OF AGRICULTURE. 221 



from the Evesham stations, in addition to large 

 quantities exported from the small stations 

 within a radius of ten miles round Evesham 

 (vol. i., p. 350). The soil, of course, is improved 

 by digging into it large quantities of all sorts 

 of manure soot, fish guano, leather dust for 

 cabbage (chamois dust being the best), and so 

 on and the most profitable sorts of fruit-trees 

 and vegetables are continually tested; all this 

 being, of course, not the work of some scientist 

 or of one single man, but the product of the 

 collective experience of the district. 



It must not be thought, however, that fruit- 

 growing has been overdone. On the contrary, 

 the imports of fruit into the United Kingdom, 

 both for food and for jam-making, continue 

 to be enormous, and to increase every year. 

 Suffice it to say, that this country imports every 

 year about 1,000,000 of tomatoes and 2,000,000 

 of apples, half a million worth of pears, nearly 

 730,000 worth of grapes giving thus a total 

 of 4, 200, 000 worth of all fruit. And at the same 

 time we learn that immense quantities of land 

 go every year out of culture, to be transformed 

 into game reserves for rich Englishmen and 

 foreigners. 



Finally, I also ought to mention the recent 

 development of fruit culture near the Broads 

 of Norfolk, and especially in Ireland ; but the 



