ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 235 



spot. To the ancient town of Wisbech, in Cambridgeshire, 

 therefore, which is connected with the Wash by the 

 tidal river Nene, I took train, and thence gig six miles 

 West, almost into Lincolnshire, where at the village of 

 Parson Drove I found Mr Fitzalan's Woad mill and farm. 

 Wisbech, like Evesham, in Worcestershire, only on a much 

 smaller scale, is the centre of an important fruit-growing 

 district, field strawberries being a leading feature. At 

 picking time, as in the Kentish hop grounds, large 

 numbers of pickers come down from London, who, for 

 the most part, are put up in old railway carriages, rows 

 of which I observed drawn up along the sides of the 

 fields. To give an idea of the magnitude of this industry, 

 I may mention that I have ascertained from indisputable 

 authority, that in one day of last summer, during the 

 height of the " soft fruit " season, the enormous amount 

 of 121 tons of strawberries were despatched from the 

 Great Eastern Railway station at Wisbech, to be tossed 

 into the insatiable maw of London and other great cities 

 — besides a large consignment by the Midland and Great 

 Northern Companies. Mr Bellamy, the obliging foreman 

 of the mill, took me in hand and explained everything, 

 after which I went into the fields to see the young crops 

 growing. Then, subsequently, I communicated with 

 Dr Charles B. Plowright, of North Wootton, near 

 King's Lynn, an accomplished scientist and well-known 

 leading authority on the subject, who generously placed 

 at my disposal much valuable information, which at 

 various times has emanated from his able pen. Chiefly 

 from those two sources, though in a measure from 

 personal observation, I have put together all that I am 

 now able to tell 3^ou about the history, cultivation, manu- 

 facture and uses of Woad. I exhibit a living specimen 

 of the plant in its first year, showing the root leaves 

 which are used for dye, as well as a dried specimen of a 

 full grown plant in fruit. Isatis tinctoria, of the 

 Natural Order Cruciferae, is a stout erect biennial from 



