Fruit-growing in Kent. 
KM) 
easily pruned, and root-pruned if thought desirable. There are 
several plantations of these near London, one notably at Chiswiek, 
belonging to Mr. Dancer, who grows quantities of the finest 
fruit upon this system, which it is thought might be adopted 
successfully by the large fruit-growers in Kent. 
Pears 
are not systematically grown on a large scale in Kent, and are 
not attended to by any means as they should be. They are 
grown more in East Kent than in any other part of the county. 
Many of the old trees are of indifferent kinds, whose fruit 
cannot compete with that grown abroad, and is frequently a 
drug in the market. The chief sorts grown are the Chalk, 
a second-rate pear, Doyenne d'Ete, Beurre de Capiaumont, 
Chaumontel, Catillac, most excellent for cooking, Williams's 
Bon Chretien, Marie Louise, Hazel, Beurre Rose, Bergamot, 
Duchesse d'Angouleme, the Seckle, having a fine aromatic 
flavour, and two or three common early pears whose names 
are not known. There are signs that fruit-growers are bestow- 
ing more care on the cultivation of pears, and are planting 
good sorts that will ripen in due rotation. Good pears gene- 
rally command high prices, as those who have to buy them for 
dessert know well, for it is difficult to get any good-looking 
pears under 6d. to Sd. each, and such pears cost but little more 
to grow than the small, hard, indifferent sorts, that take up space 
in many Kentish orchards. Pear-trees are planted with apple- 
or cherry-trees, and occasionally by themselves with bushes 
under them. They require little pruning after they are well 
established, and bear spud-cultivation as well as apple-trees, 
though they do better on grass than on land that is cultivated. 
Cherries. 
Fuller says in his ' Kentish Worthies ' that " cherries were 
fetched out of Flanders, and first planted in this country by 
King Henry VIII." * Probably it was the excellent sort known 
as the Flemish cherry that was " fetched out of Flanders," 
which is, as Mr. Darwin remarks, " a very odd-looking fruit, 
much flattened at the summit and base, with the latter deeply 
furrowed and borne on a stout, very short footstalk."! Cherries 
were brought to Kent by the Romans ; and though some authors 
say they were lost in the Saxon period, and restored in the 
reign of Henry VIII., this appears to be an error. J Kent 
* Fuller's 'History of the Worthies of England, vol. ii. p. 11. 
t ' The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication.' Darwin, vol. i., 
p. 369. % Phillip's ' Companion for the Orchard,' p. 78. 
