Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-08-21

| close where each square lool VI
ground is looked after like a window
box on town sill.
There is no need to envy the pretty
japanese custom of setting apart a
ceremonial holiday for the admira-
ton of the cherry blossom; it is al
ready part of the daily rite to look at
the snowy peaks that stand up here
and there in intervals Of the plump
orchards already deflowered and set
ting into fruit. On the fourth side the
LAND is just changing. as at the cir
cumference of all the Evesham circle,
from farm to garden. The knoll is at
point where the tide touches the
shore. The land is being bought piece
by piece at forty years purchase by
self-making men taking their first
stride into independence.
Evesham does not. need a plum
blossom holiday, but such a festival
might we'll benefit less appreciative
communities. 1t would surely be a
good service if men Of all sorts could
while to regions such as this where
the care of the land has reached its
highest pitch. Sight is the finest
stimulus and the eye the best educa-
tor The strawberry orchards of
Cornwall owe their origin as Miss
Jebb pointed out, to the chance visit
of a young Cornishman to Convent
Garden. He had seen better straw
berries than the dealers had in his
fathers garden, and so went home to
tell his people of the uneXploited
value of their land. Today the result
of his visit is apparent to any visitor
either to Convent Garden or to Corn
wall. No one wishes to convert Eng
land into a market garden; We want
farms of all sorts, but even on the
Huntingdonshire clays or Lincoln
shire wolds there are possibilities yet
undeveloped which may be found out
by travel and by hints from other re-
gions.
I saw last week near Evesham one
plication of workers on the land fol-
lowing the multiplication of crops. A
| few years ago a farm of 125 acres,
close up against the garden area, was
worked by two men and a boy. Today
the wages bill on the farm amounts at
the lowest periods to f15 a week, and
often more The farm is still a gen.
eral farm of the previous dimensions;
it is not converted into orchards or
gardens; but it is farmed "close."
In one corner a good deal of glass
had been put up, and in each house,
on soil that still looked heavy and
stubborn, like the normal ploughed
field of the midlands, grew enormous
quantities of tomatoes, the lines sep
arated by early French lettuces, of
which the last were being gathered.
These were being successfully grown
for the first time in a greenhouse. On
shelves extending the whole length
were double lines of strawberries, of
which the reddening fruit hung down
in great quantities, so that If you
stood beneath they looked like the
heavy tasselled fringe Of the early
| Victorian mantelpiece.
Here and there about the farm
were bell glasses over marrows and
tomatoes. One small field of cabbage
on which five hands were working,
was worth money on the market gar
den scale-and the market gardener
reckons to make twelve times as
much per acre as the farmer. In the
lush grass of a pretty orchard cows,
pigs and poultry were thick on the
ground, and the farmer does not de-
spise a milkrOund.
In a country such as this the people
on the soil grow to have a wonderful
confidence in the land, as a friend
that will be good to you if you are
good to it. They know how small a
piece will support a man. AS stop
ped on the road just outside Evesham
| to mend a collapsed tire a man ap-
peared to the rescue from behind a
| hedge. He had been working on his
three-acre plot, which had supported
him tolerably for several years with
out great labor-and he was a man
not brought up to the land. Wasting
ground is regarded as a form of
slackness and professional inefticien-
cy. Down the cool aisles under the
white roof and dark rafters of the
fruit trees the gillyfowers grow thick
as bluebells and scent the air as gra-
ciously as a field Of beans.
The spirit of the place is confidence
| in the ground, which is not the less
great because of diftidence in the
markets and jealousy at the superior
facilities given to imported products
The town of Evesham is rneditating q
pageant on the justification of a tow
er of an antiquity unpenetrated and
of a rich history. But the best cpl
sode would be a march of self-made
gardeners, dibbles or pruning knives
| in hand, who represent the last and
completest conquerOrs of the vale;
and many visitors from less favored
tracts would wish their victorious
march might be indefinitely extended
The gardeners have even conquer
ed the law of the land. "The Eve
sham custom" has immensely facilita-
ted the triumphs of cultivation. In
accordance with its canon every man
on leaving his leased plot finds his
own successor-from whom he usual
ly gets a large premium. If the land
owner brings a tenacy to an end OF
refuses to take the appointed success
or, then he himself must pay compen-
sation on a generous scale to the de-
parting tenant This Evesham GUS
tom is as binding as the law and
much more effective. Other local
Hand laws of equal stringency are
found to establish themselves in most
places where tenanCies are small and
] gardening, especially fruit farming,