84 Large and Small Holdings 



distress, and the farmers became comparatively well-to-do 1 . Surely, 

 if slowly 2 , the Englishmen decided to adopt the system of the Scottish 

 immigrants, and pasture farming made its way in a district where 

 according to tradition it was quite impossible. 



But pasture farming, in these two great branches, was not the only 

 sphere of production in which English agriculture became active as 

 corn-prices fell. A second was offered by the growing consumption 

 of fruit and vegetables, eggs and poultry. 



Unfortunately the statistics dealing with market gardening and 

 poultry farming leave much to be desired. The Statistical Abstracts 

 cease to mention " market gardens " after 1896. Up to that time they 

 showed a considerable increase. " Market gardens " covered an area 

 of 96,000 acres in 1896, as compared with 37,000 in 1878: and 

 "nursery gardens" had increased by about 1000 acres in the same 

 period 3 . Gardens and orchards together covered 165,000 acres in 

 1878, 225,000 acres in 1897, and 250,000 acres in 1908*. These 

 figures are for Great Britain. The statistics provided by the Board 

 of Agriculture particularise only the area under bush or tree fruits. 

 This was, for England only, 78,124 acres in 1909 as against an 

 average of 37,068 in the period 1886 i89O 5 . And in fruit cultivation 

 as in pasture farming, a mere statement of areas fails to do justice to 

 the progress made. For as Mr W. E. Bear pointed out in an article 

 in \\\Q Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society 6 , "in consequence of 

 the introduction of improved varieties of fruit and the better culti- 

 vation and treatment of plantations, the production per acre has 

 become much greater than it was twenty years ago." Here again 

 technical progress began when foreign competition began. As Mr 

 Graham remarked, it gave a fillip to the Kentish fruit farmers and 

 led to the improvement of their methods 7 . Strawberries, raspberries, 

 and gooseberries were in great demand in the towns, and were grown 

 in increasing quantities. The forcing of fruit also became a flourish- 

 ing business. 



1 Graham, loc. cit., ascribes the " new prosperity of the farmers of Essex " to the adoption 

 of dairy farming. Cp. also Primrose McConnell, Experiences of a Scotsman on the Essex 

 Clays, in Journal R. A. S., 1891, pp. 312, 323. 



2 For the obstinacy with which some agriculturists clung to the old traditions, cp. the 

 Report of 1894, qu. 13,916-13,921. 



3 Levy, Die Not etc., pp. i3of. 



4 Statistical Abstracts, 1909, pp. 290 f. 



5 Agricultural Statistics, 1909, Pt. I, p. 23. 



6 W. E. Bear, Flower and Fruit Farming, in Journal R. A. S., 1899, p. 31. 



7 Graham, op. cit. p. 144. 



