11 



without the knowledge and consent of the 

 landlord, t 



A rough estimate of the cost of planting 

 in Hunts., Cambs., and the Isle of ElyJ : — 



£ s. d. 



120 half standard apples and 

 plums, 18 feet apart at Is. 6 



1,090 gooseberries at 6 feet 

 apart (2 rows between tree 

 rows and 2 between trees) 

 at 10s. per 100 6 



Clean, cultivate, manure and 

 plant land 8 



A pre-war estimate £20 



Dorsetshire. — As a rule, in letting a 

 farm which has orchard lajid attached to 

 it, the tenant is bound to keep the 

 orchard properly stocked with trees, re- 

 placing old or useless trees with young 

 ones. In some cases the landlord finds 

 trees, the tenant doing the planting. A 

 tenant would not be likely to plant a new 

 orchard without the consent of the owner. 

 If he did so he could not claim compen- 

 sation. § 



SoMEBSETSHiEE. — In our district fruit 

 planting is principally confined to 

 orchards, and in most agreements tenants 

 have to keep them properly filled, or at any 

 rate to plant a good thriving young tree in 

 the place of any tree that dies or is blown 

 down, properly protecting same and prun- 

 ing the trees when necessary.|| 



At Crewkerne, in Somerset, there is a 

 custom for the tenant to provide both 

 plant and labour and to be paid by valua- 

 tion at quitting, but I do not think it works 

 well ; if the orchard fails the tenant suffers, 

 and if it succeeds, he is rarely satisfied 

 with the sum awarded to him.t 



In Herefordshire, Worcester, Devon, 

 and one or two other counties the most 

 usual arrangement with regard to plant- 

 ing orchards is : — The landlord finds the 

 fruit trees, and, where necessary, the 

 materials required in protecting them from 



fMr. T. B. Grainger, The Vineyards, Ely. 



JMr. Street, of Somersham. 



§Mr. R. Yates, Milton Abbey Office, Bland- 

 ford, Dorset. 



HMr. W. Roberts and Mr. J. E. Tory. F.S.I. , 

 Yeovil, Somerset. 



UMr. Antony R. Cragg. 



injury from stock, and the tenant finds the 

 labour in planting and in fixing the tree 

 guards.* 



A grower in Herefordshire points out 

 the difficulty in the event of the tenant 

 planting as to what proportion of the value 

 of the tree should be attributed to the in- 

 herent capabilities of the soil ; also he 

 thinks that greater stress should be laid 

 on the nett annual profits, on an average 

 of, say, five or seven years, in making a 

 valuation. 



Gloucestershire. — As far as I can 

 gather there is very seldom any compen- 

 sation paid to tenants for either planting 

 or rearing young trees : it may be done 

 on a very small scale in a few individual 

 cases, but an uncertainty of this kind is 

 almost worse than nothing. In this dis- 

 trict landlords usually pay for young trees 

 and for rough fencing, the tenant planting, 

 fencing, etc. ; consequently trees are often 

 badly planted and very seldom staked ; 

 then they grow badly and are greatly 

 neglected afterwards. In my opinion if 

 we are to hold our own in fruit growing 

 it will be necessary for tenants to receive 

 adequate compensation for nursing young 

 trees, even when landlords find trees and 

 fencing, as apple and pear trees (stan- 

 dards in orchards) are very little use for 

 several years. Consequently most tenants 

 naturally will not carefully nurse young 

 trees, as if they do so it may mean having 

 to pay more rent when the trees become 

 profitable, or leave all behind for another ; 

 to use an old expression, I think landlords 

 " stand in their own light " by not allow- 

 ing adequate compensation to a tenant for 

 planting, fencing and nursing young 

 trees, t 



I am informed by a prominent firm of 

 land agents in Gloucester that they have 

 no estate agreement between landlord and 

 tenant as to the planting of fruit trees 

 or a scale of compensation in respect of 

 the planting. 



So far as their experience goes, the state 

 of things in regard to planting is very un- 

 satisfactory and, they think, in most 

 cases, it would answer the landlord's pur- 

 pose to bear the whole initial cost — that is 



*Mr. A. R. Cragg. 



+ Mr. T. Herbert Phelps, Tibberton. near 

 Gloucester. 



