WILL IT ALL FIND A MARKET? 25 



relish for every meal, and might gradually supplant all 

 the shrimps, winkles, and other manifold cheap and 

 doubtful luxuries of the million. 



Fruit being at least four-fifths water, would be found 

 in time to afford complete substitutes for nearly every 

 form of drinkables, whether hot or cold, whether pure 

 water or "strong drink." If the demand for fruit 

 continues to increase, therefore, at the same rate during 

 the next twenty years as during the last, there will be 

 outlets for all the British fruit that can be possibly 

 raised. Apples and pears will be wanted faster than 

 they can be grown, all the year round, and as they are 

 produced of superior quality, they will largely supersede 

 the use of oranges and other foreign fruits, for which 

 we pay five or six millions per annum. And throughout 

 all the summer and autumn months the strawberries, 

 cherries, and plums, and the bush or "soft" fruits in 

 succession, will be in increasing demand every year. 



For the supply of the majority of these fruits the 

 foreign competitor stands but little chance. Our straw- 

 berries, raspberries, ripe gooseberries, or mulberries, as 

 we know, ought to be brought to table the same day 

 that they are gathered, so that to be in perfect condition 

 they must be home-grown. 



As we have education now at work, spreading the 

 knowledge of science, of sanitary laws, and of temperance 

 truths in every corner of the land, the public will 

 continue to cultivate a taste for the choicest of fruits, as 

 far as they can aiford them, as the easiest and pleasantest 

 way to keep their health. 



It has been estimated that at present the annual 

 consumption of fruit does not exceed 6s. per head per 

 annum, or, say, less than one farthing per day surely a 



