FRUIT GROWING 53 



were six acres, which meant in plain language 

 that each year the cultivation was to be so 

 intensive and the crops so good that each 

 acre must give a return of ^5 to pay for the 

 rent alone, and quite four times that sum to 

 pay for labour and cultivation and to give 

 two or three per cent, on my capital. (I 

 think I started by putting in 200.) Well, 

 in other words, I must make i 20 per annum 

 out of the crops straight away. It was not 

 pointed out to me that for several years this 

 piece of land had been out of cultivation, that 

 it was choked with weeds, and that there was 

 no depth of soil over a subsoil of gravel. 

 It was in October that my ardour was kindled, 

 and in October and November weeds, as a 

 rule, are not especially aggressive. So with 

 a light heart I wrote to the best and most 

 expensive growers for catalogues of their 

 fruit trees, and as I ordered them almost 

 at catalogue price instead of wholesale, which 

 every market gardener ought to insist upon 

 having I had visions of my garden being 



