THE PERSHORE PLUM 175 



his class, as he may so easily do if he tries to live by 

 manual labour in isolation. 



The mainstay of the fruit plantations of the Vale is 

 the yellow egg or Pershore plum, which far outnumbers 

 all other kinds of fruit. It forms a loose, small 

 growing tree propagated from the freely produced 

 suckers, and it is generally planted comparatively 

 closely, so that the older gardens look very thick and 

 tangled. The fruit possesses no particular quality for 

 table, but it travels well, makes excellent jams and 

 tarts, and the trees crop so freely and so regularly 

 that they are still preferred to the Victorias, Monarchs, 

 Magnum Bonums, Pond's Seedlings, etc., which are 

 grown elsewhere, and are also common enough here. 

 Curiously enough, the Pershore plum has never been 

 much planted outside its own district, though hardy 

 and adaptable enough to flourish anywhere. Apples 

 are also grown extensively ; the newer men particularly 

 have been planting apples, as a rule on the Paradise 

 stock. Pears are also planted, but cherry orchards are 

 not general ; on the strong soils the trees are apt to 

 die unaccountably just as they should be coming into 

 bearing. Grass orchards are not common ; the typical 

 fruit plantation is under cultivation, and indeed has 

 to carry much more than the plums or apples which 

 most visibly cover the ground. Gooseberries are 

 grown below the half-standard plums and apples, 

 though perhaps not to the same extent as in Kent. 

 In the more intensively worked grounds every inch of 

 open space is occupied by a succession of vegetables ; 

 a cheaper method of farming is to plant wallflowers or 

 narcissi below the plums. In other cases we saw 

 bush fruit without any larger trees above them, as, for 

 example, loganberries trained on a low wire trellis, and 

 unfortunately affected by a fungoid disease which 



