The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1883-10-19
A BIG ENGLISH ORCHARD.
GRAPHIC PEN PICTURE OF COM
MON BRITISH SCENE.
Wen and women It work Ga-h erin q
the Fruit--Pic urtsque scenes Of
Husy Toll.

Wen and Women Tt work Gn'h cring
the Fruit--Pic urtsque Sctncs Of
busy Toll.
A graphic sketch of London orchard
is given in recent number of the Lon
don Standa,d: To right and left are
long avenues of apple standards laden
with the light, silky skinned Manx
Goblin, sometimes broken by the rosy
red of an intruding "rogue" sapling
which has been allowed to stand more
for beauty than for use. Beneath the
trees the ground is covered with goose
berries, currants and raspberries. You
think, perhaps, that no fifty odd acres
could be more closely packed, and that
there must be great harvest here for the
London market. Here, then, are few
figures In one week 200 bushels, or
about five tons, of apples, on the average,
find their way to Covent Garden. In
their season, 200 half bushels of currants
and 400 of gooseberrics. AS to straw
berries, forty tons have been sent up be-
fore now In six days. Yet other countries
are competing in the strawberry market,
and many hundreds of tons come up
from round about Southampton.
You are now beneath stalwart
walnut tree, the first of n
splendid line of seven or eight. A
beautiful sight, perhaps, to one who is
not concerned in the profit to be made
from the land, but to the market gar
dcner by no means so satisfactory, for the
walnut throws out roots in length equal
to its height, and all the standards near
by suffer severely in consequence. Close
hpr Of cd
short ladders, and plucking the fruit
from some low apple trees. The high
ladder work is mostly left to the men,
as they are less given to tumbling down.
As to the younger women, many of them
are comely enough. \ few are Stafford
shire and Lancashire girls, who have
stayed beyond the soft fruit season.. C.,
the picking of currants, Strawberries,
and perhaps, plums-thc majority are
natives of the district, who, however,
will be soon leaving this orchard in the
Thames valley for the hop grounds on the
banks of the Midway.
2 AS to the north country girls, they look
forward to this fruit harvest ten miles
from London to find them the means to
form Il little nest-egg to help them
through the coming winter. Their work,
when they choose to take overtime,
which they generally do, is in the early
summer from 3: 80 in the morning until
s o'clock at night. BY this custom they
can always, if they choose, earn over
eighteen shilings week, doing
piece work, or, as it is termed in
market garden parlance, great work.
AS rule they spend next to nothing in
food, living mostly on bread and fruit.
This light diet however, does not pro-
duce any results which are likely to sup
port any theories of enthusiastic vege-
tarians. Painting fits and hysteria,
especially in the hot weather, are the
bane of the orchards. In their short
print dresses and with their red cotton
handkcrchicfs tied over their heads, the
girls look well enough to form pretty
study for any follower of the Fred
Walker school. Still, despite rosy
cheeks, blue eyes and agile forms, the
romance is soon broken when they open
their mouths.
But if the girls be somewhat rough,
the orchard men are still more so. In
deed, the big orchard is the limbo for
the rough, the rascal, the stupid and I'M
fortunate. Like the work of the docks,
as it requires no special skill it is sought
only by those who can get nothing better
to do. Eighteen shillings week and
fourpcncc an hour overtime although on
this particular ground tivepence) is
the average wages. The men, too
if poor, are bv no means honest,
and they are only too handy at finding any
chance tools that may be carclessly left
about. Quarrelsomc are they, foul
mouthed and drunken; though with re-
gard to temperance or intempcrance, it
must IN justice be owned to the blue rib
bon movement that during the last two
years they have shown marked i'm
provcment.
Among the other beauties of this
grand old orchard are the famous yew
hedges, nigh a century old. The grand
father of the present owner even in his
day knew how good yew hedge breaks
up the draught of the wind instead of,
like brick wall, only turning it off in
another direction. If it were not for the
Overpowering scent from the trees and
bushes and fallen leaves, the orchard
would be a lovely spot to see the wanc of
the sunset. The blackbird is in full
song and the tnches are busy in the
hedges. These tinches, however, are
troublesome little fellows in their way,
| especially in the autumn. See this stretch
of ground set with cabbage seed. The
young birds, with all the recklessness Of
youth, pay little heed to the scare
string, and pull up the seedlings
to their hearts content. In the
spring the old birds are far
too Shy and wary, so that any
sowing stands much better chance.
What is Il sad sight, too, is to notice how
the recent gales played havoc with the
fruit. Yet it is not all waste, you are
told by the market gardener, as he leads
the way to large group of outbuildings.
These buildings surround great yard,
in which are many sleeves of windfall
| apples, which have had the damaged
parts cut out. BY the aid of the great
copper pans, heated by steam in SHED
near by, the fruit is converted into pulp
sealed up in air-tight two-gallon jars
and sold in the market for Jelly making
! This ATTACHING nrpsprVinp works tO ;