59 



common method of treating damsons every 

 five or ten years in Kent. This treatment 

 would, however, be prejudicial to some 

 kinds of plum. 



Plums for market should be picked when 

 dry, and before quite ripe, as they then 

 travel best. It is advisable with a heavy 

 crop to thin the trees two or three times, 

 taking the largest and ripest fruits each 

 time. 



The Pershore plum is picked when both 

 green and ripe, as it is used for cooking, 

 bottling, and jam-making, and large quan- 

 tities are now put into gallon and smaller 

 tins in a heavy syi-up and utilised by res- 

 taurants and caterers. 



Plums in Kent used to be picked at 2d. 

 to 4d. per half-bushel of 281bs., and for 

 picking damsons 5d. to lOd. wa« paid, 

 according to crop. 



Plums from our Kentish plantations are 

 usually marketed in half-bushel baskets of 

 28 or 24 lbs. ; whereas in Worcestershire 

 pot baskets of 72 lbs. are used. Specially 

 choice plums, however, are packed in chip 

 baskets holding 12 lbs. each. 



Damsons are often planted round a fruit 

 plantation as a wind break, being seldom 

 planted as a main crop. The Farleigh, or 

 Cluster damson, is the variety commonly 

 grown in Kent. As an example of change 

 in price, the late Mr. Henry Staples, of 

 Swanley, once told me that he had sold 

 damsons in some years at £1 per bushel ; in 

 recent years before the war the price was 

 usually about 4s. per bushel, but it has 

 again reached £1 in 1919. 



Plums may be said to commence to be 

 remunerative after their sixth year, and 

 to be at their prime from their 10th to 

 their 25th year. They usually live from 

 20 to 40 years, and when mature yield an 

 average crop of from five to seven tons 

 per acre, selling at, according to variety 

 and season, from £7 to £30 per ton, this 

 latter only for specially choice early sorts 

 in a very scarce year. 



The average return of an acre of plum 

 trees is put at £60 to £80 per acre by 

 J.W, in " Commercial Gardening." Mr. 

 Frederick Smith, of Loddington, once had 

 20 bushels of plums from a Black Diamond, 

 but this tree is usually not a heavy 

 cropping variety; 12 bushels of fruit were 



picked from a young Victoria tree, which 

 that year sold at 14s. per bushel. 



Mr. E. J. Honeyball, the well-known 

 fruit valuer and land agent of Deal, most 

 kindly gave me an estimate for a mixed 

 plantation of half-standard apple and 

 plum trees, planted alternately, with 

 currants as an under crop, on medium 

 land. 



Estimate for a Mixed Fruit Plantation 



IN Kent. (Pre-war). 



Preparation per acre. 



£ s. d. £ 8. d. 

 Broad-sharing and cleaning 



land after previous crop, say 110 

 Ploughing and sub-soiling ... 1 4 



Harrowing down twice 2 



Setting out ready for planting 4 

 Planting (apple and plum 16^ 

 by 16^, currants 5^ by Sj 

 feet apart) 1 10 



4 10 



Cost of Trees and Bushes. 



£ s. d. £ s. d. 

 160 apple and plum trees at Is. 8 

 1,291 black currants at 12s 

 per 100 7 15 



15 15 



£19 15 



Add to this, cost of any manuring. 



Mr. Honeyball added : " I can only give 

 a general idea, but I have often heard it 

 estimated that an acre of plantation costs 

 £30. It makes a difference, of course, both 

 in the planting and cost of trees and 

 bushes, how many per acre you plant. For 

 instance, gooseberries and red currants 

 would be planted closer than black cur- 

 rants. The price of black currants has 

 varied considerably in the last few years. 

 During the last two years, healthy bushes, 

 clean of mite, have made as much as 20s. 

 per 100, whilst a few years ago 5s. to 7s. 6d. 

 was the value. Gooseberries were 8s. per 

 100, but are now dearer owing to American 

 gooseberry mildew ; red currants 6s. or 7s. 

 per 100; all at two years old." The price 

 of trees is now double or treble and the 

 cost of labour double. 



A plantation such as the above used to 

 cost fully £5 per acre a year to cultivate, 

 without any appreciable return for the 

 first three years, so that one may add £15 

 at least to the cost of planting, and rent, 

 rates and taxes. 



