2 Commercial Gardening 



ditions so bad for the labourer and for society at large that they must be 

 got rid of if the fabric is to be preserved. 



The fact is not lost sight of that the slack time of one trade may coin- 

 cide with the busy time of another, and that many men manage to fit a 

 spell of fruit picking into a busy year, of which a considerable part is occu- 

 pied in other directions. Notwithstanding this, it remains unquestioned 

 that a fair prospect of continuity of employment is necessary if you would 

 have your men take an interest in their work. What trade is there in the 

 whole gamut in which such an interest on the part of the employees is more 

 desirable than that of the growing of fruit? The second fact mentioned 

 above will be seen to have a direct bearing upon the commissariat of the 

 grower. On an average, until we succeed in bringing our climate to heel, 

 the grower may reckon that in two years out of five there will be little or 

 no fruit. Unless during the years of plenty he has sat with profit at the 

 feet of Joseph in Egypt, he will find himself in the position of those 

 familiar occupants of an Irish cabin, where it is said streaky bacon is made 

 by alternations of good feeding and its antithesis. There are certain kinds 

 of flowers that seem to do well with vegetables, and many a market gardener 

 has found his Wallflowers, his Stocks, or his spring-flowering bulbs do as 

 well as any of his crops. 



To deal with the fruit plantation first. Here a definition is much 

 needed. When is a fruit plantation an orchard, and when is it a fruit 

 garden? It is time the term "orchard" were restricted to plantations of 

 fruit trees with the grass growing under, and where no cultivation takes 

 place. Where an under crop of bush fruit or flowers is grown, and the 

 ground is cultivated, it is a "fruit garden". 



The first question that comes to anyone contemplating making a planta- 

 tion is, what shall be the size of the holding? To answer it for anyone else 

 is almost as difficult as to tell one about to marry what size of house to 

 take. A great deal must depend upon the resources of capital he is able to 

 control. Two rules may be laid down which must be like the laws of the 

 Medes and Persians if happiness is to ensue: (1) Never take a larger 

 holding than your capital can work easily, and have some capital to spare ; 

 (2) if your capital is borrowed, be sure the lender has a patience that will 

 stand testing. A man whose ambitions go beyond having a pound a week 

 to spend, and who proposes to depend upon fruit alone, must not start with 

 less than 10 ac., and for this he ought to be able to see his way clear to 

 500 capital. The following figures, which refer to a plantation of 30 ac. of 

 Dwarf Apple trees planted close and with no crop under, may be useful: 



s. d. 



1st Year. Cost of 10,250 Dwarf Apple trees at 50?. per 100 256 



Manuring 30 ac. at 10 per acre 300 



Ploughing, sub-soiling and preparing for planting 60 



Planting 42 



Cultivation for the year 60 



Bent at 2 per acre, and taxes , ,.. 75 



793 



