FRUIT AND FLOWERS 87 



counties, only Kent exceeding it in the acreage under 

 small fruit, though of orchards the five western fruit 

 counties as well as Kent possess a greater acreage. 

 The plantations showed that the industry is young 

 and active, the land was clean and admirably 

 worked, and on the young trees there was a somewhat 

 better show of apples than we had seen elsewhere ; 

 if anything there was rather a superabundance of 

 growth, and the grounds were a little overplanted and 

 in need of thinning. The business is mostly in the 

 hands of small men, though there are a few extensive 

 holdings. 



Nor is fruit-growing the only new and flourishing 

 industry in this district ; wherever the silt is somewhat 

 coarser so as to become definitely sandy, particularly 

 in the neighbourhood of Spalding, bulb-growing for 

 the wholesale market is carried on, and great breadths 

 of daffodils, tulips, crocuses, snowdrops, etc., are raised 

 for their bulbs and not for their bloom. Hyacinths 

 are still rather a Dutch speciality ; in the other cases 

 the fen growers claim to turn out firmer and heavier 

 bulbs than those which come from Holland. Seed 

 growing is also extensively pursued, and fields of 

 mustard for seed were very commonly seen among the 

 wheat and potatoes which form the backbone of the 

 ordinary farming. 



After crossing the Nene and the Witham we 

 stopped to visit a great acreage of land under one 

 management, a series of farms which make up one 

 of the largest agricultural businesses in the country, 

 perhaps the largest, if the intensive character of the 

 farming is taken into account. This business has been 

 built up on potatoes, which are grown every year on 

 about one-third of the whole 3000 acres, and even 

 year after year on a few convenient pieces of land, 



