FRUIT IN MONMOUTHSHIRE AND SOUTH WALES. 
279 
Albert ' do remarkably well, the success being much greater on the 
Paradise stock than on the Crab. 
One of the things which struck me very forcibly in the remote and 
out-of-the-way parts of the country was the difficulty of finding a ready 
sale for the fruit, and also the want of a better method of gathering and 
packing for market. I have thought that possibly something might be 
done to remedy this state of things by establishing a good fruit market 
in one or more of the largest towns, and also by encouraging the farmers 
to grade and pack their fruit in such a way that it would find a more 
ready sale. At the present time the greater part is sold to dealers, who 
go round the farms at gathering time and generally purchase the whole 
of the crop for a lump sum. This does not apply to the districts near to 
good markets ; in these places growers take a few hampers regularly as 
long as the fruit lasts, and retail them in small quantities to their 
customers. 
A great deal of the success of fruit-growing in Monmouthshire is 
due to the kindly feeling existing between landlord and tenant. Of 
nearly the whole of the owners of large estates it can be said that they 
dwell amongst their own people, and no effort is spared to make the 
tenants comfortable in their homesteads. On nearly every estate trees are 
supplied to the tenants, the only condition being that they should take 
care of them. One of the best of landlords that it is possible to find we 
have in the Eight Hon. Lord Tredegar, a name that is honoured 
wherever it is known ; in the Monmouth district, too, we have the Right 
Hon. Lord Llangattock, another splendid specimen of the nobility of this 
country. Nearly the whole of the land is let on yearly tenancy, and the 
same families have been known to occupy farms to the fourth generation. 
There are two names connected with fruit-growing in the county 
which I ought to mention, the first that of Pillinger, nurseryman, of 
Chepstow, whose business dates back to the year 1779, and is at the present 
time carried on by a member of the family ; and that of James Sanders, 
of Abergavenny, which also dates back about a hundred years. The present 
proprietor is Mr. Phillip Shaw, who has kindly supplied me with much 
information. There is not the slightest doubt but that many of the larger 
and better of the old orchards were planted by these firms. 
Much of the good work in the past, too, can be traced to a better class 
of agricultural labourer, who was formerly to be found in country 
districts, and it is surprising what an amount of work such men have 
done. In some places I have found traces of miniature nurseries, where 
the crab stocks raised from the woods have been planted and grafted with 
the varieties which best succeed in the neighbourhood. Many large 
orchards have been planted and kept up in this way. I remember one 
man whom I knew many years ago : he was only a farm labourer, whose 
ordinary clothing was a smock frock, and yet there are several large 
orchards which owe their origin to this man. 
At the present time much interest has been taken by the Technical 
Instruction Committee of the County Council in endeavouring to improve 
the state of things in the county and throughout the whole of South 
Wales. Instruction in the planting, pruning, and general management of 
fruit trees is given in nearly all the villages, and during the past two 
