58 SPECIALIST FARMING: HOPS AND FRUIT 



strawberries or other small fruit below ; after ten or 

 twelve years' growth the land is sown down to grass 

 and kept heavily stocked with sheep receiving cake 

 and corn. The land must always be closely grazed ; 

 indeed, the best cherry orchards possess a sward like 

 a lawn ; it has been found that the grass covering 

 checks rank growth and keeps the trees in bearing ; it 

 also helps to absorb any rain that falls when the fruit 

 is ripening, rain which otherwise would cause the 

 fruit to crack. The returns from a good cherry 

 orchard are sometimes remarkable, up to the freehold 

 value of the land ; but, as with all fruit crops, they are 

 variable in the extreme indeed, fruit would be as 

 speculative as hops had not the grower usually a range 

 of crops. Gooseberries, cherries, plums, apples it is 

 rare that all fail or glut in the same year. Moreover, 

 up to the time of picking, the expenses incurred in the 

 cultivation of fruit are not so great as with hops ; but 

 the length of time that elapses before the plantations 

 come into crop involves a considerable outlay and an 

 element of risk. 



By local custom in Kent the tenant plants, as indeed 

 he ought to do, because fruit-growing is his business 

 and he should know better than any landlord the best 

 varieties to plant ; but the landlord pays for the trees, 

 in which case the tenant gets no compensation on 

 leaving. If the tenant pays for the trees and for any 

 reason leaves the farm within seven years of his 

 planting, he is repaid the bare cost of the trees ; after 

 that time he is considered to have recouped himself, 

 and the landlord reaps the benefit of the matured orchard. 

 Of course in practice the majority of tenants take the 

 risk and plant securely enough on a yearly agree- 

 ment. Compensation is sometimes given when death 

 or accident has voided a tenancy before the occupier 



