174 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
August 23,1894. 
The first is how to make agriculture a paying concern ; the second is 
how to retain a prosperous peasantry, their country’s strength and pride, 
on the land. Fruit-growing, and the conversion of the perishable fruit 
into what, for commercial purposes, may be designated an imperishable 
commodity on the spot, have solved both problems. When, where, and 
how have these crucial problems been solved? Through a prize essay of a 
hundred or five hundred guineas offered for their solution by the Royal 
Agricultural Society of England on the occasion of its second visit to the 
great University town of Cambridge ? Or was a prize of a hundred guineas 
offered for the best factory or facts that proved these problems in 
process of solution, or already solved ? An object lesson of this kind, 
brought immediately under the notice of the Council of the Royal 
Agricultural Society of England, would have proved a most powerful 
means of technical education, and would most probably lead to many new 
departures and startling revivals in our national methods and products 
of agriculture. Or were liberal prizes offered for improved methods of 
growing, sorting, packing, and preserving fruit, of sufficient liberality 
to excite a strong and general local, if not national, competition? To 
all these and many other questions the facts of the case compel an 
emphatic No I None of these things was done, and yet these problems 
are already solved. 
For many years, probably forty or more, Messrs. Stephen drivers and 
Sons have been known as fruit-growers in Histon, near Cambridge. 
As they took in more land year by year, the question of profitable, sure, 
and safe markets confronted them, as it has, and still does, all other 
fruit-growers and dealers in perishable commodities. The senior partner 
and his sons visited Bradford and other towns in Yorkshire for this pur¬ 
pose, and the factory may be said to have grown out of their business as 
fruit-growers. 
This first jam factory abuts on the Histon Station on the united lines 
of the Great Eastern and Midland Railways, between Cambridge and 
•St. Ives, and is a familiar object to most travellers. 
The first boil of jam was made by the firm twenty-one years ago, on 
"the Wednesday of the Royal Show week, and the firm embraced the 
opportunity of their coming of age by inviting a few of their friends, all 
“their workpeople, their managers, travellers, and the member for West 
Cambs to a homely tea and happy evening. The senior partner of the firm, 
Mr, Stephen Chivers, presided, supported by his three sons, travellers, 
'foremen, and others. The man who made the first boil of jam twenty- 
one years ago was also there, and spoke. The following facts will prove 
beyond controversy that this firm has solved two of the most knotty 
problems of the age in their own quiet way, without fuss or controversy 
—Does agriculture pay ? Some may grumble about the name, and say 
fruit-growing and jam-making are gardening—horticulture. But, listen ! 
Dr. Lindley, a great authority in his day, affirmed that arboriculture and 
agriculture were branches of horticulture. 
But the question is not what’s in a name, but how is profit to be 
made out of the land or its products. Here is what Mr. Chivers said at 
the coming-of-age meeting, the meeting itself being a yet more potent 
object lesson of the profits that land will yield to wise investments of 
capital and skill. He began with % acres of land. Through the help 
of friends he was enabled to purchase 150 acres during the next ten 
years ; “and now,’’ added the Chairman and senior partner, “we have 
500 acres. Within ten miles of our factory there are 3000 acres under 
fruit, 2000 acres of which have been planted since the factory was 
built. Those familiar with the district can confirm these statements 
as to the extending area of fruit culture in this district, and the youth¬ 
fulness of the trees and bushes. Neither has this widening area under 
fruit as yet exhausted itself, considerable additions in this and other 
directions having been made within the last two years. I began with 
'two workpeople ; now we employ 400.’’ 
They had scarcely ever had any trouble with their workpeople, 
beveral of those present had been twenty, some thirty, and some forty 
years, and some of those in the factory had been there from its com¬ 
mencement. With many of them he had himself worked many years, 
and the happiest years of his life were when he worked among them. 
So much as to how the success of the factory was attained. Mr, William 
Chivers attributed the success of the firm to hard work properly directed. 
Mr, John Chivers claimed that jam-making had done more than any 
other movement to stimulate the production of fruit on a large scale. 
A thousand acres of land had been brought into profitable cultivation 
by it, a matter of special concern at the present time, giving employ- 
ment to thousands of persons in their native villages, thus tending to 
check their migration into the large towns. Another result was the 
stimulus it had given to the production of high-class jams. The jams of 
to-day were a vast improvement on those of twenty-one years ago. 
Mr. H. E, Hoare, M.P., congratulated the firm on the peace, con¬ 
tentment, and prosperity of their employes, the cleanliness of the 
factory, and the excellence and home-made-like character of their large 
output of jams. It was also cheap, but not impossibly cheap—cheap so 
far as cheapness is compatible with a first-rate product. Such rural 
industries as jam-making and kindred processes as those carried on at 
Histon found employment for carpenters, printers, tin-workers, box and 
basket makers, and other industries. The effect of such industries on 
Histon and the surrounding villages could hardly be exaggerated. One 
proof of this was the striking fact that Histon is one of the few villacres 
in West Cambs where the population has not gone down, but has “on 
the contrary increased. “ I do not say,’’ added the member for the 
division, ‘ that it is the only village, but there are not many, and I am 
sorry to say it is the rule in Cambs that the population of our villaees 
13 aecreasing, with the result that the towns are flooded with surplus 
labour that cannot find employment. Not only this district, but the 
country at large, owes a debt of gratitude to the factory owners and 
managers of Histon for the example it has set,’’ and which the speaker 
said he was glad to see had been followed elsewhere with equally bene¬ 
ficial results. 
The land and the climate of Essex do not vary very widely from those 
of West Cambs, the former being the heavier of the two. Fruit growing, 
and, I rather think, jam is being tried on the semi-classical farm of 
Tiptree, the results being reported as highly gratifying. I recently 
spent a few days in Essex looking at crops and products, judging 
cottagers’ gardens, and visiting the Essex Agricultural and Horticultural 
show, and the results in all cases seemed satisfactory wherever a sufficient 
amount of skill, capital, and labour were put into the land. Changes of 
crops and products may also be needful in many districts. It would in 
many cases be wise and prudent, before rushing away from the country 
into crowded towns, or changing farms, to try fruit growing and its 
conversion into jam in centres within easy distance. There are two vital 
needs which probably parish councils or some system of mutual co¬ 
operative enterprise may be able to provide for our rural populations. 
The first is a copious supply of pure water for every home within easy 
distance of it, and the second is a fair price for perishable fruits or other 
commodities, or simple means of making them imperishable where 
grown. With this latter provision railway rates would speedily adjust 
themselves on the lines of the greatest possible service for the lowest 
paying rate. This popular principle applied to third class fares enables 
directors to pay shareholders dividends. It would prove still more 
profitable in regard to goods traffic, whilst the lowest paying rates for 
farm and garden produce would go far to solve the present problem of 
agricultural distress.—D. T. Fish (in the “ Agricultural Gazette.’’) 
NATIONAL ROSE SOCIETY. 
The Amateurs’ Trophy Question. 
Most of us who are interested in the discussion in your columns 
must feel indebted to “ J. H. P.’’ and “ E. M., Berkhampsted," 
(page 149) for their contributions as helping to a clearer knowledge 
of this subject. If their letters be read carefully, and with due con¬ 
sideration to what has gone before, and to the context supplied in 
your issue of last week, they will also afford some amusement. “E. M.,” 
as a Secretary of our Society, practically states that absolutely no 
reason was given for the alteration in the exhibits of the trophy class 
from thirty-six to forty-eight, although that trophy, according to 
“ J. H. P.’s ’’ letter in your issue of the 9ch inst., was subscribed for and 
given to a class for thirty-six. As a matter of fact, which your 
correspondent’s useful table shows, the competition in 1882 and 
1883 testified to a keen appreciation of the class being for 
thirty-six varieties, the competitors in those two years averaging 
lOJ, although in the previous year, 1881, there were only three 
exhibitors for forty-eight varieties. It then appears that Mr. T. B. Hall 
proposed (and his suggestion was accepted) that the competition 
for thirty-six varieties, although evidently successful, should revert 
to one for forty - eight varieties 1 As “ B. M.” says there was no 
exceptional reason for this alteration, I hope Mr. Hall will now give us 
the reasons, if he can after so long a time recollect the matter. 
I have added to the very useful and interesting table sent by 
“ J. H. P.” (page 149), and have carried it down to the present year. I note 
that in the table which has been sent to you the year 1885 is given 
with an asterisk, and that the footnote gives as an explanation that the 
date was “July 7th,” but your readers will now also notice that in the 
years 1888 and 1894, when the shows were held at a similar date, the 
exhibits staged were respectively six and four. So that the date, 
apparently, cannot alone account for the large entry in 1885. I would 
also like to call attention to the fact that in eight years out of the last 
ten your correspondent has had the date he is so anxious for, viz., that 
nearest to the 6th July 1 One would think from “ J. H. P.’s” plea that 
the opposite was the true state of the case. 
From the figures now given primarily by “ J. H. P.’s ” help, we 
arrive at the following facts, that with a trophy class for thirty-six 
varieties there were in 1882 and 1883 respectively, ten and eleven 
competitors, an average of 10‘5 ; that from 1884 to 1887 there was an 
average of nine competitors, and that from 1883 to 1894, the average 
has been of five competitors. In this last period there are two 
dates when the show was held on the 7th July, and their average 
comes out equal to the same figure, viz., 5, as that for the whole 
Septenate 1883-1394, How is, then, the great falling off accounted for t 
