SAUCE FOR THE GOOSE, SAUCE FOR THE GANDER

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22910, 5 January 1940, Page 4

SAUCE FOR THE GOOSE, SAUCE FOR THE GANDER

TO TBS EDITOB Of THE PBE33. just wonder how far Mr Bloxham would carry his suggestion about persons engaged in other businesses growing fruit and vegetables, because every cabbage, tomato, potato, or onion grown in the backyard is just so much less potential sale for the market growers. v What of the folk who grow more than enough of such garden truck and give it away to friends and relations who would otherwise be buyers? As far as the professional is concerned, the result is the same whether the produce is given or sold. Would your correspondent then say that the grocer, the. butcher, the baker, or candlestick-maker should not emj ploy his leisure in making his garden grow? With the 40-hour week the man with a garden is having a wonderful time; but, if we follow Mr Bloxham to a logical conclusion, he is doing a grave injury to a hard-working section of the community. The same considerations apply to the man who keeps a few fowls. Even if he only produces eggs enough for the family breakfast, he is encroaching on the poultryman's preserves. And the man who shoots Molly Cottontail or the March Hare, or a wild pig is even more reprehensible, and as for the patient fisherman! The Commissioner of Taxes will find the question interesting in the near future, no tioubt. At present, so long as one is not engaged in a particular

business and does not,sell one's produce (vegetable or animal), no notice is taken; but a dozen of eggs, whether eaten or sold, is worth money. Perhaps it is as well that backyard farming is not very profitable all round. I will probably dig 30s worth of potatoes at present prices. The man who dug the ground and planted them received £1; seed and manure cost me "7s 6d, and I have "had the doubtful pleasure of hoeing and weeding for nearly four months And now my pleasure in my achievement is to be dulled by the fear that I am making someone lose money. But I will go on doing it all the same, so will all the other backyarders, and there will still be plenty for the professional classes. It's not the competition that makes the game hard; it's the uncertainty of the weather conditions, pests, blights, and all the things outside man's control, to say nothing of the fact that all the crops come in together and for a fews weeks there is a surfeit, and down go prices. If the powers can get together and evolve a way of spreading the crops, they will help themselves more than by trying to interfere with other folks' leisure-hour activities, particularly when directed to. such a healthful occupation as gardening, hothouse or outdoor. —Yours, etc BACKYABDER. January 4, 1940. [A. Bloxham, who opened this correspondence, may reply. Otherwise ft is closed.—Ed.. "The Press."]

EVIDENCE OF UNEMPLOYMENT TO THE BBITOB OT THS PMSSB. Sir,— Reading the enlistments, I was very distressed to note the large number of unemployed men. Why cannot a Labour Government and a Labour City Council find work f or< these men? With the increased taxation, surely they could foster industries which •would give the men regular employment.—Yours, etc., „,„„,. r™-,-.,-SYMPATHY. January 4, 1940.