A HISTORY OF CORNWALL does not find a ready sale beyond the two westernmost counties. In connexion with the cultivation of straw- berries the punnet-making industry has attained to large dimensions. Almost all the fruit sold for dessert purposes is sent to market in small chip baskets (punnets) containing less than I Ib. each. These are packed in cases which hold 4j dozen punnets. The demand for these latter is so great as to provide work for all the women and children of the district during the winter months. As the result of the fruit industry the rent of land suitable for the purpose has doubled and in some cases quadrupled in value. Both fruit-growers and labourers have prospered. As regards the latter, the high wages earned by the men, supplemented by the earn- ings of their wives and children, enable them to live in a way unknown to the ordinary peasant. A beginning has also been made in the cultivation of tomatoes under glass, and the results obtained warrant the belief that it will be greatly extended. The effect of the fruit industry generally upon the intelligence of the people is also very marked. Besides educating the faculty of observation, the daily business done with persons at a distance has given the inhabitants a wider outlook than that possessed by those who only trade with their neighbours, so that, in every way, fruit- growing has proved a blessing to the entire district. 6 THE FISHERIES Although ' Mackrell * are mentioned by R. Carew l among the fish taken off the coast of Cornwall as early as 1602, the taking of them was apparently at that time a matter of small importance in comparison with the pilchard fishery. Dr. Borlase, 2 writing in 1758, mentions that ' the mackrel is taken in great plenty on the southern coast of Cornwall ' ; but it would seem, from his observation that the fish is ' not only of use when fresh, but is salted and pickled and kept all the winter to the great relief of the poor,' that there was no sale except in the immediate local market. This was, no doubt, due to the difficulties of transport. The fact that such enormous quantities of these fish are to be found in the western waters in the spring must have been attracting attention very soon after Dr. Borlase's time, and the know- ledge of this led to efforts to convey the fish to larger and more distant markets. In 1815 Dr. Paris 3 remarked of Mousehole and Newlyn that 'the pilchard and mackerel fisheries are here carried on to a very great extent . . . and in the early part of the season they supply the London market with mackerel which are conveyed by way of Portsmouth.' The trade thus once established grew steadily in importance, and as a consequence the boats engaged increased both in size and numbers, decked boats of 40 ft. keel and upwards taking the place of the smaller open or half-decked boats previously used. In 1850 a lugger large enough to carry 1,400 fathoms (more than a mile and a half) of nets was fitted out at Polperro. 4 The opening of through railway communication between Penzance and London in 1859 naturally had a great effect on an industry to which quick transport is so essential. 'In 1860 fish to the 1 R. Carew, Surv. ofCornw. 35. ' D. W. Borlase, Nat. Hist. ofCornw. 269.
- A Guide to Mounfs Bay, 72.
4 J. Couch, The Hist, of Pofytm (1871), 113. 582 value of 80,000 was sent from the Land's End district to the London and large provincial markets.' 6 Mr. Edmonds, writing in 1862, says ' there has never been so great a number of men employed in building large fishing boats in Mount's Bay as during the last year or two . . . the boats, too, which are now built are larger by some tons than their predecessors.' About 1875 the number of boats engaged was between 300 and 400, including several from Lowestoft and other ports on the east coast of England, which had then recently begun to come west for this object. At that time the quantity of fish landed was on an average about fifty tons per day amounting to 3,000 or 4,000 tons for the whole season, while each boat carried from a half to three-quarters of a mile of nets. The number of boats coming from the east coast to take part has steadily increased, and since 1896 they have come from Yarmouth and other ports, as well as Lowestoft. During the last three or four years a large number of steam- boats from the east coast ports have taken part. These are much larger craft than the sailing boats, and carry as much as three miles of nets each. The number of boats engaged in this parti- cular fishery during the season of 1905 was estimated at 500, of which 20 hailed from 5 Beyond a few newspaper notices and magazine articles, very little has been written upon horticulture as a Cornish industry. For this reason the writer is especially indebted to the following gentlemen who have generously given him the benefit of their know- ledge and experience in the composition of the foregoing article : The Rev. A. T. Boscawen, of Ludgvan Rectory ; Mr. J. C. Daubuz, of Killiow ; Mr. Andrew Lawrey, of Varfell ; Mr. W. M. Gluyas, of Scilly ; Mr. J. W. Lawrey, of Calstock ; and Mr. R. M. Martyn, of Padstow. To Mr. T. A. Williams, of the G.W.R. Office, Penzance, he is indebted for the statistics of the flowers and vegetables sent by train. 6 R. Edmonds, The Lanfs End District ( 862), 2 26.
