68 A GLOUCESTERSHIRE FRUIT FARM 



be created, in the form either of a co-operative organiza- 

 tion or of a syndicate, and that such intermediary 

 undertook the whole responsibility, trouble, and expense 

 of erecting cottages and other necessary buildings 

 required for settling the small holders, paying you an 

 agreed rental under the terms of a lease, would not 

 that meet the position, and would you then be willing 

 to let some portion of your estate to such a body for the 

 purposes in question ?' To this inquiry Mr. Andrews 

 replied at once in the affirmative, saying that, although 

 he would not be disposed to sell, he would be willing to 

 let any quantity of land under lease for long periods and 

 on suitable terms. He would even be willing, he added, 

 to give up, for experimental purposes, if desired, some 

 portions of land already planted with fruit, so that the 

 small holders could begin operations at once, without 

 having to wait for the coming to maturity of trees and 

 bushes on land previously undeveloped. 



This sympathetic attitude on the part of a large land- 

 owner, himself conducting an important commercial 

 undertaking connected with the land, is, I think, well 

 worth recording, and I am inclined to think there are 

 many other land-owners in the country who would be 

 equally ready to act on the same lines. Mr. Andrews 

 was further of opinion, however, that something should 

 be done beyond merely putting small fruit-growers on 

 the soil ; and I found he was especially keen on the 

 establishment of central experimental farms, where the 

 various problems connected with fruit culture on prin- 

 ciples at once scientific and commercially sound could 

 be effectively worked out. If, he said, such a farm were 

 set up in that district by the Government (and he 

 thought it most desirable that experimental farms 

 should have the status of Government institutions), he 

 would be quite willing to afford facilities, or assist, in 



