102 Market Gardening in the Vale of Evesham. 
dwarf, dwarf beans, or dwarf peas may be taken. The 
Evesham gardeners do not trouble about summer or autumn 
cabbage. 
The varieties grown are chiefly Royal Sovereign and Sir 
Joseph Paxton ; and such varieties as Monarch and Vicom- 
tesse Hericart de Thury are not wholly despised. Even the 
old British Queen is to be found, though it is rare. 
Of raspberries and loganberries little need be here said ; 
both are grown, but to a very limited extent. Those persons 
who can grow the American blackberries will succeed with the 
loganberry, the treatment for the latter being identically the 
same as for the former. 
Life of Fruit Trees. 
It will be understood that the life of any tree is largely 
governed by the nature of the soil in which it grows, by its 
treatment and environment. 1 Plum trees growing on gravelly 
ground are shorter-lived than those on the rich alluvial soil of 
the Yalley of the Avon. The former are practically exhausted 
in twenty or twenty-five years ; the latter will last ten years 
longer. Negligence as to food and water will shorten the life 
of a tree in either of the two cases, but particularly in the 
former. Judicious or injudicious pruning cannot fail to have 
an influence on their welfare. 
The plantations of apples and pears being young, it is too 
early to particularise as to them ; but it is safe to say that the 
same conditions which affect the plums will, in a greater or less 
degree, affect them. 
The gooseberry trees similarly respond to the same con- 
ditions. Grand old trees 6 ft. and more in diameter are to 
be found on the richer and moister soil ; smaller and less 
vigorous trees are plentiful on the drier and more hungry soil. 
Methods of Marketing. 
At Evesham there are two wholesale markets to which 
growers send the fruit, flowers, and vegetables produced on 
their land. These markets are invaluable to the “ small ” 
growers of the district. The buyers attending these markets 
are local men, themselves growers, at say Evesham, and sales- 
men at Birmingham or elsewhere ; there are also buyers on 
the large scale who sell to other salesmen wholesale at the 
cities to be mentioned hereafter. 
Gardeners with many acres of land usually send their 
produce direct to dealers at other centres of consumption, 
1 A plum tree will not profitably bear fruit until it has been planted five 
or six years ; then it may continue in full bearing for ten or fifteen years ; 
then slowly decline in fruit-bearing. 
