First, the Evesham people "sell what they can and can
what they can't." Not only are there canning factories of considerable scale in being, but the art of canning has so spread that very small canneries are multiplying. The art is taught and in some countries practised by the Women's Institutes, for example. The canning is very well done, with the result that the demand for the product grows and will grow. Any factory can apply for the National Mark, in which case the fruit is examined and passed before it is put into the tins. This guarantee is helping and will help to increase both the demand and the price. Again, fruit- growers have been heavily fined in the past by the railways in a number of ways. Large consignments of perishable vegetables and fruit were so delayed that they reached the central markets in a state of decay. I found the intensive producers of vegetable crops in South Lincolnshire almost in a state of revolt when I went down to investigate the grievance. The fruit-growers of Worcestershire suffered no less from rough handling of their crops ; and worse. This year the railways—or some of them—have been conspicuously efficient, have handled the boxes and baskets with care and avoided delay. Special men are specially despatched to important centres to conduct and control the transport. It would, of course, be of no little economic advantage to producers if they could pack their fruit with a little less protection against damage or pilfering. Cheap, quick and efficient transport is the greatest of boons to the grower of any perishable product; and the producers themselves have prepared the way by their great advance in the science of packing. * * *
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