4i6 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



district — a centre which supplies a large 

 portion of Redditch and district with gar- 

 den produce — have a very poor outlook for 

 the approaching autumn and winter. Pears 

 and plums cannot be obtained at any price, 

 and only in a, very few instances, where the 

 fruit gardens and orchards happen to be 

 sheltered, is there anything like a medium 

 crop of apples. Soft and stone fruit round 

 about Evesham have turned out failures ; 

 so have apples. In the Kineton district 

 fruit " is a general failure." In the Cots- 

 wold country the prices asked for all kinds 

 of garden fruit are proof of the scarcity. A 

 placard up in one Cotswold town offered 

 4^d. per lb. wholesale for black currants, 

 and in another place 93^ d. retail was asked 

 for plums, as attested by the Midland Coun- 

 ties Herald. Apples and pears suffered 

 badly through the frosts of May. 



In Worcestershire farmers are concerned 

 in the failure of the apple crop, for there 

 are good apple orchards on most farms. 

 Apples are a very poor crop indeed, and 

 there will be a shortage of cider fruit for a 

 second year in succession. Even in fa- 

 mous cider districts now it is hard to obtam 

 a good cup of cider, and the make this sea- 

 son must of necessity be limited. As many 

 farmers in the Vale of Evesham say that 

 they cannot get laborers to work for them 

 in the hayfields without a very liberal allow- 

 ance of cider, the short supply is a matter 

 of some importance. 



The general scarcity of home-grown 

 fruit amounts, it is said, almost to a famine 

 in the Greengage and plum-growing dis- 

 tricts of Southwest Cambridgeshire. So 

 complete was the destruction of the crops 

 by the spring frosts that in some orchards 

 there is absolutely no fruit, while in others 



two or three on a tree is all that can be 

 seen. 



Only two years ago, of Greengages alone 

 the consignments from the villages of Mel- 

 dreth and Melbourn amounted on two days 

 to 30 tons each, and one week's return was 

 140 tons of Gages. For the occupiers of 

 small homesteads, with orchards attached, 

 of whom there are a number in the villages, 

 it is a serious loss. In a fruitful year an 

 orchard will pay nearly the whole year's 

 rent of a homestead. But this year it will 

 mean £100 rental for a house worth in itself 

 i2o, and no produce from the orchard. As 

 a rule, orchard land which is fairly planted 

 will make about iio an acre rent, which is 

 a very good thing for the landlords, and 

 also for the tenant in a good or even aver- 

 age year. 



In the circumstances it is more than like- 

 ly that the year will see a more than usual 

 quantity of blackberries marketed. Unlike 

 the cultivated fruit' these wild berries pro- 

 mise very well. There is a growing de- 

 mand for them even in ordinary years, and 

 as it is they must inevitably be called upon 

 to supplement the poor garden and orchard 

 crops. The bushes bear profusely for two 

 months. This ensures successional sup- 

 plies for marketing, and gives the black- 

 berry an advantage over the strawberry and 

 currant, whose fruit comes on with a rush 

 and exhausts itself in the course of a few 

 days. Large, evenly graded berries, put 

 up in punnets for sale, can be disposed of 

 by the ton at values ranging from 4s. to 6s. 

 a dozen pounds wholesale. It has been 

 prophesied that they will be retailed this 

 season at 9d. and a shilling a punnet, and • 

 even then they will not be unduly dear at 

 the price. 



