164 
Fifty Yean of Fruit Farming. 
generally speaking, this land is in a better state tlian tliat of 
these neighbouring counties. More attention has been paid 
to grafting trees with dessert and cooking vai-ieties, and to 
replacing dead and worn-out trees by these ; while the additions 
to the fruit land have consisted of orchards, planted with the 
best sorts of apples for general use, and of standard fruit trees 
with fruit bushes under them. And there has been a large 
addition to the acreage since 1872. In that year there were 
only 11,499 acres, and 16,169 acres in 1888. It may be said 
of Gloucestershire that it is one of the fruit-growing counties in 
which there has been progress, giving clear evidence of intelligent 
action, to bear much good fruit in the future. A good example 
has been given to the fruit farmers of this county by Lord 
Sudeley, whose plantations and orchards are model fruit farms, 
planted with the best varieties selected judiciously, managed 
in the most approved manner as to science and practice, and, it 
is believed, yielding a satisfactory profit. Lord Sudeley has 
indeed been a pioneer to landowners not only in Gloucestershire, 
but throughout Great Britain, in respect of fruit cultivation 
His energy and success have done much to stimulate this 
industry and to improve the systems of culture. 
Kent, with nearly 18,000 acres of fruit land, given in the Agri- 
cultural Returns under the head of " Orchards," &c., grows more 
fruit than any other county. Its acreage is not so large as that 
of Devonshire, Herefordshire, and Somersetshire, but a good part 
of it is planted with fruit bushes under standards both of which 
yield heavy crops. Important alterations have taken place in 
Kentish fruit productions in the past half century. Most of the 
old apple orchards have disappeared. When hops paid well, the 
apple trees were grubbed, and hop plants put in the fertile soil 
selected by careful husbandmen of the last century as especially 
suited for apples by reason of its richness, depth, and situation. 
It is somewhat exceptional to find an apple orchard, that is, a 
grass orchard, with old trees, in the " Garden of England." There 
are plantations, or cultivated fruit lands, upon which old apple 
trees can be found. Under these there are either filberts, cob- 
nuts, or soft-fruit bushes. Apple trees, as it was stated before, 
have been recently planted to some extent, but the production of 
apples is by no means so large as formerly. 
Plums have been planted very extensively in East Kent, Mid- 
Kent, and parts of West Kent, with soft-fruit bushes under 
them. The chief sorts now grown are Victorias, Orleans, early 
and late Gisborne's Early Rivers, Belgian Purple, Magnum 
Bonum, Washington, Prince of Wales ; and other improved 
plums, which have taken the place of such old kinds as Black 
