Area under gherkins.

Cultivation and Brining of Gherkins.

The total area under gherkins in the Netherlands is estimated at more than 400 acres, the chief centres for their cultivation being the villages of Langeraar and Roelofarendsveen, which are about five hours' journey by boat from Amsterdam and eight hours' from Rotterdam. In these villages the soil is a moist peat and the principal crops grown are peas, beans and Size of hold gherkins. The market gardens or holdings are small, their ings. average area being five acres. The occupiers are nearly all tenants; not more than 15 per cent. of them own their land. Rents vary from £5 to £8 per acre, and the selling price of the land from £85 to £100 per acre.

Rents.

Cost of labour.

Manure.

Seed.

Yield of gherkins.

Practically all the labour in the holdings is performed by the occupiers and their families. Large families are common, as it is considered a disgrace not to be blessed with numerous offspring. Children are taken away from school at 10 or 11 years of age and put to work on the land. The elder sons sometimes receive a little pocket money in addition to their clothes, food and lodging, but no regular wages are given until they are about to be married, when it is the practice either to give them for one year a piece of land to cultivate for their own profit, or to pay them for twelve months the ordinary wages of labourers in the district. For outside labour, when this is necessary at harvest, the ordinary cash wages are 2s. 6d. to 3s. a day, no food or other perquisite being given. In cases where the occupier is a widow an arrangement is sometimes made with a labourer whereby the latter provides the seed and labour free, and receives, in return, half the profit from the sale of the crops, the occupier supplying all manure and sticks for the beans and peas.

The manure used for the crops grown in this district is known as Schiedam dung," which is cow manure from the pastures in the neighbourhood of Schiedam. The quantity applied per acre is about 40 tons, at a cost of 5s. 9d. per ton,. and it is fetched by the farmers in their own barges.

It is the practice to sow gherkins on the same land for two years in succession with early peas, and in the third year beans are subsituted for gherkins. The gherkin seed is produced on the holdings and little or no attempt is made to improve it by selection. About half an ounce of the seed is used for four perches of land. The rows of peas are planted about 6 feet apart, and when the plants are about a foot high the gherkins are planted on the sunny side of the peas. After the latter crop has been gathered, the pea haulm is spread on the land and the gherkin vines trained over the haulm to protect them from the dampness of the soil.

In an average season an acre of gherkins is estimated to yield about 280 bushels, of which 80 bushels would be No. 1's or "fines"; 40 bushels, No. 2's or "bastards"; 60 bushels, No.

3's, or "chumps "; and 100 bushels of No. 4 or outside sizes." This year, however, the gherkin crop was practically a failure. the yield being exceedingly poor both in quality and quantity. The prices paid to growers were, therefore, high, No. 1's fetching about 17s. per cwt., whereas last year about half this sum was paid for the same quality.

The small holders in Langeraar are exceedingly poor. They Condition of

and their families work hard and their food is of the plainest growers. kind, consisting for the most part of bread, oatmeal, potatoes, and milk with occasionally a little pork.

Brining of Gherkins.

The gherkins grown in this district are sold for brining Brining of to agents representing the dealers in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. gherkins. These agents are often themselves small holders and cultivators of gherkins, but they undertake the work of brining on commission. The dealers transmit the money to purchase the gherkins and pay for the salt, casks, apparatus and other materials necessary for this work, the agent being paid a fixed commission per hogshead and an additional sum for storing the gherkins through the winter. In one case which may be taken as an example, the commission for sorting, brining, and all work connected therewith, amounted to 1s.. 8d. a hogshead, and 6d. a hogshead was paid for winter storage.

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The gherkins are sorted into four sizes, viz., "fines," "bas- Sorting of tards," chumps," and "outside sizes." The extra small gherkins. specimens, about an inch long, are picked out and sold as "fine fines," mainly for export to the United States. After the sorting is completed, the first three sizes are put into hogsheads for brining, the weight of gherkins of each size in a large hogshead being 660 lbs., 627 lbs., and 616 lbs., respectively. The No. 4's, or outside sizes, are, as a rule, not brined, but are sold dry in bags for shipment to Germany.

The quantity of salt used for brining varies with the size of the gherkins, and with the country for which the goods are intended. For gherkins intended for export to England the amount of salt used per hogshead is 28 lbs. for No. 1's; 20 lbs. for No. 2's; and 15 lbs. for No. 3's. In the case of goods for shipment to the United States the proportion of salt is 55 lbs. for No. 1's; 22 lbs. for No. 2's; and 17 lbs. for No. 3's

Dry salt is sprinkled over each layer of gherkins in the hogsheads and water is added last. It is not the practice to use two separate brines of different strengths, but the strength of the brine is increased when necessary by adding more salt to the casks.

Quantity of

salt used in brining.

The price of the brined gherkins per large hogshead this year Price of f.o.b. Rotterdam was £6 for No. 1's, £4 for No. 2's, and 30s. to gherkina

Freights on gherkins.

Area culti vated with cauliflowers'

Size of hold ings.

Cost of land.

Soil

Manure.

£2 for No. 3's. Casks of 3 cwts. each were quoted in October at 70s. for No. 1 or "fines," 45s. for No. 2 or "bastards," and 35s. for No. 3 or "chumps." Last year the prices were about half these sums. No. 4's are fetching this year 8s. to 10s. per bag of 110 lbs. The gherkins are transported from Langeraar to Rotterdam by barges and tugs chartered or owned by the dealers.

The freight rates on gherkins in brine from Rotterdam are the same as those quoted above for onions.

Cultivation and Brining of Cauliflowers.

Cauliflowers are cultivated extensively in the Netherlands, mainly in the province of North Holland in the district between Alkmaar and Hoorn, and north of these towns. In this district it is estimated that there are nearly 50,000 acres devoted almost entirely to the cultivation of cabbages and cauliflowers, which are exported in a fresh state in large quantities to Germany; but brined cabbage for sauerkraut is also exported to Germany, and brined cauliflowers to Great Britain.

The market-gardens or holdings on which cauliflowers are grown range in size from 2 acres to 25 acres, but the average extent is 5 acres. The majority of the occupiers are owners of the land, and their standard of living is higher than that of the small holders in other parts of North and South Holland.

At Bovenkarspel, which is a great centre for cauliflower growing, about 1,700 acres being under this crop, the average price of market-garden land is £100 per acre, and some of the best land costs about £130 per acre.

In this district the holdings are intersected everywhere by numerous dikes and canals, five acres being sometimes split up into plots of less than an acre, separated on all sides by water channels. The soil is clay, and the surface elevation is kept at a more or less uniform height, about a yard, above the level of the water in the canals, by removing soil from the surface of the plots and placing it at the sides when the water is too low, and by reversing the process when it is too high.

Tue manure used in the cultivation of cauliflowers is horsedung and cow-lung; the former costs about 6s. 8d. per ton and the latter 5s. 10d. per ton, delivered into the purchasers' boats. It is also the practice in the early spring to spread over the land earth taken from the bottom of the canals, which has been enriched by deposits of the outside leaves of cauliflowers and cabbages. At harvest-time the dikes and canals round Bovenkarspel are covered with these floating leaves, which gradually sink to the bottom, where they remain until they are scooped up mixed with earth to serve as manure in the succeeding spring.