42 THE BOOK OF THE APPLE 



where fruit from a district could be collected in large 

 quantities. I am told that a firm of salesmen did this in 

 a plentiful year, buying up at a low price all suitable 

 "keepers" they could lay hands on, and this not only 

 helped prices of other sorts at the time, but they placed 

 them after five months storage on the market at a large 

 profit, showing that combination would pay if it could 

 be extensively carried out. 



" The sorts now most favoured for late sale are 

 Wellington, Blenheim, Winter Queening, Northern 

 Greening, Deux Ans, Norfolk Beaufin, Cox's Orange 

 Pippin, Golden Knob, and Wyken Pippin ; and, locally, 

 Hanwell Souring, Grange's Pearmain and Court Pendu 

 Plat. But in a few years there will be a large growth 

 of Tower of Glamis, Newton Wonder, Bismarck, 

 Hambling's Seedling, Royal Jubilee, Lane's Prince 

 Albert, and Bramley's Seedling. 



" Year by year the home-grown supply gets larger, 

 and it may be possible to keep up a regular supply 

 when a system of storage is largely adopted, and it is 

 in this direction that English apples for the English 

 public may be provided. The largest crop ever 

 grown was, perhaps, in 1900, and yet it is a fact 

 that better prices were obtained for keeping apples 

 than in previous years." 



With reference to the subject of fruit storage, Mr 

 Owen Thomas, head gardener to Her late Majesty 

 Queen Victoria, says, in speaking of specially built cool 

 fruit rooms : " It is not the extreme cold here which is 

 called into requisition to retard maturity, but rather the 

 arresting of evaporation by the equability of the tempera- 

 ture for a long period of time, say, from when the fruit 

 is gathered until it is ripe. I am of opinion that much 

 may be done on this principle. Indeed, this has already 

 been demonstrated by Messrs Veitch, Bunyard and 

 Crump. Messrs Bunyard especially have shown what 



