DOMESTIC FOOD PRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION

This inquiry was carried out at the request of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. Little was known about the number of private gardens which produced fruit and vegetables or the number of private households which kept livestock. The Ministry, therefore, asked the Survey to provide it with information upon which it could base calculations of the amount of fruit and vegetables grown in private gardens annually, and the amount of food derived from privately kept livestock. The purpose of the inquiry, accordingly, was to establish what proportion of gardens in England and Wales grew fruit and or vegetables, the vegetables grown during a year, the length of all rows laid down, or number of all plants cultivated, the number of bushes of small fruit and number of fruit trees grown, the gardeners judgment of yield in 1944 compared with 1943. Further, the number of livestock kept at present and on the average, the number killed, and the produce of hens, goats, and bees over a year.

The inquiry was carried out in September 1944. This meant that so far as early crops were concerned it was necessary to rely upon the gardeners memory for length of rows laid down and number of plants cultivated. Again, questions of yield could not be asked about crops which matured later than September. It was necessary to ask this question again in the course of another inquiry carried out in November 1944. If the experiment were to be repeated in this form, it would probably be most satisfactory if one set of measurements were made in June and a later set in November.

All measurements were approximate. Not all vegetables gardens are arranged in neat rectangles with regular rows of vegetables running across them. In some cases lettuces are planted in flower beds, between the flowers, or in circular decorative patches on the lawn. Odd groups of vegetables are planted in corners or between trees, while fruit bushes and raspberry canes are sometimes mingled in a confused mass beside a wall. It would seem to be necessary to construct a series of classifications for these scattered vegetables which would enable us to calculate to equivalents in future surveys.

The judgments made were all the judgments of the gardener. This means that no absolute standard of failure or success was used. No measurements of yield were made to decide whether it was more, the same, or less than in the previous season.

On the whole the recording schedule took too long to administer for it to be wholly efficient. A moderately stocked garden involved an hour or more of work, and fatigue tended to affect the accuracy of the interviewer's measurements and the gardener’s judgments. The schedule could very well have been cut by half, and the vegetables, fruit and area sections dealt with separately from the rest. As it was, however, the sample of livestock owners obtained was too small to permit of very many conclusions being drawn from the results, and an attempt to deal with livestock in a separate sample would mean a very high proportion of wasted calls.

A further point to be remembered is that while particular crops and fruits are grown mostly in particular parts of the country the sample was not stratified in this respect. The error on highly localised crops may therefore be high.

If the considerations advanced above are taken into account, however, and the figures derived from this inquiry treated with due caution, particularly those obtained from multiplying the sample figures to obtain estimates for England and Wales, the inquiry should, nevertheless, give a fair idea of the extent of private production of fruit and vegetables and food from livestock and enable the Ministry to make estimates on the basis of evidence provided.

This summary of the purpose and method of the inquiry would not be complete, however, if it were not made plain that it was the first inquiry of its kind carried out in this country, and that the lessons learned from it would enable more precise measurements of domestic food production to be made in the future.

There are two possible methods of approach. The first is to use a shortened schedule, perhaps dealing with outdoor vegetables only, and to administer this schedule at least twice in the year to a fairly large random sample of houses with gardens. Methods of measurement of vegetable rows and total area given over to vegetables could be laid down precisely and a check introduced in the schedule, perhaps in the form of a space for a plan of the garden and measurements made. The second is to select a small, highly stratified sample of gardens, and conduct an intensive survey, with month by month visits through the year and actual weighing of crops. It would be possible to utilise such an inquiry to make a complete study of gardening practices also in relation to fertilisers, methods of cultivation and use of produce. It would be valuable, therefore, not only for estimates of production but also as a basis for any educational campaign which may be carried out among private gardeners.

The sections that follow consist largely of tables, interspersed where necessary by comments upon points to be borne in mind when considering them. It should be remembered that this report deals only with the work carried out by the Survey, and that the Ministry of Agriculture has still to make its own calculations from the data presented.