14 OUR ENGLISH LAND MUDDLE. 



and its tributaries had hops as his chief crop ; 

 in the valley of the Huon, apples. Thames-side 

 farms in the early days of England must have 

 resembled very closely the Huon River farms of 

 to-day — long strips of ground taking in a little 

 of the precious river frontage, and stretching 

 far back into the rougher hill country behind, and 

 using the different grades of soil for different 

 kinds of culture. 



Let me describe a typical small Huon River 

 farm on which I have often worked ' for the 

 fun of the thing." The little strip of land 

 nearest the river — very fat soil indeed — was 

 devoted to grain or to a quickly growing fodder 

 crop. The foot-hill then — the soil rich and 

 very well drained — grew apples, the trees planted 

 and pruned so as to be very low in the barrel 

 and very open in the branch, with nothing at all 

 allowed to rob the soil beneath, though there 

 would often be a " green manure " crop grown, 

 not for fodder, but to be ploughed in for the 

 enrichment of the fruit trees. Scarlet pearmains 

 were the fashion just then at Covent Garden — 

 the destination of the best of the fruit — and 

 most of the trees of H 's farm produced that 



