August 16,1894. 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
143 
1 
A PICTURESQUE FRUIT 
FARM, WITH REFLECTIONS. 
-X- 
i^i 
I F the orthodox style were followed in the preamble to a descrip¬ 
tion of the fruit farm in question, it would in all probability 
sommence somewhat in this way :—“ It is well known that Surrey 
is one of the most beautiful counties in England ; ” but such a 
centence would be incomplete as regards accuracy without a 
qualification—namely, that the fact is only well known to a few, 
a very few persons indeed, out of the, in round numbers, 30,000,000 
inhabitants of the British Isles. In truth, the landscape charms 
of the south-western half of the county are not known at all 
to the overwhelming majority of Englishmen, to say nothing of 
their brothers over the border lines that mark the distinc ive 
geographical parts which, in their whole, constitute the United 
Kingdom. 
It is not suggested that Surrey is the most beautiful county, or 
anything of that kind ; any such proposition would approach 
absurdity, for there are many types of beauty in our island home, 
and each has a community of adherents. Some love a land of 
placid lakes and broad level stretches of luxurious meads ; others 
give preference to woodland solitudes, in which they can rest alone 
with Nature, and enjoy the music of the wind in all its varied 
cadences ; others, again, have as ideals a land of lofty mountains 
and wild ravines, of rocks and rushing cascades, with rivulets, 
down which the waters race between Fern-clad banks to the near 
or distant sea. The landscape effects of Surrey differ from all 
those types. They savour not of the romantic, there is nothing 
stern about them, yet nothing that can be described as monotonous 
in its level uniformity ; in a word, there is nothing to startle, yet 
at almost every turn of the curling leafy lanes some pleasing 
vista is brought in view—some delightful vale, fresh, cool, and 
luxuriously green, broken by the rounded base of a tree-clad 
hill. 
The Surrey hills have a bold yet placid beauty all their 
own—a blending of pastoral and arboreal effects, with here 
and there purple glints of Heather, as if stealing their way 
among the bracken or in openings between the trees. The 
hills are of nearly all sizes, and everywhere in the hilly 
parts, the smaller close together, the larger more widely 
separated ; and it follows that there are valleys between 
them, also that the more numerous these are the shorter 
and more varied. It is the great variety, this ever-recurring 
change, as we twist and turn in the up and down lanes that gives 
a charm that is satisfying. It is among the hills and dales of 
Surrey that a fruit farm in situated which may be fairly described 
as picturesque, both in respect to the configuration of the ground 
and the quaint old time residence of the farmers of bygone 
years. 
The Bramley Fruit Farm, so called because near the village of 
that name—with a railway station on the line between Guildford 
and Horsham—is the property of Mr. Edwin Ellis of Shalford 
near Guildford. Mr. Ellis is a large farmer and a successful one, 
his 700 acres of land, or that portion not in grass, being like a 
garden ; but he is something more—namely, a Justice of the 
Peace, a County Councillor, and he has a seat on the Board of 
Directors of the new South-Eastern Agricultural College at Wye. 
In this position his experience and success as a cultivator must be 
of great service. He is in a position to bring knowledge to bear 
No. 738.—VoL. XXIX., Third Seeieb 
on the management of both pasture and arable land, as well as on 
fruit cultivation. He farms “ high,” buying 1000 tons of London 
manure at a time, for he finds that, notwithstanding the teachings 
of scientists, this is better to rely on than chemicals, as imparting 
humus and holding moisture in his sandy soil, though artificials are 
not ignored. 
Mr. Ellis in his practice takes into consideration the nature of 
the soil and the advantages of position, and turns them to account. 
As both these may be said to be of a “ warm ” nature, he deems it 
better to grow early than late Potatoes, selling the crop quickly at 
£10 a ton, as he has done this year, thus being in advance of the 
disease period ; and not only so, but obtaining u second crop off the 
land, instead of its being occupied with late Potatoes all the season, 
risking the disease, and if there should be none selling the crops, 
as many growers were glad to do last year, at £2 a ton and less. 
Here is an example of routine. A field of early Potatoes cleared 
off at the price named, and the land sown with Swedes in July. 
The Swede crop becomes a full one under good culture, and is 
eaten off by sheep, thus enriching and consolidating the land. The 
Swedes are followed by spring Wheat, and at the present moment 
as fine a crop of the bearded kind may be seen as anyone could 
desire. It is too true that farming does not pay in many instances, 
but still it may be assumed that a margin of profit follows such a 
course of cropping as this—Potatoes, Swedes, mutton, and Wheat, 
all following as closely as is possible, the land not remaining idle 
for a day, nor men either ; and labour pays under prudent 
guidance. The kind of Potato chiefly grown for early sale is 
an admirable selection of the white Beauty of Hebron or Duke of 
Albany—tubers pebble shaped, eyes almost invisible, and the- 
crackled skins shining like silver—the best consignments sent to 
the London market this year, and therefore the demand exceeded 
the supply. It is always so with the best of anything or 
everything. It is the below-average or too-late produce that 
gluts the market and “fetches nothing.” No apology is made 
for this digression, and it is not altogether inappropriate, for 
Potatoes of the variety named are extensively grown between, 
the lines of fruit trees where space permits of their profitable 
cultivation. 
The Bramley Fruit Farm, to start again, covers an area of 
eighty acres. It was not all planted at once, but the results of the 
start some ten years ago being encouraging, additions were made 
until now the enclosure is about full, in some places almost too 
full, but hundreds of trees three years planted are in splendid 
condition for removal, and may profitably supplant some of the 
varieties which are not proving suitable in the sandy soil. As a 
rule the strong growers are succeeding the best—for instance. Lord 
Grosvenor, and Apples similarly free, making altogether satisfactory 
progress; while Cellini, so good in many gardens in the North, is 
not worth the ground it occupies here. There is no intention, 
however, to discourse on varieties—more time is required for 
proving the adaptability of many of them to the position ; but a 
few remarks on the principles of pruning and general manage¬ 
ment may not be inappropriate, as there are trees on the farm 
that suggest lessons which should not be ignored. 
The Bramley Fruit Farm is described as picturesque. Mr. 
Cheal knows it very well, for he has supplied many trees, and he 
will scarcely challenge the description. On entering we see what 
is like a twisting gorge between miniature mountain ranges. In 
some far remote age the sea has rushed through the district, twisted 
and turned about as rushing waters will according to the law of 
least resistance, the waves throwing up banks and islands in their 
progress. Broadly speaking there are three ranges of hills and 
two deep valleys occupied with fruit, but the valleys curve about 
so suddenly that sharp declivities appear as if facing nearly 
all points of the compass. So bold is the configuration of the 
ground and abrupt the changes, that there is apparently a difference 
in altitude of 200 feet in a distance of about 300 yards. So 
No. 2394.—VoL. XCI. Old Series. 
