INDUSTRIES 



No sooner has the potato crop been gathered 

 than preparations are made for the planting of 

 cauliflower and broccoli. 1 This accordingly takes 

 place from the middle to the end of June, the 

 seeds having been sown about the middle of 

 March. A continuous supply of these vegetables 

 is secured from November to April by selecting 

 several varieties of seed. For the successful 

 cultivation of broccoli, heavy soil is chosen and 

 ammoniacal manure is used. Reckoning 100 

 crates to the acre, and 14 crates to the ton, 

 land suitably chosen will yield between 7 and 

 8 tons to the acre. The farmer seldom gathers 

 his own broccoli harvest. It pays him better to 

 receive 15 to 20 per acre for the standing 

 crop than to cut, pack, and send it off in crates ; 

 while at the same time the buyer, whose opera- 

 tions usually extend over a wide area, is enabled 

 to meet the demands of the markets by a steady 

 and constant supply. The amount of broccoli 

 from West Cornwall (chiefly from the parishes 

 of Gulval, Madron, Paul, Lelant, Ludgvan, St. 

 Ives, and St. Burian) during the last five years is 

 supplied by the following table : 



1901 

 1902 

 1903 

 1904 

 1905 



Ton3 of broccoli sent 

 off by train. 



l6,9OO 

 I5,2OO 



14,400 

 I9,IOO 



From this it will be seen how extensively this 

 vegetable is cultivated and also that its cultivation 

 is steadily increasing. 



Asparagus is grown successfully at Tregirls, 

 near Padstow, at Varfell in Ludgvan, and, on a 

 smaller scale, in a few other places. Lack of 

 capital deters many from engaging in this very 

 profitable industry. Four years the time 

 required for the plants to mature is considered 

 too long a time to wait for a return. At the 

 same time, it is agreed by all who have given 

 attention to the subject, that the deep sandy 

 loamy soils bordering the Cornish coast, well 

 manured from time to time with seaweed and 

 shell sand, are especially adapted for the culture 

 of asparagus ; and here it may be noted that 

 seaweed as a manure is valuable for every crop, 

 and is very extensively used by market gardeners. 

 It requires to be buried immediately, otherwise 

 the potash, its chief fertilizing ingredient, escapes. 



1 A note in the Bath and West of England Journal, 

 by the late Rev. Thomas Phillpotts, of Porthgwidden, 

 explains the origin of this industry. It states that 

 Mr. Dupen, of Hayle, in the year 1836, took to 

 Bristol, in a boat which plied between those ports, 

 4 dozen of broccoli and sold them at a profit. On 

 his next voyage, in the same year, he took 14 dozen. 

 In the following year one Temby, of Redruth, 

 bought a consignment of broccoli from Benjamin 

 Roberts, of Boscathnoe, and disposed of the same in 

 London. 



At Tregirls asparagus farm as much as Js. >d. 

 has been obtained for early cuttings of 100 

 sticks, and the price seldom falls below 2s. At 

 Varfell 100 sticks have been known to weigh 

 as much as i6j Ib. 



Seakale is another vegetable which thrives in 

 Cornwall. It has been and is still grown in 

 various places with good results. 



Tomatoes, owing to the humidity of the 

 atmosphere, seldom ripen in the open ; but 

 under glass, following an early crop of flowers 

 or other vegetables, they have been found 

 profitable. 



Formerly cucumbers yielded a large margin of 

 profit, as much as 2os. a dozen having been 

 obtained ; but now, owing to the general intro- 

 duction of glass-houses, the supply has increased 

 and the price is no longer sufficient to induce 

 gardeners to devote much attention to their 

 cultivation. 



Fruit-growing is also an important industry. 

 In West Cornwall it has never been extensive, 

 and is probably declining. The raspberry has 

 suffered from the weevil pest, and the strawberry 

 and currant are less cultivated than they were 

 fifty years ago. In Kea parish the plum orchards 

 are still famous both for the black Kea plum, 

 which is peculiar to that parish, and also for red 

 and grey varieties, the latter of which resembles 

 the greengage, though somewhat smaller, and 

 is valuable principally because it is the first to 

 ripen. Apples are grown chiefly in the hundred 

 of Stratton. 



In East Cornwall fruit-growing has assumed 

 considerable dimensions, and now ranks amongst 

 its most profitable industries. To a successful 

 and well-known horticulturist to whose enter- 

 prise 3 the district owes much of its present 

 prosperity, the writer is indebted for the following 

 account of the industry. 



The district in which cherries (mazzards), 

 strawberries, and raspberries are largely grown 

 comprises the land adjoining or within three 

 miles of the Tamar, from Saltash to Horsebridge 

 in Stoke Climsland ; and embraces the parishes 

 of St. Stephen's by Saltash, Botusfleming, 

 Pillaton, St. Mellion, Landulph, St. Dominick, 

 Calstock, and Stoke Climsland. Of the .fruit 

 grown, by far the most important is the straw- 

 berry, of which the annual output from the 

 district named is, at present, from 200 to 300 

 tons. Next in importance is the raspberry, 

 which produces from 100 to 150 tons annually, 

 and realizes on an average about 21 per ton, 

 the cost of gathering amounting to about 25 per 

 cent. At the time of the fruit harvest work is 

 so urgent that very high wages are paid, women 

 and children earning 31. and men 4*. per day. 

 It is doubtful if cherry-growing has increased 

 during the last thirty years. The cherry is the 

 most uncertain of fruits, and, unlike other fruit, 



1 Mr. J. W. Lawrey, J.P., C.C., of Calstock. 



5 8l 



