Fifty Years of Fruit Farmincji 
15? 
rd.pid this onward movement has been, and will prove how 
materially the Society, the outcome of the strong desire for agri- 
cultural progress, has contributed to it. 
During this period, in common with all the other branches 
of agriculture, fruit-farming has greatly improved in respect of 
systems of culture, and has now become an important industry. 
The acreage of land under fruit culture has been very consider- 
ably extended. Fruit-farming is now recognised as a valuable 
branch of agriculture, whereas fifty years ago, except in the case 
of the Kentish cherry orchards and the apple orchards for cider- 
making in Devonshire, Herefordshire, Somersetshire, and Wor- 
cestershire, it was adopted upon a small scale, and not as an 
agricultural resource. There are no reliable records of the acre- 
age of fruit land in Great Britain farther back than 1872, in 
which year, according to the x\gricultural Returns, there were 
1 09,808 acres. It is considered that there were not more than from 
1)0,000 to 100,000 acres of fruit-land in 1839, mainly consisting 
of orchard land, planted with apples and pears, and, in Kent, with 
cherries. Then but little soft fruit ' was grown, and that little in 
the neighbourhood of London, or within easy distance of London, 
and a few of the largest towns. On account of the difficulties 
of conveyance, perishable fruits, such as currants, gooseberries, 
and raspberries, were not much cultivated before railways were 
made. For this reason the principal produce of the apple and 
pear orchards in the western counties, and in Gloucestershire, 
Herefordshire, and Worcestershire, was made into cider and 
perry. The best sorts of trees for this manufacture were planted, 
and those for dessert purposes were practically ignored. Even 
in Kent a good deal of cider was made, not only because trans- 
port was tedious and costly, but also because the demand for 
apples was limited ; or rather, it may be, that the markets to 
which they could be consigned were few, and their means of 
distribution excessively circumscribed. So it has come to pass 
that since the formation of railways many of the old apple orchards 
in Kent have disappeared, and cider-making has ceased in the 
land. Recently new orchards have been planted in various parts 
of this county with good sorts of apples, both for dessert and 
for cooking, to meet the undoubted demand for really choice 
fruit. 
Cherries grown in East Kent were sent to London by road 
in vans and other vehicles. This necessitated relays of horses 
and travelling all night. There was always a certain market in 
' " Soft fruit " includes strawberries, gooseberries, currants, raspberries, and 
blackberries, being of a soft and perishable nature. 
