of them from Bedfordshire, on the borders of which the harmless hamlet lies. This sort of method of distribution prevails in townships and villages at a much greater remove from London. It seems a cumbrous and what matters more, a slow method. Green vegetables are wholesome more or less in proportion to their freshness ; and many must be eaten a week or more after they left the garden which we misname the market garden. If only it could do its own retailing ! This is not feasible in most places ; but a good deal might be done to reduce the reliance on Covent Garden. The growers are at its mercy and the consumers receive stuff that has lost as much in quality as it has gained in price.
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