1. SAMPLE

The size of the sample was based on the results of two earlier inquiries carried out by the Wartime Social Survey, one of which indicated the approximate number of gardens growing vegetables, and the other the extent to which the different kinds of vegetables were grown. It was designed to give not less than a 100 gardens in which the least popular vegetable was grown. This design failed in the case of three kinds of vegetables only.

The sample was stratified by Region, Urban and Rural district, and size of town, and was restricted to England and Wales. In each of the forty-one towns and districts chosen + , a random sample of households was taken from the local Rating Lists, and it was ascertained whether or not each house had a garden, defined as a cultivable plot of ground, and, if it had a garden, whether or not it was cultivated for vegetables or fruit.

It was possible to obtain interview’s at only, 1,419, or 87.5%, of the houses where fruit or vegetables were grown, because, apart from a small number of refusals, it was not possible to find the gardener at home at a convenient hour in the remaining cases. At the 1, 419 houses where interviews were conducted,1,345 grew vegetables, and 939 grew fruit. If one assumes that the 1, 419 are equivalent to the 1,624 this means that 42% of all households grow vegetables and 30% of all households grow fruit.

At each house it was also discovered whether or not livestock was kept.

Only 508 interviews with keepers of livestock could be obtained.. Of these 72% kept laying hens, 58% kept other fowls, 30% kept rabbits, while a small proportion kept each of the remaining livestock listed on the recording schedule.