OF AGRICULTURE. 215 



berries, currants, strawberries) has grown from 

 75,000 acres in 1901 to 85,000 in 1908.* In 

 fact, in some counties the acreage has trebled. f 

 Large plantations of fruit have grown lately 

 round London and all the large cities, and the 

 counties of Kent, Devon, Hereford, Somerset, 

 Worcester and Gloucester have now more 

 than 20,000 acres each under fruit orchards, 

 a great proportion of them being of a recent 

 origin. Not only was the area of fruit-growing 

 considerably increased, but, owing to the ex- 

 periments carried on since 1894 at the Woburn 

 Experimental Farm, where different sorts of 

 fruit-trees and small fruit are tested, new varie- 

 ties have been introduced ; and the system is 

 spreading of growing fruit trees of the pyramidal 

 or " bush " form (instead of the old-fashioned 

 standards) a step the advantages of which I 

 was enabled fully to appreciate in 1897 at the 

 Agassiz Experimental Farm in British Columbia. 

 At the same time the culture of small fruit- 

 gooseberries, raspberries, currants, and especially 

 strawberries took an immense development. 

 Enormous quantities of strawberries are now 



* Out of them, 27,000 acres are grown in the fruit orchards, 

 between the apple and cherry tree, so that the total area under 

 fruit orchards and small fruit was reckoned at 808,000 aorea in 

 1908. 



f- "Fruit and Flower Farming," in Encyclopaedia Britan- 

 nica, llth edition, article by J. Weathera. 



