SUBURBAN FRUIT-GROWING. 



335 



Fruit-growing in the suburbs of London is no new thing. 

 From time immemorial market gardeners have grown their fruit 

 and vegetables, and taken them to market, bringing back in 

 their carts and vans manure obtained at a cheap rate in the 

 town. The distances to be covered fifty years ago were com- 

 paratively small, and growers made a pleasant and comfortable 

 living by the cultivation and sale of Grapes, Plums, Apples, and 

 bush fruit, in addition to vegetables, all of which brought good 

 prices. The land was not over-drained, and in some cases it 

 was marshy and waterlogged. Ponds and ditches were in 

 many instances the sources of their water supply for horti- 

 cultural purposes ; but in those days we did not suffer so much 

 in dry weather from lack of moisture as we do now that there is 

 no reserve stored up in the subsoil. 



The main drainage of London, though necessary from a 

 sanitary point of view, has greatly lessened the fertility of the 

 soil. In the first place, it has carried to the sea incalculable 

 wealth in the shape of organic matter, w T hich was formerly 

 available for the fertilisation of the land. Houses were then 

 drained into cesspools ; the night-waggon was a familiar institu- 

 tion in the town ; hardy farm labourers cheerfully engaged in 

 the most offensive tasks for the sake of a little addition to their 

 wages and privileges ; and Mother Earth, the great deodoriser, 

 received back her due. But now she is robbed and starved or 

 cheated with stable litter, which differs greatly from the old 

 farmyard manure ; or she is insufficiently fed with artificial 

 manures, some of which are of but little value. 



In the second place, the main drainage of London has inter- 

 cepted all the springs and rivulets which previously found their way 

 from the beautiful hills which surround London to the valley of 

 the Thames, and the blessed raindrops which Heaven distils are 

 bound by Act of Parliament to hurry from the roofs of palaces 

 and cottages alike through the same foul pipes which carry the 

 diluted sewage to the sea. It is within my knowledge and 

 recollection that the eminent engineer Robert Stevenson the 

 younger and others, who professionally approved the main 

 draining scheme, regarded it as a necessary first step which 

 would eventually have to be followed by a system of separation. 

 This is not a cheerful prospect for the ratepayer, but the 

 question will have to be faced, as Nature will inevitably call the 



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