142 FRUIT FARMING 



The best crops are obtained where they are not 

 crowded by over-head trees, and as stated before, 

 many stony banks, steep declivities, and poor hazel 

 woodland would pay to plant with Kent Cob Nuts. 

 In some years they pay best to send up in the green 

 state, as there is a demand for the Ocean steamers, 

 and they seldom come into competition with foreign 

 nuts, except at Christmas time, before which season 

 they should all be sold. 



Gooseberries. — Where these succeed, as in the Fen 

 district, where they reach the height of 5-ft., enormous 

 crops are grown, and if the plantations are heavily 

 manured in winter and even then further assisted in 

 April with a top dressing (when the crop warrants 

 the expense), the returns are enormous ; taking an 

 average, the nett profit appears to range from ;^20 to 

 £2^ per acre. Mr. Wright, in his Prize Essay, names 

 i/- as the produce of each tree; and the Journal of 

 Horticulture says that one whole district gave a return 

 of £,10 to ;£ioo per acre. During the season of 1890, 

 as the Cherry and Plum crop were slack, the growers 

 gathered green all the fruit at the base of the bushes, 

 which was likely to be damaged by dirt washed up 

 by storms, and at once surface-mulched their planta- 

 tions, and brought off a crop of enormous ripe berries, 

 which grew out to their utmost size ; in this way the 

 crop was trebled in bulk, lirowers should al\v,i\s pick 

 the bu.shes over three or four times. Where the 

 mulching is done early, the bushes are capable of a 

 full crop the following season. 



Black Currants. — In demand for jam, jellv, and 

 lo/rnge making, and occasionally, from special reasons, 



