718 



[Nov., 



leap to view. Proximity to some great market; some topo- 

 graphical peculiarity of site giving advantages of climate ; some 

 particular geological formation of soil; some tradition of cultivation 

 handed on from generations back. It is when individual cases 

 are examined below these surface reasons that one is puzzled. 

 Other markets as great, or greater, have not attracted similar 

 colonies. Equal advantages of site can be pointed out where no 

 exploitation exists — soils of attractive suitability are calling in 

 many places for intensive cultivators but without response — 

 traditions of cultivation are kept alive in a few, whose number 

 does not increase. 



Such reflections as these came home with great force when 

 the writer was recently visiting the County of Durham in connec- 

 tion with the new Horticultural Station at Houghall, and the 

 County of Cheshire for a Conference at Reaseheath. 



At Houghall sixteen acres are being developed for demonstrat- 

 ing methods of culture and varieties of fruit and vegetables. 

 Very little cultivation of this nature is done in the county, and 

 an industrial population must draw its supplies of fruit and 

 vegetables burdened with transport charges either from overseas 

 or from other parts of the Kingdom — in either case losing the 

 valuable quality of freshness. It may be said that the climate 

 is atrocious or the soil unsuitable, but visits to some of the 

 few growers in che county, and inspections of some of the allot- 

 ments by no means support such a theory. In a village within 

 twenty miles of a city in the county of Durham there is a grower 

 who, on three-and-a-half acres is practising the most intensive 

 culture with complete success, producing flowers, vegetables and 

 fruit in profusion. He manages to get forced rhubarb, annuals, 

 and bedding geraniums, tomatoes and grapes, from the same 

 greenhouse in the same year. His Victorias, Czar, and Rivers 

 Prolific plums were breaking down with fruit. He had heavy 

 crops of Doyenne d'Ete and Fertility pears, as well as Grenadier, 

 Lord Grosvenor and Bramley's Seedling apples. There was 

 nothing that one could see exceptional either in site or soil. At 

 another village in the same county there was a county council 

 smallholding where a plot of fruit — apples, pears, and plums, 

 with bush fruit and strawberries — had been planted under the 

 advice of the horticultural instructor, and these were all healthy 

 and thriving. One asks the question " Why has not the splendid 

 market afforded by the large population in this area attracted 

 more growers to benefit by it, and in so doing benefit the people 

 therein as well?" It is to be hoped that Houghall will not only 



