21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36

4. ADVICE AND PUBLICITY

This section is based on a number of questions about advice and about publicity which were common to both gardeners and allotment holders.

Where necessary the answers have been analysed by occupation group, by urban and rural and by region. It was not considered that family size was relevant to these questions.

4.1 The section began by a direct question to find out whether or not gardeners (from now on gardeners will be taken as including allotment gardeners, as well as household gardeners) had had any difficulty in getting advice. The answer was overwhelmingly ‘No’, 91% said that they had had no difficulty, 2% found that they had had difficulty and 7% stated that they did not need advice.

Refers to paragraph 4.1

4.1 2 ANALYSIS BY URBAN AND RURAL AREAS

There was a small difference between urban and rural areas, 12% of the rural gardeners saying that they did not need advice, compared with 7% of the urban gardeners.

4.1 3 The analysis by occupation group and region showed very small differences, the South, South West and Wales having the highest proportion who did not need advice and the North the lowest, but these differences were so small that they may not be significant.

4.2 Question 12 asked “Have you noticed any of the advertisements of the Ministry of Agriculture?” These answers were divided into ‘Yes’, ‘No’, and ‘Don’t Know’ and those who had answered ‘Yes’ were asked to mention what the advertisement was that they had seen. Over half of the sample said ‘Yes’ they had seen an advertisement; roughly two-fifths had not seen an advertisement; and there was a small group who did not know whether they had or not.

4.2 1 ANALYSIS BY OCCUPATION GROUP

The highest proportion who had seen advertisements were to be found in the two clerical groups and the lowest proportion in the group of retired persons.

Refers to pargraph 4.2 1

4.2 2 ANALYSIS BY REGION

The differences were rather small, but suggested that a rather lower proportion of persons living in the Midlands had seen advertisements than elsewhere.

4.2 3 ANALYSIS BY URBAN AND RURAL AREAS

About 55% of persons living in towns had seen the advertisements compared with 47% living in the country. This difference though statistically significant is very small.

4.2 4 ADVERTISEMENTS SEEN

When the question was asked “What advertisements had gardeners seen” a very large proportion, 45% were unable to identify any particular advertisement. Of the rest the “Dig for Victory” advertisement was mentioned most frequently, followed by “Grow your own vegetables for next year” and the “Cropping Plan”. The remainder were spread over a very wide range from “Rabbit Keeping” to the “Colorado Beetle”. A full list is given in the table below:-

Refers to paragraph 4.2 4

4.2 5 The samples in the further analysis of this detailed question were too small to be significant.

4.3 WRITTEN NOTES MADE ABOUT ADVERTISED ADVICE

The persons who had seen some of the publicity were asked “If they had made a written note of any particular piece of advice”; about 20% said that they had. This is 9.8% of all gardeners.

There were a few small differences in the further analyses, but they are of doubtful significance. Rather more persons living in towns than in the country said that they had made a written note of advice and there was a difference between the North and the Midlands. Nearly 25% of the North sample had made notes compared with 15% of the Midlands sample. In the occupation groups the clerical workers and the housewives had a higher proportion taking notes than the manual workers and the retired group.

Refers to paragraph 4.3

4.4 SUGGESTIONS ACTED UPON

The gardeners who had seen advertisements were further asked “If they had acted on any of the suggestions made in the publicity” and 30% of them said that they had. This is 16% of all gardeners.

4.4 1 ANALYSIS BY REGION

The regional analysis showed that the proportion in the Midlands was rather lower than elsewhere and particularly than that of the North.

Refers to paragraphs and 4.4 and 4.4 1

4.4 2 There were no very considerable differences between the occupation groups, although the number in clerical group who had acted on suggestions was possibly a little higher than in the others. There was no difference between the urban and rural groups.

4.5 MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE’S CROPPING PLAN

Three questions were asked about the response to the Ministry of Agriculture’s Cropping Plan; they were numbers 14 and 15 and No. 27. The gap between 15 and 27 was arranged in order that questions 14 and 15 should not act as a prompt to question 27 since it was hoped to discover how far the publicity had a unrealised affect on the behaviour of gardeners.

4.5 1 The first question 14 asked “Have you seen the Ministry of Agriculture’s Cropping Plan;” 41% of our sample said that they had seen it, 57% had not seen it and 2% were not sure.

4.5 2 ANALYSIS BY OCCUPATION GROUP

This analysis tends to show that the clerial workers groups had a higher proportion that had seen the Cropping Plan, whereas the unskilled manual workers and retired persons and housewives had the lowest proportions.

Refers to paragraphs 4.5 1 and 4.5 2

4.5 3 ANALYSIS BY URBAN AND RURAL AREAS

Rather more urban gardeners had seen the Cropping Plan than rural gardeners; 43% compared with 30%.

4.5 4 ANALYSIS BY REGION

The analysis by region shows that the North and East and South East have a larger proportion who have seen the Cropping Plan than the other regions.

Refers to paragraph 4.5 4

4.5 5 Question 15 went on to ask of those persons who had seen the Cropping Plan whether or not they had made any use of it. Roughly half of those who had seen it had made some use of it and of this class rather more were in the clerical and housewife groups and less in the retired groups. The differences, however, were very small.

4.5 6 There were no significant differences between the urban and rural sections of this sample.

4.5 7 ANALYSIS BY REGION

There were small significant differences between the regions. The East and South East had the lowest proportion who had made use of the plan, whereas the North had the highest proportion. These results do not correspond with the results of Question 14 where the highest proportion who had seen the plan was in the East and South East which had the lowest proportion making use of it.

If the percentages given in table 34 are expressed as a proportion of all gardeners the results are, North 24% Midlands 21%, East and South-east 19% and South West and Wales 17%.

Refers to paragraph 4.3 7

REASONS FOR DECIDING ON CROPPINC PLAN

4.5 8 Question 27 which asked “What made you decide on your Cropping Plan” came after a number of other questions had been asked. It received a wide variety of answers. These were grouped and it was found that although 20% of our sample had actually used the Ministry of Agriculture’s Cropping Plan, according to the answers to Questions 14 and 15 only 7% of a somewhat smaller sample that answered Question 27 mentioned the Ministry of Agriculture’s advertisements. A larger proportion, however, 27% of the answers to Question 27 said that their cropping was planned in relation to their food requirements and this category undoubtedly embraces a very great number of people who obtained the idea of planning their cultivation from the Cropping Plan of the Ministry.

The largest category was that of experience and commonsense.

Refers to paragraph 4.5 8

It should be noticed that only about 7% of our sample said that they had no plan in their cultivation.

4.5 9 ANALYSIS BY OCCUPATION GROUP

In an analysis so detailed as this the margins of error on each particular item are very large so that it is not possible to attach very much weight to differences between the occupation groups. It does, however, suggest that direct publicity was most realised by the clerical workers, experience and commonsense was given by a larger proportion of retired persons and manual workers and that housewives were most dependent on advice from friends and neighbours.

4.5 10 ANALYSIS BY URBAN AND RURAL AREAS AND BY REGIONS

There were no significant differences between the urban and rural samples and the differences between the regions were quite small although the North, South, South West and Wales appear to be least dependent on experience and commonsense and to have a larger proportion who planned in relation to needs. The Midlands had the highest proportion which mentioned the publicity. The differences here, however, were quite small.

4.5 10 REASONS GIVEN FOR DECIDING ON CROPPING PLAN BY GARDENERS WHO HAD SEEN THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE’S PLAN

In this analysis the stated reasons given in Question 27 about the Cropping Plan were analysed into two groups, those given by the gardeners who said they had seen the cropping plan and those given by gardeners who said they had not seen the cropping plan.

There is a considerable difference between the two groups. Of those who had seen the cropping plan 16% said that the reason that they had decided on their particular arrangements of crops was the Ministry of Agriculture’s advertisements, papers or radio announcements, whereas those who had not seen the advertisement contained only who attributed their cropping plan to either the Ministry of Agriculture’s advertisements, notices in the newspapers or advice on the radio. Similarly 6.5% of the gardeners who had seen the cropping plan said that their decisions were based on information contained in a leaflet, whereas less than 1% of those who had not seen the plan were in this category.

Refers to paragraph 4.5 10

This shows very clearly the effect of seeing the cropping plan on the ultimate decisions of the gardeners. The fact that these two questions were very widely separated in the questionnaire made it unlikely that one would prompt the other.

REASONS GIVEN BY GARDENERS WHO HAD USED THE CROPPING PLAN

4.5 11 A further analysis was made of those gardeners who said that they had made use of the Ministry of Agriculture’s cropping plan and these were compared with those who had not made use of the plan. In this analysis the same features are demonstrated to an even greater extent. Those attributing their cropping plan to the Ministry of Agriculture’s a advertisements are 28% of those who made use of the cropping plan compare with 3% of those who did not make use of the plan. Of the first group 12% attributed their plan to leaflets and only 2% of those who had not made use of the plan mentioned leaflets - which included publications of Local Authorities and private firms.

On the other hand it follows from the rest of the answers that the use made of the Ministry of Agriculture’s cropping plan was only to modify “experience”, “common sense”, or “habit”, or “advice from friends or neighbours”, or to help in “planning in relation to food requirements” since these categories accounted for the other 60% of the reasons given by those who stated that they had made use of the cropping plan.

It is obvious from this result that the cropping plan although used as the main guide by perhaps 40% of this sample (that is about 10% of all gardeners), was also used to supplement experience or other advice, in the case of the remaining 60% (that is 15% of the whole sample).

Refers to paragraph 4.5 11

4.5 12 CONSULTATION OF WIVES IN RELATION TO CROPPING PLAN

58% of the sample that answered this question said that they had consulted their wives, 42% said that they had not. The very large number of gardeners who did not answer this question - apart from those to whom it did not apply - suggests that the ‘No’s’ in this section should be weighted a little; so the truth is probably that about half of our gardeners consulted their wives about their cropping plan.

There was no significant difference between the occupation groups, except in the case of retired and unoccupied gardeners where the proportion was almost half that of the rest. There was a difference between the urban and rural sample, 59% of the urban sample consulted their wives compared with 48% of the rural sample. As there were no differences in the proportions of ‘Not answered’ it does appear that the urban husband consults his wife rather more on these matters than the rural husband.

4.5 13 ANALYSIS BY REGION

There were also differences between the regions, the North and East and South East with a higher proportion of husbands consulting their wives than the Midlands and South, South West and Wales, the proportions being 64%, 61%, 54% and 48% respectively. The proportions of ‘Not answered’ were much higher in the Midlands and higher in the South, South West and Wales, and on the assumption that most of these ‘Not answered’ should, in fact, be no to the question this considerably re-inforces the conclusion.

Refers to paragraphs 4.5 12 and 4.5 13

4.6 DIG FOR VICTORY LEAFLETS OBTAINED

Question 16 asked “Have you obtained any of the “Dig for Victory” leaflets and if so which”? About 44% of our sample stated that they had obtained some “Dig for Victory” leaflets; 52% had not and 4% did not know. The proportions in the clerical workers group and the skilled manual workers group appear to be a little higher than those of the other three groups. There was a small difference between the town and the country suggesting that the urban gardeners had had more leaflets than rural gardeners. Amongst the regions the north had the greatest proportion and the south, south west and Wales the lowest. All these differences, however, were quite small.

4.6 1 THE LEAFLETS OBTAINED

Although more than 1,200 gardeners claimed that they had obtained some “Dig for Victory” leaflets, nearly 700 of them were unable to state specifically what the leaflet was. In many cases the leaflet was undoubtedly the local publication, in some cases, possibly a commercial publication and they had all been grouped together under the general heading of “Dig for Victory” by our informants.

Of the rest a few leaflets were mentioned more often than others; they were “Grow for winter as well as for Summer”, “Garden Pests”, “Potato Blight” and “Manure from the Garden Rubbish”. The details are given in Table 39 below.

Refers to Paragraph 4.6 1

It should be noted that the Ministry of Agriculture’s Cropping Plan which had been the subject of previous questions is not mentioned here. It is likely that a large proportion of the 600 gardeners who had used it and the 1,200 who had seen it had obtained it. This should be borne in mind when considering the table above.

4.7 REFERENCE BOOKS

Going further into the problem of the source of gardening knowledge, question 17 asked “Do you use a reference book on gardening” and asked those who had such a book “If they could say what its name was.” 36% of our sample stated that they used a book of reference.

4.7 1 ANALYSIS BY OCCUPATION GROUP

The result of this analysis bears out the general tendencies that have already been noted that the clerical workers and particularly the skilled clerical workers are much more “intellectual” in their approach to gardening. 50% of skilled clerical workers and 44% of unskilled clerical workers used books of reference, compared with 27% of retired persons and 28% of unskilled manual workers.

Refers to paragraphs 4.7 and 4.7 1

4.7 2 ANALYSIS BY URBAN AND RURAL AREAS

37% of the urban gardeners used a book of reference compared with 30% of the rural sample.

4.7 3 ANALYSIS BY REGION

There were no significant differences between the regions.

REFERENCE BOOKS MENTIONED

4.7 4 There was a large number of reference books mentioned and over 40% of them were only mentioned once. A further 11% could not be named by the gardeners who used them. The most frequently mentioned book was Sudell’s Encyclopaedia. This was followed by the Vegetable Garden Displayed; catalogues and the publications of newspapers were the other main groups.

Refers to paragraph 4.7 4

4.8 GARDENING PAPERS

About 12% of our sample took a gardening paper. There were no very large differences between the occupation groups, although housewives and retired persons took rather less than the other groups. There were also no important differences between urban and rural areas or between the regions although the North appeared to have a slightly greater proportion than the other regions, particularly the South, South West and Wales.

The most popular gardening paper was “Amateur Gardening” which was read by 47% of the 352 persons who gave particulars of the paper that they read. This was followed by the “Small Holder”, 31% and “Popular Gardening” 12%. Others which were mentioned were “Garden Work for Amateurs”, “The Gardening Chronicle” and “Home Gardening”.

Refers to paragraph 4.8

4.9 NEWSPAPER GARDENING NOTES

In Question 19 gardeners were asked whether they read the gardening notes in their daily newspaper regularly; it was found that 77% of our sample did this. This appears to be the principal source of gardening knowledge.

4.9 1 ANALYSIS BY OCCUPATION GROUP

The differences between the occupation groups are very small; if anything the manual workers and the unskilled clerical workers have a slightly higher proportion reading Gardening Notes than the other groups.

4.9 2 ANALYSIS BY URBAN AND RURAL AREAS

78% of urban workers read the Gardening Notes in their daily paper regularly compared with 68% of the rural gardeners.

4.9 3 ANALYSIS BY REGION

There is no significant difference between the regions.

4.9 4 THE NEWSPAPERS

The daily newspaper which was most mentioned was the “Daily Express”, followed by the “Daily Herald”, “News Chronicle”, “Daily Mail” and “Daily Mirror”. Of the Sunday newspapers the “News of the World”, “The People” and the “Sunday Express” received the greatest proportion of mentions. Another large group was Local day and evening papers and London evening papers. The details are given in Table 43.

Refers to paragraph 4.9 4

4.10 GARDENING ADVICE FROM LOCAL ALLOTMENT SECRETARIES AND PARK SUPERINTENDENTS

Gardeners were asked “Whether or not they had consulted either the local Allotment Secretary or the local Park Superintendent about their gardening problems”; 21% of our sample said that they had consulted the Allotment Secretary and 8% had consulted the Park Superintendent.

As the total who had consulted either of these authorities was thus rather small it is difficult to attach any significance to the differences between the occupation groups, the regions or the urban and rural samples. Very tentatively, however, it looks as though the skilled manual workers among the occupation groups had the largest proportion who had consulted either of these authorities. Town dwellers had a slightly higher proportion than country dwellers and the north and Midlands higher proportions than the other regions.

128 gardeners had consulted both the Allotment Secretary and the Park Superintendent.

4.11 DEMONSTRATION PLOTS

Another important local advice and education service is the provision of demonstration plots; questions were therefore asked to discover whether gardeners had visited demonstration plots in their parks or allotments. These questions were answered by 2,343 gardeners, rather less than the whole sample. The answers fall into three main groups; those that had visited the plot 27% of the sample, those who had not 57% of the sample and a further group who did not know of the existence of a demonstration plot 17% of the sample.

4.11 1 The clerical workers had the highest proportion who had visited demonstration plots and the greatest difference was between the skilled clerical workers and the housewives, 34% compared with 17%. The rest of the groups were very near to the average.

4.11 2 ANALYSIS BY URBAN AND RURAL AREAS

29% of urban gardeners had visited a demonstration plot compared with 11% of the rural sample. The rural sample had more than twice as many gardeners who did not know of the existence of a demonstration plot as the urban sample. This is, of course, to be expected since demonstration plots are a part of an organised “Dig for Victory” Campaign which is less often found in the country than in the town.

4.11 3 ANALYSIS BY REGION

This analysis shows that the North and Midlands have the highest proportion of persons who had visited the demonstration plot, 31% and 34% respectively. The answer “Don’t know of it” was given in two types of case, in that where there no demonstration plots in the district in others where there were plots but the gardeners were not aware of them, this makes it difficult to interpret the differences in this category.

Refers to paragraphs 4.11 and 4.11 3

4.12 BROADCAST TALKS ABOUT GARDENING

In question 23 a series of questions were asked about broadcast talks, they asked what talks were listened to and from these the proportions who did listen or did not were obtained. Gardeners were also asked if they had acted on any of the advice given or made notes of any particular items.

72% of the sample having wireless sets said that they did listen to gardening talks. This proportion is slightly less than was found read the gardening notes in their daily paper. The numbers answering this question were 2,773 out of a total of 2,921.

4.12 1 There were no significant differences between the occupation groups or between town and country.

4.12 2 In the regions, however, it appeared that the North listened a little less than the rest of the country, but the difference was quite small.

4.13 BROADCAST TALKS LISTENED TO

79% of those listening to broadcast talks mentioned Mr. Middleton, - In your Garden - 13% listened to the Radio Allotment and 13% Over the Border, Mr. Roy Hay was mentioned by 4%.

Refers to paragraph 4.13

4.14 THE EXTENT TO WHICH GARDENERS HAVE ACTED UPON BROADCAST ADVICE

720 gardeners in our sample said that they had acted upon some of the advice given over the wireless. This was 36% of those who listened to radio talks on gardening and about a quarter of the total sample. A further analysis of this small number would not have given significant results.

The subjects upon which action had been taken were very many and the items mentioned most often were tomatoes and pests.

Refers to paragraph 4.14

4.15 NOTES MADE ON INFORMATION GIVEN IN BROADCAST TALKS

The taking of notes about any advice given in broadcast talks is most rare as has been found from previous investigations, particularly of the Kitchen Front broadcast. In this case, only 194 gardeners said that they had ever taken notes on broadcast information; this is only 10% of those listening in and less than 7% of the total sample. Manuring and Tomatoes were the subjects mentioned specifically most often.

Refers to Paragraph 4.15

4.1 6 OTHER SOURCES FROM WHICH GARDENING INFORMATION IS OBTAINED

The question about other sources of gardening information followed after those about broadcasting and newspaper publicity and excluded both these sources of advice.

The most important source was “other gardeners” which accounted for 84% of those who obtained information; these were 44% of the whole sample. The other sources were many and some of them overlapped with the answers given in previous questions, for example about 6% mentioned books or seed catalogues.

It will be seen that about 52% of the sample used other sources to obtain information and 48% did not.

Refers to paragraph 4.16

4.16 1 Although it was not possible to draw any conclusion from the details of the sources given in relation to occupation groups, urban and rural or region samples, there were differences within these groups between those who had other sources of information and those who had not. These differences may to some extent, reflect the desire of particular groups for further information. The group having the greatest proportion who had used other sources to obtain information were the unskilled clerical and skilled manual workers, followed by the skilled clerical and housewife groups and the unskilled manual group. The group having the smallest proportion was the retired group.

Refers to Paragraph 4.16 1

4.16 2 ANALYSIS BY URBAN AND RURAL AREAS

This analysis shows that the town gardener had used more sources than the country garden in his search for gardening advice. 60% of town gardeners had used other sources compared with 47% of country gardeners.

4.16 3 ANALYSIS BY REGION

There was a small difference in the regional analysis suggesting that the Midlands and East and South East had a greater proportion using other sources for gardening information than the South, South West and Wales and the North, but the differences were quite small except between the Midlands at one end and the North at the other where the proportions were 65% and 54% respectively.

4.17 POTATO SPRAYING

In order to find out to what extent it was possible to impart technical information by means of a publicity campaign two questions were asked about potato spraying. The first was “Have you noticed the publicity about Potato Spraying” and the second question was “Do you know why this is important?”

In answer to the first question it was found that 62% of our sample had seen the publicity about potato spraying and 38% had not. The occupation groups in which the proportion who had seen the publicity was highest were the skilled manual workers and the skilled clerical workers and lowest proportion was in the housewife group. The proportion was also slightly higher in the town than in the country and in the East and South East (which includes London) in the regions.

The second question was “Do you know why this is important” and the correct answers might be either that it prevents blight or that in certain industrial districts potatoes should not be sprayed as industrial fumes mixed with the spray might do damage to the plant.

94% of those answering the question gave correct answers;6% gave incorrect answers and of these half mentioned the Colorado Beetle an understandable mistake in view of the publicity which has been given to this particular pest.

4.17 1 There was no significant difference between the occupation groups or between the urban and rural sample.

4.17 2 The quality of the information, however, is demonstrated by the regional analysis; this shows that the second correct answer that potatoes should not be sprayed in industrial regions was given by 30% of the gardeners who answered this question in the northern region.

This question was answered by 2,137 out of our sample of almost 3,000. It is likely, therefore, that some portion of the persons who did not answer this question may not have understood the importance of potato spraying and the results should therefore be weighted to take this into consideration. At the worst, however, 1,782 persons or 62% had noticed the Potato Spraying publicity, and 2,002 or 69% gave the correct answer to the questions.

Refers to paragraphs 4.17 and 4.17 2

4.18 COMPOST HEAPS

Another question designed to check the effectiveness of technical advice was “Have you a compost heap”? This question differed from the previous one in so far as it was concerned with practice rather than, theory. It is interesting to notice that 71% of our sample which was in this case 2,882, had a compost heap.

4.18 1 ANALYSIS BY OCCUPATION GROUPS

There were small occupational differences the largest being between skilled clerical workers, - 83% and unskilled manual workers – 64%.

4.18 2 ANALYSIS BY URBAN AND RURAL AREAS

There was a small difference between the urban and rural samples, the urban sample having slightly more than the rural; 71%, against 65%.

4.18 3 ANALYSIS BY REGIONS

There were also differences between the regions, the East and South East having 77%, the North 77%, the South, South West and Wales 69% and the Midlands 56%. This difference may, in some measure, reflect the relative availability of natural manures - a major part of the East and South East sample was taken in the London Area.

4.19 ARRANGING TIME FOR GARDENING

Question 28 asked (a) “How do you arrange your time for gardening?” and (b) “do you have any difficulty in finding time”?

Most of our sample either did their gardening in their spare time - which they did not specify - or else in the evening. The week-ends were also important.

Refers to paragraph 4.19

4.19 1 DIFFICULTY IN FINDING TIME

56% of gardeners found that they had no difficulty in finding time for their gardens, 25% found difficulty, but did not specify what it was and a further 13% simply said they were short of time, 5% gave civil defence duties and home guard duties as being the reason for their difficulty and 43 of housewives said that having children to care for made it difficult to find gardening time.

4.20 HELP IN GARDENING FROM THE WIFE OR FROM CHILDREN

Of the 2,204 gardeners who had wives able to help them, 43% received such help and 57% did not.

4.20 1 ANALYSIS BY OCCUPATION GROUPS

The only significant difference in the occupation groups was between retired persons and others; only 17% of retired gardeners received help from their wives.

4.20 2 ANALYSIS BY URBAN AND RURAL AREAS AND BY REGIONS

There were no significant differences in the urban and rural results, but an interesting difference between the East and South East and the other regions. In the East and South East 50% of gardeners were helped by their wives, compared with 42% in the South, South West and Wales, 42% in the Midlands and 39% in the North.

4.20 3 The analysis of gardeners who receive help from their children showed somewhat different results. 37% of our sample, in this case 1,270 families to whom the question applied received help from their children and 63% did not. In this analysis the highest proportions were found in unskilled, manual and the unskilled clerical groups 40% and the lowest in the skilled manual, skilled clerical and retired groups – 31%, 32%, 23% respectively. There was a small difference between the urban and rural sample, the rural sample having slightly more gardeners who were helped by their children. The difference between the regions was unlike that of the previous question. The South, South West and Wales had the greatest proportion followed by the East and South East, the North and the Midlands, the proportions being 43%, 39%, 35% and 27% respectively.

4. 21 ADVICE AND PUBLICITY, CONCLUSIONS

The material on publicity and on advice, is so varied and complex that it was thought better to attempt a short summary of the main points.

4.21 1 DIFFICULTY

The main conclusion which can be drawn from the questions about obtaining advice is that our sample was not conscious of any difficulty in obtaining advice on gardening problems.

4.21 2 PUBLICITY

Questions were asked about the main sources of gardening information and specific answers were obtained about leaflets, gardening papers, notes in newspapers, broadcasts, the advice service of the local authorities, demonstration plots and other sources. The answers to these questions showed that notes in newspapers were the most used source of gardening information, being read by 77% of gardeners, broadcasts were listened to by about 70% of all gardeners, Mr. Middleton being by far the most popular broadcaster. Leaflets had been obtained by of gardeners, but only 19% of gardeners could specifically name the leaflet that they had obtained. The officials of the local authorities had been used by about one-third of all gardeners, 21% had seen their local Allotment Secretary and 8% their local Park Superintendent, 4% had seen both. Reference books were used by about one-third of our sample and gardening papers were taken by 12%.

58% of our sample said that they had other sources of gardening information and in most of the cases these were other gardeners.

The publicity of the Ministry of Agriculture had been seen by over one-half of the sample, but only one-quarter could mention the particular poster or advertisement that they had seen, about one-fifth had acted on on the advice given and about one-tenth of the sample had made written notes of points of interest.

About 41% had seen the Cropping Plan. As the Cropping Plan was not mentioned in the answers about the Ministry’ s publicity this group may possibly account for almost all of those who had mentioned publicity, but could not specify what it was. It seems likely from this that although many gardeners could not say exactly what notice they had read, when prompted they were able to recall some specific item.

The Cropping Plan was the main guide for perhaps 10% of gardeners in planning their cultivation and was used to supplement their own ideas by about a further 15%.

There were certain differences within these broad results. The Clerical workers on the whole seem to be more influenced by printed publicity than the other occupation groups, for example over one-half of the skilled clerical workers used a reference book. The retired group appeared to be most impervious to publicity and the most self contained. The urban sample, as might have been expected, was more affected by publicity than the rural sample and the North and East and South East, including London, were more affected than the other regions.

Two check questions were put in to attempt to measure the effect of publicity apart from the acknowledgment by the gardener that they had seen or read certain items. The question which asked about potato spraying showed that 62% of our sample had seen the publicity and that 68.5% knew why it was important or knew why potatoes should not be sprayed in their particular district. The second question which asked whether or not the gardener had a compost heap was answered affirmatively by 75% of all gardeners.

These latter two answers seem to show that where considerable campaign has been conducted the information does get across and that it does have an effect on practice. On the other hand the results on the Cropping Plan questions show quite clearly than in certain respects very much more needs to be accomplished.