FOR PROFIT. 13 



Grays, where it overlays and mixes with the gravel, 

 is remarkably suitable for Pears, Apples, Plums, 

 Raspberries, Currants, Gooseberries and Strawberries. 

 Land that is wet, but is not flooded, will grow Black 

 Currants, but other fruits are not at home in such 

 places. Land with an inclination to the south-west, 

 or west, is preferred. The Boughton, I-inton, Chart, 

 and Sutton Hills are clothed with fruit, and are 

 among our best Kent plantations, while the wet land 

 about Mereworth is well fitted for Cob Nuts and Apples, 

 and the drier portions for Plums. This fact thus 

 stares us in the face — that with care and proper 

 drainage fruit can be grown, and in many cases well 

 grown, in soils that a casual examination would 

 condemn ; and as fruit succeeds in gardens while it 

 fails in the orchards in the same soils, it appears in 

 many cases to be only a matter of cultivation. It is 

 certain that very much poor agricultural land will 

 grow good fruit (excepting uplands and poor pastures) 

 which could be brought round into fruit culture at a 

 great expense. A proof of cultivation making fruit 

 succeed in unlikely situations is often seen in Kent, 

 where poor thin woodland is brought into cultivation. 

 The Allington nurseries of my firm were all very poor 

 woodland, and yet the soil there produces the very 

 best of trees, and prize fruit. When orchards are 

 started among hops, careful cultivation makes such 

 land very suitable for fruit, where in time the hops 

 are grubbed and the land laid to grass. It has been 

 noticed that where Elm trees and nettles succeed 

 orchard fruit flourishes. Although we have only 

 alluded to the Kent soils, our remarks are applicable 

 to all parts of Britain, where similar condition^ prevail ; 



