Agriculture 153 



the price per ton received by growers, is better. The rotation approximates 

 to (i) potatoes, (2) sugar beet, mustard for seed, and various root seeds, 

 (3) wheat, but is widened by inserting oats, peas, or clover where 

 desirable. Considerable areas of root seed crops (turnips, swedes, mangolds 

 and sugar beet) are also grown. Fruit is important, particularly in the 

 vicinity of Wisbech." In 1936, over 3000 acres of strawberries, 3000 acres 

 of apples, 1400 acres of gooseberries, and 1400 acres of plums were grown 

 in the Isle of Ely, principally on these silt soUs. Although some 500 acres 

 of bulbs were grown in 1936 this industry, together with market-garden 

 and glasshouse production, is less fully developed than in the Holland 

 Division of Lincolnshire which lies immediately to the north of Cambridge- 

 shire. Indeed, the silts which He wdthin Cambridgesliire are only a small 

 part of the large compact silt area surrounding the Wash, and which 

 includes the whole of the Holland Division. 



(5) Other Districts. The four main areas already described cover approxi- 

 mately three-quarters of Cambridgeshire. The remainder of the County 

 includes a number of small areas of varying soil types.' In particular, no 

 account of the agricultural regions of the County would be complete 

 without reference to the fruit-growing area immediately to the north of 

 the town of Cambridge. This includes the parishes of Milton, Waterbeach, 

 Landbeach, Impington, Histon, Cottenham, Rampton, Long Stanton, 

 Willingham and Over.3 Since the middle of the nineteenth century, a 

 strong concentration of fruit growing (especially plums, apples and straw- 

 berries) has been developed here.4 In more recent years, fruit has been 

 supplemented by the introduction (often by imderplanting the top fruit) 

 of market-garden produce (asparagus, cauliflowers, broccoH, dwarf beans, 

 and peas), and of cutting flowers (pyrethrums, scabious, iris, gladioli, 

 asters, marguerites, gypsophila, etc.). Small-holdings of 20 acres or less, 

 producing these intensive crops, are numerous in the district, wlaile there is 

 a large number of "part-time" holdings, of an acre or so, in the occupation 

 of agricultural labourers and other wage-earners. Poultry and pigs are the 

 most usual types of live stock, and are kept largely to produce manure and 

 to utihse by-products. 



' See C. Wright and J. F. Ward, A Survey of the Soils and Fruit of the Wisbech Area 

 (1929). See p. 143 above. 

 ^ See Chapter ii, and Fig. 29. 



3 See J. F. Ward, West Cambridgeshire Fruit-Growing Area (i933)- See p. 143 above, 

 t See p. 131 above. 



