172 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ August 27 1891. 
had for a ten-pound rental ; and the once practically worthless 
poverty-stricken acres secured on long lease by Mr. Ladds have 
increased in the same remarkable manner by his enterprise and 
extraordinary business capacity. He, too, is building all around. 
Then there is Mr. Wood—a man who, by persevering endeavour 
on sound lines, has made himself a great position ; while Mr. 
Vinson, a little further afield, who has been longer engaged in 
growing fruit, and kept abreast of the times in production, is one 
of the wealthy and worthy inhabitants of the district. It is not, 
however, the wealth acquired by the few that is the most gratifying 
feature, but the means of livelihood afforded to an army of workers 
where formerly a few settlers or stragglers gained fitful subsistence. 
The great problem of the day is to find work for workers who are 
willing to labour, and this, obviously, cannot be done when their 
work is not remunerative. The problem appears to be solved in 
the district in question, and in no other way could it be solved so 
well—namely, by capital wisely invested, and operations prudently 
conducted by able and intelligent men. If the thousands of wage- 
earners who work on the land had each been planted on a little 
patch, not even a remote approach to the present productiveness of 
the whole could possibly have been realised. A combination of 
the three essentials—capital, skill, and labour—was requisite for 
achieving such great results. It is well, indeed most desirable 
from several points of view, that men who can work small plots 
advantageously should have them as adjuncts to their wages, but 
these earnings must be the sheet-anchor of the vast majority, and 
are provided by fruit and flowers in the fertile neighbourhood 
under notice to thousands who could not otherwise enjoy them. 
We read of the wonders wrought by labour in the western wilds of 
America. Numbers of thrifty and lazy men are tempted there ; a 
few to succeed after strenuous endeavour, but most to starve. 
Knowing a little—not from newspapers—of the state of things in 
the “far West,” I suspect it would be difficult to find in those 
‘ virgin lands ” instances of half the money being earned by and 
paid to workers on and from a given area, that is produced by the 
renovated soil and methods of cropping and working adopted on 
the fertile slopes in the salubrious district of Kent contiguous to 
what may not be inappropriately termed the flower and fruit 
station of Swanley Junction. 
But the fruit factory. We are a long time in reaching it, 
though it is close at hand. After all, I was fortunate in meeting 
with Mr. Cannell, for we walked straight into it as if he were a 
proprietor and I a purchaser of a few hundreds of tons of jam 
and bottled fruits for exporting to those parts of the world where 
similarly preserved fruits cannot be grown so well and prepared so 
cheaply. We have soil as fertile, or which can easily be made so, 
as any in the world for the growth of these fruits; we have a more 
■temperate climate, just what they need, than prevails either in 
Uentral Europe, or in Asia, Africa, America, or Australasia ; we 
have the best of sugar at the lowest price in the world, and 
therefore, practically speaking, we have the world at our feet as 
a market for distribution. The fruits in question are the most 
certain of all to afford crops to the cultivator. One kind may be 
scarce this year, and another the next ; but a general failure is 
unknown, and if any particular crop is scarce the grower has 
compensation in higher prices. For instance, this year a hundred 
Ions of Raspberries were wanted by a firm at £50 a ton, and 
could not be obtained ; next year they may be plentiful at half 
the price. One year a Gooseberry grower sells his produce of a 
heavy crop of 30 or 40 tons at £10 a ton ; another year, with a 
light crop, he obtains more than twice the price, and scarcely 
knows which he prefers, but is well satisfied with the average. 
Plum trees are sometimes almost broken down with fruit, and 
quantities are not worth sending to market ; but with jam factories 
handy the crops in a year of plenty can be preserved, and a 
supply insured for a year of scarcity which is apt to follow. 
Mr. Wood has three preserving establishments—two in Kent and 
one in London, the last named erected at a cost of upwards of 
£00,000. The trade in which he engages must be a gigantic one, 
and his last costly erection proves his faith in the future. 
Work in the Swanley factory was going on briskly. Three 
thousand pounds’ worth of white lump sugar was piled up in bags 
and bias. Preparing fruit and boiling was going on. All appears to 
be done by steam except “ stalking and nosing ” Gooseberries, 
which is done by the nimble fingers of women and girls, but seeing 
that Black Currants can be dressed by machinery and left whole 
when desired, the large being separated from the small at the same 
time, perhaps machinery will master the Gooseberiies bv-and-by. 
It can nearly do everything. In Mr. H. R Williams’ gigantic 
wine cellar in London bottling is not only done by machinery, but 
a machine prepares the corks and throws out the bad ones ; and I 
have seen a machine of Mr. C. M. Major’s husking coffee and 
refusing to let any light or bad berries pass the barrier into the 
collecting sacks. It is much the same with Mr. Wood’s Currant 
dressing machine ; it rubs off their noses on rapidly moving wire 
trays down which they go dancing, the large into one receptacle, 
the small into another, in the same way that Potatoes are sorted 
by machines on large farms. But all fruit is not preserved whole 
at Swanley. There is a large section of the consuming public who 
will not be “ imposed on ” by such fruit, but want “ real jam,” 
fortunately, perhaps, for the makers, who willingly pulp it for 
them. Currants were passed down a hopper into a wire-woven 
cylinder, inside which brushes revolved, pressing against the wires, 
the pulp being squeezed from the fruit, and the stalks turned out 
as clean as if washed. This jam is what a certain class of customers 
like, others like some whole fruit with it, and others, again, piefer 
all whole fruit. All can be accommodated ; but this must be said, 
in whatever manner prepared nothing but good sound wholesome 
fruit was seen in the factory, and that there is not a doubt that 
every jar is genuine. 
The boiling is done by steam in twenty or thirty coppers, each 
holding two or three bushels of fruit. They are double-cased for 
affording space for the steam, which is turned on by a tap. Boiling 
commences in a minute, and is fast or slow as desired, being 
controlled by the tap, with the same certainty as a jet of gas is 
lowered or raised. All works smoothly and briskly, and everything 
is as clean as a new pin. Old methods cannot be compared with 
the new in preparing and preserving fruit, and it is only by such 
factories and machinery as Mr. Wood’s that the wants of the 
world can be met. 
But all the fruit grown about Swanley is not preserved there— 
for instance, Strawberries. Apart from those sent by road to 
London the sta<ion master’s books show that during the month of 
July 472 tons 3 cwt. were sent direct to northern towns and 
133 tom 4 cwt. to London, the most sent in one day being 78 tons ; 
65 tons to the north and 13 tons to London, or a total of 605 tons 
in 97,000 baskets of 14 lbs., or 1,358,000 lbs. of Strawberries from 
one station in one month. For comprehending the manner in 
which these are grown and gathered, readers who are interested 
in the subject are directed to page 181. They will there see 
a photographic representation of a busy scene, and acknowledge 
that fruit growing affords work for workers on the land. 
I thought all could be said in a page of this Journal in con¬ 
nection with the fruit and flowers seen during a flying visit to 
the fields of their production, but the twin subject has proved 
too great, and must be resumed another day.—J. Wright. 
VIOLAS IN THE SOUTH. 
Mr. William Dean wrote interestingly on these flowers in 
your issue of August 6th. Violas seem to be coming rapidly into 
f ivour in the south. This is no doubt in a great measure due to 
the fact that they are so very accommodating, and adapt themselves 
to our hot summers better than do fancy Pansies. I am just back 
from a journey in Scotland, and have seen some large collections of 
Violas. I have no hesitation in saying that Violas can be grown 
quite as well in the south as in the north. Regarding growing 
