Country Life
THE FRUIT HARVEST.
Fruit is in such luscious quantity that even as you drive through the Vale of Evesham you see lines of trees broken to smithereens by the abnormal weight. You become aware even of the scent of plums and gooseberries. The smell of the small fruit is untimely, for it has been left—many tons of it—to rot on the bushes. The plum harvest has now more than reached its summit. A few years ago such a harvest as this would have been left to rot like the goose- berries ; and as things are it has not paid its way. Even in local shops the best Victories could be bought at nine pounds for the shilling. The price may have just paid for the picking —that and nothing more. Yet, in spite of losses, there are signs, indeed proofs (in this district of born self-helpers), that better organization, better marketing, better transport are preparing the way for higher prosperity. Any government that proposes to give any help will find the spadework already accomplished.
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