The Life of George Stephenson and of his Son Robert Stephenson: Comprising Also a History of the Invention and Introduction of the Railway LocomotiveSmiles, Samuel
History
The Life of George Stephenson and of his Son Robert Stephenson: Comprising Also a History of the Invention and Introduction of the Railway Locomotive
Next, as to the potatoes, vegetables, and fruit brought by rail.
Forty years since, the inhabitants of London relied for their supply
of vegetables on the garden-grounds in the immediate neighborhood of
the metropolis, and the consequence was that they were both very dear
and limited in quantity. But railways, while they have extended the
grazing-grounds of London as far as the Highlands, have at the same
time extended the garden-grounds of London into all the adjoining
counties--into East Kent, Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk, the vale of
Gloucester, and even as far as Penzance in Cornwall. The London,
Chatham and Dover, one of the youngest of our main lines, brought
up from East Kent last year 5279 tons of potatoes, 1046 tons of
vegetables, and 5386 tons of fruit, besides 542 tons of vegetables
from France. The Southeastern brought 25,163 tons of the same produce.
The Great Eastern brought from the eastern counties 21,315 tons of
potatoes, and 3596 tons of vegetables and fruit; while the Great
Northern brought no less than 78,505 tons of potatoes--a large part of
them from the east of Scotland--and 3768 tons of vegetables and fruit.
About 6000 tons of early potatoes were last year brought from Cornwall,
with about 5000 tons of brocoli, and the quantities are steadily
increasing. "Truly London hath a large belly," said old Fuller two
hundred years since. But how much more capacious is it now!
One of the most striking illustrations of the utility of railways
in contributing to the supply of wholesome articles of food to the
population of large cities is to be found in the rapid growth of the
traffic in Milk. Readers of newspapers may remember the descriptions
published some years since of the horrid dens in which London cows
are penned, and of the odious compound sold by the name of milk, of
which the least deleterious ingredient in it was supplied by the "cow
with the iron tail." That state of affairs is now completely changed.
What with the greatly improved state of the London dairies and the
better quality of the milk supplied by them, together with the large
quantities brought by railway from a range of a hundred miles and
more all round London, even the poorest classes in the metropolis are
now enabled to obtain as wholesome a supply of the article as the
inhabitants of most country towns.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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