V Extent to which Different Sorts of Vegetables are Bought .

Housewives were asked whether and how frequently they had bought certain vegetables since Christmas. The list of vegetables about which this information was required was drawn up by the Ministry of Food.

Replies were classified as “Three times or more”, “occasionally" meaning less than three times, and “none bought” since Christmas.

Carrots cabbages, sprouts, savoys, turnips and swedes were bought more frequently than other sorts of vegetables.

Spinach, kale, turnip tops, curly greens, broccoli, sprout tops and onions were bought infrequently.

Since cauliflowers were not on the list a note was made when housewives mentioned spontaneously that they had bought these. 9.3%. said they had bought cauliflowers often and occasionally. However, these should be regarded only as minimum figures as housewives were specifically asked about the other sorts of vegetables, but not about cauliflowers.

Breakdown by areas is as follows.

The tables below show the proportions buying the different sorts of vegetables three or more times and not at all since Christmas in the five areas.

In general, the South shows the highest and London the lowest proportions not buying the various sorts of vegetables. It will be remembered that the South grows most vegetables and London grows least in gardens and allotments.

Scotland also buys rather more vegetables than other regions. Although the incidence of vegetables growing is high in Scotland among those who have gardens, it will be remembered that half of those interviewed in this area had no facilities for growing vegetables.

The proportion buying broccoli is relatively high in the area including the Midlands and Wales. This is mainly accounted for by Wales where 51.7% of housewives had bought broccoli often.

Onions are bought by a higher proportion in London than elsewhere, and it should be added that 31.8% in London bought onions occasionally. The South also shows a rather high proportion buying onions.

Scotland in general shows higher proportions buying root vegetables than London and lower proportions buying green vegetables.

In the North of England a relatively low proportion had bought leeks three or more times, but 27% had bought them occasionally as against 22.2% in the country as a whole.

Turnip tops and sprout tops were bought very much more in London than in other regions.

Breakdown by income group shows some marked differences.

It will be seen that the vegetables most commonly bought, cabbages, sprouts, savoys, turnips, parsnips, swedes and carrots, are bought relatively more frequently by the lower income groups than by the higher, whereas the vegetables that are bought less frequently taking the sample as a whole, broccoli, spinach, kale and onions are bought relatively more frequently by the higher income groups.

Leeks and sprout tops are bought rather more frequently by the lower income groups than by the higher.