as previously stated, it has over 25 per cent. of the total acreage of small fruit, and it possesses no less than 26 per cent. of the apple trees, 36 per cent. of the pear trees, 25 per cent. of the plums, 61 per cent. of the cherries and 70 per cent. of the other fruit trees (mainly nuts) in England and Wales. No other county approaches it in importance in regard to any one fruit, except Worcester in the case of plums and a few counties in the case of strawberries.

The four groups of counties shown in the table include 75 per cent. of the orchards of the country, but some other counties have also considerable areas under one fruit or another. Special mention may be made of the pears of Lancashire and Cheshire, the plums of Huntingdon and Salop and the cherries of Buckingham.

Yield and Total Production.-The average yield of orchard fruit is more variable than that of small fruit, as can be seen from the following comparison of estimated average yields per tree in 1924 and 1925.

AVERAGE YIELD PER TREE OF ORCHARD FRUIT IN 1924

The total estimated production of orchard fruit in those years for which information is available is as follows:

In the absence of current information as to the area under fruits other than those set out above, no estimate can be made of the production of apricots, loganberries and cultivated blackberries, but the value of these is probably of little account in comparison with the total. No estimate has been made in recent years of the production of nuts.

Fruit production in the past three years has on the average been greater than in either 1908 or 1913, but both these latter years were described as considerably below average. Unlike other kinds, the cider apple crop appears to have fallen off substantially.

Variation in the Area of Orchard and Small Fruit.-Neither the total area of orchards nor that of small fruit has changed very greatly during the past twenty years in this country, though a decrease is shown in both cases.

AREA OF ORCHARD AND SMALL FRUIT IN CERTAIN YEARS.

The slow reduction in the area of orchards and small fruit in the last 17 years shown in the above table, however, is the result of an appreciable change which has occurred in the distribution over the country as a whole. The areas under orchards and small fruit respectively in different districts in certain years are shown in the table on the next page.

Clearly the eastern counties are steadily displacing the western as the chief orchard areas of the country. In 1891 the two westerly groups shown above totalled 115,000 acres of orchards, or 55 per cent. of the whole orchards of the country, while the two easterly groups aggregated only 32,000 acres, or 15 per cent. Up to 1908 there was a general increase, but greatest in the eastern groups, which in that year possessed 22 per cent. of the orchard acreage as compared with the western groups 50 per cent. But some of the orchards of the west country have been grubbed up, and some have ceased to bear and are no longer returned as orchards, with the result that the two western groups now have only 39 per cent. of the country's orchard acreage, while the eastern groups have nearly the same proportion. Among the minor counties also the same tendency is evident: western

counties such as Cornwall, Salop and Monmouth show reductions; eastern counties like Suffolk and Huntingdon show increases.

ACREAGE OF ORCHARDS AND SMALL FRUIT IN CERTAIN
COUNTIES IN 1891, 1908 AND 1925.

All other counties - 60,599 68,888 58,780 20,522 21,883 | 16,126 Total (England and 208,069 248,007 238,081 54,077 76,950 68,352 Wales).

The old orchards of the West Country, especially those of Devon and Somerset, consist largely of cider-apple trees, whereas the newer orchards planted in Kent and elsewhere consist of dessert and cooking varieties. It has, however, been the practice for many years for gaps in cider orchards in the West Country to be filled largely by apple trees of dessert or cooking varieties, so that the reduction in the production of cider apples is greater than the decrease in the total acreage of apple orchards in the western counties would suggest.

The small fruit acreage has changed in much the same way as orchards, except that whereas the orchard acreage of Kent has increased enormously the small fruit acreage in that county has declined. The movement towards the east is no less apparent generally, however, than in the case of orchards. Between 1891

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and 1908 practically all counties showed increases, but those in Norfolk, Lincoln and Cambridge were exceptionally heavy. Since 1908, however, the bulk of the increase in acreage is accounted for by these three counties, with Essex, Suffolk and Hampshire also showing substantial increases.

(h) Hops.

The acreage of hops grown in this country is now much less than it was fifty years ago, when 70,000 acres were under this crop, as compared with 26,256 acres in 1925.

Kent has maintained its position as the chief hop-producing county and, with rather over 60 per cent. of the total area, has much the same proportion as formerly; but the general reduction in acreage over the whole country has been much less pronounced in the western hop counties than in the south-eastern, Hereford and Worcester together now providing 24 per cent. of the hop acreage as compared with only 13 per cent. in 1880.

That Kent should have retained pride of place regarding hop acreage is not surprising in view of the consistently heavier yields recorded in that county. During the past ten years the Kent hop fields have averaged some 123 cwt. per acre, while other counties range from 11 cwt. in Sussex and Hampshire to rather over 9 cwt. in Hereford. Owing to its high proportion of the total area and its high yield per acre, Kent produced in 1925 some 70 per cent. of the 355,000 cwt. of hops grown in England.

The decline in the hop acreage has been accompanied by an improvement in the yield per acre. Hence total production, although less than before the war, has not declined proportionately to the total area. The average annual production since 1886 has been as follows:

The acreage of hops declined by nearly 60 per cent. between 1886-90 and 1921-25, but so great has been the increase in the yield per acre that the total production fell by only 32 per cent. in the same period.

(i) Flowers.

From estimates made by the crop reporters of the area of crops other than vegetable or farm crops included under the heading of other crops in the agricultural returns and the special returns obtained from growers of crops other than farm crops,

it appears that the area devoted to the growth of flowers in the open is about 5,250 acres.

Daffodils and narcissi account for about 1,400 acres, tulips 300 acres, violets 150 acres, and other flowers 3,400 acres. Daffodils and narcissi are grown most extensively in Lincoln (Holland) and Cornwall and appreciable areas are to be found. in Norfolk, Essex, Middlesex and West Sussex. Lincoln (Holland) and Norfolk account for most of the tulips grown for sale in the country, and Devon and Cornwall grow the great bulk of the violets. Other flowers are distributed more evenly over the country, but on the whole the largest areas are in counties fairly near to London and other populous districts. The value of flowers grown in the open is estimated at about £400,000.

Information as to the value of flowers grown under glass is given in the next section, but it may be mentioned here that the estimated value of flowers (including bedding plants, decorative plants, &c.) grown under glass is £1,350,000, so that the estimated value of the total output of flowers is £1,750,000.

(j) Glasshouse Produce.

Inquiry forms were sent to 5,667 owners of glasshouses in England and Wales, but only 1,969 replies were received, and of these only 1,205 were able to give the full particulars asked for relating to area and production. The total area of glasshouses for which particulars of production were given was 725 acres. An estimate based upon these returns, supplemented by additional inquiries, suggests that the total area of commercial glasshouses in England and Wales is about 2,725 acres. Figures of production were, therefore, received in respect of over 25 per cent. of the area.

Of the 1,205 glasshouse owners who supplied particulars of production, 180 were in Lancashire, and between 70 and 85 in each of the counties of Hertford, Middlesex, Essex and Kent. But these proportions are no indication of the relative importance of the various counties. In Hertford the glasshouse owners making returns averaged about 17,000 square yards each, in Middlesex over 7,750 and in Essex about 4,200, whereas in Lancashire the average was only 750 square yards. Other counties which averaged about 4,000 square yards or more per return were Bedford, West Sussex, Derby and Dorset.

The value of the production from the 725 acres for which particulars of production were given was £1,280,000. Of these totals, the three counties of Hertford, Middlesex and Essex together accounted for 60 per cent. of the area and 62 per cent. of the output value, while the south-eastern group of Kent, Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire accounted for 15 per cent. of the area and 18 per cent. of the production value. Outside these two groups the largest areas in respect of which returns were obtained were in Lancashire, Norfolk and Derby.