Britain should put its pumpkins to better use

SIR – Your photograph (September 15) shows a crop of pumpkins being harvested at a farm in Cambridgeshire, which claims to have around two million ready to pick for Hallowe’en.

Unfortunately, very few of these will be consumed.

Instead, they will be hollowed out and used to house a candle for one night only – then thrown away.

It is a shame that energy, fertilisers, manpower and delivery vehicles (with their consequent pollution) are used in this manner, all for the sake of honouring an American tradition that has been imported to Britain.

Mike Laughton

Harrogate, North Yorkshire