187 



orchards are on loam, over brick earth, 

 with chalk underneath. 



About 1540 good varieties of cherries 

 were imported from Flanders and planted 

 in Kent. It was from Holland and Flanders 

 that our forefathers also learnt to raise 

 better varieties of vegetables. 



Flemish refugees about this time com- 

 menced the cultivation of vegetables 

 around Sandwich, in Kent, and Norwich, 

 in Norfolk. 



In 1552 the following vegetables and 

 fruits are mentioned as being grown : — 

 Melons, pumpkins, cucumbers, radishes, 

 parsnips, carrots, cabbages, turnips, salad 

 herbs, apples, plums, peajs, walnuts, 

 filberts, apricots, almonds, peaches, figs 

 and cornels. 



Grafts of cherries were fetched from 

 France and the Low Countries, hence the 

 names of Bigarreau, Gean or Guienne, 

 Gaskins or Gascoigne. 



Leonard Mascall, in 1572 (Queen Eliza- 

 beth's reign), published his book on plant- 

 ing and grafting trees, recording the 

 practice of France and Holland. 



Lambarde, a Kentish historian, tells us 

 that by 1586 cherry gardens and orchards 

 had spread to some 30 neighbouring 

 parishes between Boughton-under-Blean 

 and Canterbury. _ 



John Gerarde (1545-1607) published his 

 famous " Herbal or General History of 

 Plants " in 1597, in which he mentions 

 there being vineyards and hop-gardens in 

 most places in England. 



In the " Fruiterers' Secrets," published 

 in London, in 1604, a copy of which is in 

 the Bodleian Library, at Oxford, the fol- 

 lowing statement is made : " There are 4 

 sorts of cherries in England, namely, the 

 Flemish, the English, the Gascoyne, and 

 the Black, the fruit is protected from 

 the birds by gun or sling, the worst 

 enemies being jays and bullfinches, who 

 eat stones and all. Stone fruit should be 

 gathered in dry weather, and after the dew 

 is off, for if gathered in wet weather it 

 loses colour and becomes mildewed." 



James I. (1603-25) had many mulberry 

 trees planted, for silk worms, to encourage 

 silk production, but this lacked success. 



Orchards are frequently mentioned in 

 charters and deeds granting land in the 

 reigns of James I., and Charles I., in vari- 



ous parishes in Kent, where fruit is still 

 grown. 



Eeturning to the " Fruiterers' Secrets," 

 published in James I. reign, we can read 

 that " if newly gathered nettles are laid 

 at the bottom of the basket and on the top 

 of the fruit, they will hasten the ripening 

 of fruit picked unripe, and make it keep 

 its colour." (This point interested me, as 

 I have seen my foreman place nettles in 

 this way over plums (probably Rivers' 

 Early Prolific) to improve the bloom and 

 colour the fruit). Careful directions are 

 given for gathering apples, the placing of 

 the ladder against the trees so as not to 

 damage the tree ; the use of the gathering 

 hook, so that branches may be brought 

 within easy reach of the picker on his 

 ladder; the wearing of a gathering apron, 

 and the emptying of the fruit gently into 

 the baskets. Green fern is said to have 

 the same effect on pears as nettles for 

 stone fruit; apples should be packed in 

 wheat straw, or better still, in rye straw. 

 For travelling long distances barrels are 

 recommended, lined at both ends with 

 straw, but not at the sides, to avoid heat- 

 ing, holes should be bored at either end 

 to prevent heat, the fruit was to be care- 

 fully put in by hand. Pippins, John apples, 

 Pearmains, and other " keepers," we are 

 told, need not be turned until the week 

 before Christmas, and again at the end of 

 March, when they must be turned oftener, 

 but never touch the fruit during a frost or 

 a thaw, or in rainy weather or it will turn 

 black." 



In the " Surveyor's Dialogue," pub- 

 lished in 1608 (in James I. reign), is this 

 statement: — "Above all other, I think, 

 the Kentish men be most apt and indus- 

 trious in planting orchards with pippins 

 and cherries, especially near the Thames 

 about Faversham and Sittingbourne." 



Westcote, who lived in the reign of 

 Charles I., wrote, about 1630, "that the 

 Devonshire men had of late much enlarged 

 their orchards, and are very painstaking 

 in planting and grafting all kinds of fruit." 

 Whilst John Beale wrote, in 1656, in the 

 time of the Commonwealth, that " Here- 

 ford is reputed the orchard of England." 



Gervaise Markham, who was born in 

 1568 (Elizabeth's reign), and died in 1659, 

 the last year of the Commonwealth, men- 



