“20. In my view, the many cases relied upon in argument establish a clear, coherent and correct principle in relation to the meaning of market garden: activities which are merely preparatory, ancillary or incidental to, or remote from, the cultivation of the mature product are not such as to qualify as a market garden; but activities proximate to its final stage will suffice. These abstract terms must then be applied, with common sense and sound judgment, to the specific facts of any particular case. I accept that it lacks the certainty of a hard and fast rule, but I do not believe it will be a difficult test to apply and its advantages manifestly outweigh the minimal lack of certainty. 21. On the facts of this case, I have no doubt that the appellants are correct in insisting that their hereditament is a market garden. The bulk of the cultivation and growing take place there; the mushroom mycelium that is passed on is a living, growing, animate product – inchoate mushrooms so to speak – that will itself in just two to three weeks, with minimal intervention, yield mushrooms for harvesting. It is not a compost or fertiliser that will merely stimulate growth; it is not like a seed potato that will be used for propagation; it is not akin to an experimental bulb or the cultivation of seeds; it is not something that needs elaborate and extensive treatment to turn it into something else before the final product can begin to be cultivated; it is not a product a long way from maturity. 22. It is also to be noted that the transfer of the product to growing-on farms, as occurs here, is in accordance with contemporary industry practice. It is grounded in sound commercial practice and gives rise to better, healthier, higher quality mushrooms that would be grown if the material remained in situ. I infer from this that an interpretation that encouraged a mushroom-grower to abandon this division would be unlikely to further the legislative intention or purpose and would be inimical to the public interest. That alone would not, of course, determine the issue, but it cannot be without significance 23. I am fortified in my conclusion by the fact that “nursery ground” is an alternative basis for the exemption, which exemplifies something of the legislation’s purpose, whether or not this hereditament actually qualifies as such; and by the fact that recognising the exemption on these facts avoids a result both anomalous and irrational.”
“the conception of a market garden is not a legal conception. It depends upon the mode and, and entirely upon the mode, in which the soil is being cultivated.”
“In the case of an ordinary farm the agricultural operations are those carried on outside the buildings, and the use of the buildings must be in connection with those operations. But market gardens commonly include glass-houses. They may be so extensive that the only agricultural operations in the market garden are those carried on in those buildings. And, even where crops are also grown outside, the use of the glass-houses is often not in connection with the agricultural operations on the land outside.”