1 78 THE VALE OF EVESHAM 



waster of land ; the labourers in the fruit plantations 

 who are seeking a few acres whereupon to make a 

 start look over the hedge at the thinly-stocked fields, 

 and their land hunger is barbed by the contempt 

 which the gardener always feels for the farmer, whose 

 economic basis he does not understand. But Evesham 

 is not strictly a " small holding " district ; the planta- 

 tions are of all sizes, and the man with ^five acres does 

 not think of himself as a member of a community of 

 equals, but as having made a first step towards the 

 position of one of his bigger neighbours. Co-operative 

 methods, collective buying or selling even joint 

 enterprises like jam factories have made but little 

 headway ; there is a co-operative society at Pershore 

 that is well supported, but the majority of the growers 

 are fierce individualists, keenly on the look-out for 

 some special private market, or content to do business 

 through some friend who has taken to dealing. Of 

 any organization to treat with markets or railway 

 companies, such as would immediately embrace every 

 grower in an American district, there are only the 

 rudiments. 



It is difficult to account for the special success of 

 the fruit growing of the Evesham district : the soil 

 is good without being in any way exceptional ; the 

 same might also be said of the climate ; the railway 

 facilities are certainly above the average, and two 

 great markets in the shape of South Wales and 

 Birmingham, with the Black Country, are close at 

 hand. Probably this factor gave the district a start 

 before it was customary to send fruit the distances 

 that now are usual. Granted a start, the system of 

 land tenure prevailing " the Evesham custom "- 

 seems to have done the rest, because it gave to tenants 

 the security they need before embarking upon the 



