INDUSTRIES No sooner has the potato crop been gathered than preparations are made for the planting of cauliflower and broccoli. 1 This accordingly takes . place from the middle to the end of June, the seeds having been sown about the middle of March. A continuous supply of these vegetables is secured from November to April by selecting several varieties of seed. For the successful cultivation of broccoli, heavy soil is chosen and ammoniacal manure is used. Reckoning 100 crates to the acre, and 14 crates to the ton, land suitably chosen will yield between 7 and 8 tons to the acre. The farmer seldom gathers his own broccoli harvest. It pays him better to receive 15 to 20 per acre for the standing crop than to cut, pack, and send it off in crates ; while at the same time the buyer, whose opera- tions usually extend over a wide area, is enabled to meet the demands of the markets by a steady and constant supply. The amount of broccoli from West Cornwall (chiefly from the parishes of Gulval, Madron, Paul, Lelant, Ludgvan, St. Ives, and St. Burian) during the last five years is supplied by the following table : 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 Tons of broccoli sent off by train. . l6,90O . 15,200 . I7,OOO . 14,400 . I9,IOO From this it will be seen how extensively this vegetable is cultivated and also that its cultivation is steadily increasing. Asparagus is grown successfully at Tregirls, near Padstow, at Varfell in Ludgvan, and, on a smaller scale, in a few other places. Lack of capital deters many from engaging in this very profitable industry. Four years the time required for the plants to mature is considered too long a time to wait for a return. At the same time, it is agreed by all who have given attention to the subject, that the deep sandy loamy soils bordering the Cornish coast, well manured from time to time with seaweed and shell sand, are especially adapted for the culture of asparagus ; and here it may be noted that seaweed as a manure is valuable for every crop, and is very extensively used by market gardeners. It requires to be buried immediately, otherwise the potash, its chief fertilizing ingredient, escapes. 1 A note in the Bath and West of England Journal, by the late Rev. Thomas Phillpotts, of Porthgwidden, explains the origin of this industry. It states that Mr. Dupen, of Hayle, in the year 1836, took to Bristol, in a boat which plied between those ports, 4 dozen of broccoli and sold them at a profit. On his next voyage, in the same year, he took 14 dozen. In the following year one Temby, of Redruth, bought a consignment of broccoli from Benjamin Roberts, of Boscathnoe, and disposed of the same in London. At Tregirls asparagus farm as much as Js. 6d. has been obtained for early cuttings of 100 sticks, and the price seldom falls below 2s. At Varfell 100 sticks have been known to weigh as much as i6 Ib. Seakale is another vegetable which thrives in Cornwall. It has been and is still grown in various places with good results. Tomatoes, owing to the humidity of the atmosphere, seldom ripen in the open ; but under glass, following an early crop of flowers or other vegetables, they have been found profitable. Formerly cucumbers yielded a large margin of profit, as much as 201. a dozen having been obtained ; but now, owing to the general intro- duction of glass-houses, the supply has increased and the price is no longer sufficient to induce gardeners to devote much attention to their cultivation. Fruit-growing is also an important industry. In West Cornwall it has never been extensive, and is probably declining. The raspberry has suffered from the weevil pest, and the strawberry and currant are less cultivated than they were fifty years ago. In Kea parish the plum orchards are still famous both for the black Kea plum, which is peculiar to that parish, and also for red and grey varieties, the latter of which resembles the greengage, though somewhat smaller, and is valuable principally because it is the first to ripen. Apples are grown chiefly in the hundred of Stratton. In East Cornwall fruit-growing has assumed considerable dimensions, and now ranks amongst its most profitable industries. To a successful and well-known horticulturist to whose enter- prise 2 the district owes much of its present prosperity, the writer is indebted for the following account of the industry. The district in which cherries (mazzards), strawberries, and raspberries are largely grown comprises the land adjoining or within three miles of the Tamar, from Saltash to Horsebridge in Stoke Climsland ; and embraces the parishes of St. Stephen's by Saltash, Botusfleming, Pillaton, St. Mellion, Landulph, St. Dominick, Calstock, and Stoke Climsland. Of the fruit grown, by far the most important is the straw- berry, of which the annual output from the district named is, at present, from 200 to 300 tons. Next in importance is the raspberry, which produces from 100 to 150 tons annually, and realizes on an average about 21 per ton, the cost of gathering amounting to about 25 per cent. At the time of the fruit harvest work is so urgent that very high wages are paid, women and children earning 31. and men 4*. per day. It is doubtful if cherry-growing has increased during the last thirty years. The cherry is the most uncertain of fruits, and, unlike other fruit, ' Mr. J. W. Lawrey, J.P., C.C., of Calstock. 581
