Commercial Gardening 



7. Schedule of hiring for fruit trees and bushes. 



Annual Rent payable on Per 100 or Portion of Per 1000 Bushes or Portion of 



100 Trees. 1000 or 5000 Raspberries. 



. d. s. d. 



1st year ...... Nil ...... Nil. 



2nd ...... Nil ...... Nil. 



3rd ...... Nil ...... 1 



4th ...... Nil ...... 200 



5th ...... 034 ...... 300 



6th ...... 10 ...... and subsequent years. 



7th ...... 15 ...... 



8th ...... 1 ...... 



9th ..... 1 10 ...... 



10th and subsequent years ...... 2 ...... 



As this particular agreement very nearly captivated one beginner on 

 the lookout for a holding, and might prove seductive to others, it may 

 be worth while staying to see how its provisions will work out. If the 

 land were fully planted with half-standard trees and bushes, as is the 

 custom generally in Kent, the landlord would have to provide, roughly 



s. d. 

 160 maiden trees per acre at 40s. per 100 ... ... 340 



1000 bushes 80s. per 1000 ... 400 



Total expenditure of landlord per acre ... 740 



In the case of the bushes he is two years without interest. Allowing 

 5 per cent at compound interest his 4 will have grown to 4, 8s. 2cZ., 

 for which he receives on the third year 1 or 20 per cent, which is doubled 

 on the fourth year, increased by 50 per cent the fifth year, and thereafter 

 remains at the modest figure of something over 65 per cent per annum. 



On the fruit trees he gets no return for four years, by which time his 

 3, 4s. has increased to 3, 15s. Id. In the fifth year he gets 3s. 4c?., nearly 

 5 per cent, but on the sixth year he gets 10s., and by the tenth year, when 

 high-water mark is reached, he is receiving 40 per cent per annum, and 

 at this figure the charge remains till the termination of the tenancy or 

 the end of the tenant's resources, whichever comes first. The only deduc- 

 tions from these returns the landlord has to suffer is the cost of replacing 

 trees or bushes that die during the first two years. Now, how does the 

 tenant fare? He has to pay the rent of the land from the commencement 

 of the tenancy, which in the case under consideration was to be 2, 10s. 

 per acre. On this also he pays rates. He has to clean and prepare the land, 

 to plant it, to provide and fix the wire netting, to keep the land clean, 

 to prune and tend the trees, and if any trees or bushes die after the 

 second year to replace them and still pay hire to the landlord for them. 

 His expenditure will amount to 20 for the first year, and by the third 

 year it will have grown to 35 per acre, from which he has not received 

 one penny of return, unless indeed he has managed to take a catch crop 



