EIGHT HUNDRED ACRES OF FRUIT 63 



large scale. In the one case there is the advantage of 

 close personal attention on the part of the individual 

 grower, assisted by his family, with small outlay for 

 labour ; in the other, important and far-reaching 

 advantages are gained by the wholesale purchase of 

 requirements for the fruit farm, and also the despatch 

 in large quantities of produce by rail to distant parts of 

 the country. Mr. Andrews himself has entered upon 

 a ' very large scale ' experiment, and, though various 

 difficulties have had to be encountered and overcome, 

 he looks forward to the ultimate results with every 

 feeling of confidence. 



The area now under fruit cultivation at Toddington 

 is upwards of 800 acres. Of this, fully 600 acres are 

 planted mainly with plum-trees, 100 acres with apple- 

 trees, and 25 acres with cherry-trees, while a consider- 

 able amount of bush fruit is grown, either in conjunction 

 with the * top ' fruit or in separate fields. In this way 

 there are 40 acres of scarlet, or * Alpine,' strawberries ; 

 100 acres of ordinary strawberries ; 100 acres of rasp- 

 berries ; 100 acres of black currants ; 65 acres of red 

 currants ; 30 acres of gooseberries ; with about 80 acres 

 in course of preparation for other crops of bush fruit. 

 There are, also, 35 acres of nuts, and 6 acres devoted 

 to glass, for the production of grapes, peaches, necta- 

 rines, figs, strawberries, tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, 

 mint, orchids, chrysanthemums, etc. Supplementary 

 to the orchards, there is a large apiary, together with 

 the beginnings of a poultry industry. 



Much replanting has been going on at Toddington, 

 and a good deal of the acreage is not yet in fruit- 

 bearing condition ; yet the actual annual output of fruit 

 grown in the open is already no less than 2,000 tons. 

 In the season of 1904 plums yielded 1,357 tons > damsons 

 200 tons, apples 180 tons, greengages 23 tons, and 



