Commercial Fruit Growing 25 



be helped, as has been hinted already, by intercropping during the first 

 year or two. Any ordinary vegetable crop will do, especially such crops 

 as Brussels Sprouts, Savoys, Cole worts, as they allow of the land being 

 partly fallowed in the spring, and, when they do well, are strong enough 

 to choke weeds. Where vegetables are not grown, Mangolds, Cabbage, 

 Turnips, or Swedes will do. If it is proposed to fold sheep, the hurdles 

 must be set to protect the trees, or the sheep will do similar mischief 

 to that done by the hares and rabbits, only more so. 



Corn will not do, nor Peas either, because they will only increase 

 the stock of weeds to get rid of. In intercropping, the trees and bushes 

 between them should have breathing space. It is unwise to choke trees 

 and bushes with the crops between, as is sometimes done. If this system 

 is followed for the first three years, and the bushes for the middle row, 

 or rows, grown on between the trees as suggested previously, the fruit 

 plantation may be charged a third of the rent and rates and a third of 

 the cost of manures. 



The hoeing of the trees and bushes would cost 20s. an acre each year. 

 The pruning, which would be done for 5s. to 6s. an acre the first year, 

 will increase in cost to 20s. by the fourth year. There may be spraying 

 to do, which will cost anything from 10s. to 20s. an acre, according to 

 the material used and the number of times it has to be done. By the 

 fifth year Plums, Dwarf Apples, Pyramid Pears, and the bushes will 

 begin to yield an appreciable return. The bushes that are moved out 

 of the tree rows into the middle on the fourth year will not bear so 

 much as the others for the first year, and the Strawberries planted 

 between the bushes will yield no revenue the first year, but it may be 

 hoped that the crop on the trees and bushes that remain will make up 

 for the loss of the vegetable or other crops for that year. Altogether 

 it may be reckoned that by the time the fifth year is reached the expenses 

 of maintenance have exceeded the returns by an aggregate of 20 an 

 acre, and this in addition to the expenses of planting. 



There will be a natural desire at this stage, especially in one con- 

 templating entering the business, to know what returns this expenditure 

 may be expected to produce. This is a part of market gardening that 

 commercial men are often unable to understand; there are so many 

 forces at work which influence the result, the effect of which it is im- 

 possible to foresee, that any estimate not based upon the average of 

 a wide range of years is likely to be completely misleading. In 1907 

 there was a phenomenally heavy crop of fruit all over England; since 

 then the fruit crop has been a comparative failure. A plantation of 

 Victoria Plums that produced 5000 half-sieves in 1907 produced 14 in 1908! 

 It may be taken for granted that most of the estimates of the probable 

 returns to be obtained from fruit, that one sees, were written when the 

 writer was in an exceedingly optimistic frame of mind. In the paper read 

 by Mr. C. D. Wise, which has already been quoted from, he says: "From 

 a field planted with half-standard or standard trees, Black Currants and 



