The Farm Prize Competition of 1890. 
815 
to fifty or more extra hands, mainly women and girls, and 
school children, are engaged, the latter earning during the six 
weeks' holiday 6s., 8*-., or 10s. a week, apiece, according to age. 
As many as 3,000 punnets of strawberries have been gathered 
and sent, oft' in a day. The figures in the balance-sheet of the 
agricultural portion will bear comparison with those on most 
farms, but it is upon the fruit crop that Mr. Lawry relies mainly 
for his profit, although this is not now what it used to be. In 
the "good old times 1 ' he has sold as much as 1,0002. worth of 
fruit in a season, but now, owing to increased competition, the 
prices are quite a third less than they were ten years ago, and 
the middleman gets a full share of" the price paid by the 
consumer. Mr. Lawry has also a lessened area under straw- 
berries, consequent upon the land which was first found mo3t suited 
to their growth having become " sick " or " tired " of them. 
Still, despite all these drawbacks, the gross receipts on the 
whole farm amount to about 157. per acre, on an average of 
seasons. A difference of 107. per ton in the price of straw- 
berries or raspberries, and a corresponding difference in the 
same season between the "jam " and "dessert"' markets, will 
materially affect the balance-sheet of this farm. 
The history of Mr. Lawry's first introduction to this branch 
of his occupation deserves recording, because it shows the 
enterprise and dogged determination to overcome difficulties 
which are his marked characteristics. Being in London for 
the purpose of seeing the Exhibition of 1362, he strolled early one 
morning into Covent Garden Market, where his attention was 
attracted to the prices asked for strawberries. Knowing that 
his father had in his little garden, in Cornwall, some fruit which 
was quite equal to that for which such high prices were asked, 
the idea struck him to have some forwarded to him to try to 
sell. He wrote his father accordingly, and all was sent him 
that could be found, but, owing to ignorance in the art of packing, 
the fruit, on arrival, was quite unsaleable. But Mr. Lawry was not 
disheartened ; so, instead of grieving at his failure and aban- 
doning the project, he set to work to overcome the difficulties, 
and with such success that shortly afterwards his fruit became 
the earliest, and obtained the highest prices, in the London, 
Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Cardiff, and other markets. 
To the present day the district continues to supply the earliest 
" out of door " fruit in the kingdom. Directly upon his return 
from London in 1862, Mr. Lawry planted as much land with 
strawberries as was available, and set to work to get more ready 
until, in about three years, he had quadrupled the area under 
that crop. This went on increasing until either all the suitable 
