SECTION XVIII 

 Fruit Growing in Ireland 



Although Ireland is not at present a fruit-growing country in the 

 same sense that England is, there are great possibilities in store for it 

 under better management. The climate on the whole is much better than 

 that of England or Scotland, and there are districts in the north, south, 

 east, and west that may be regarded as distinctly favourable for the 

 industry. A few years ago Mr. (now Sir Frederick) Moore, Keeper of 

 the Glasnevin Botanic Gardens, discussed this question, and we reproduce, 

 with permission, his remarks from that interesting publication Irisli 

 Gardening: 



"So much has been spoken and written about fruit-growing in recent 

 years that but little fresh remains to be recorded on this subject, and 

 those not immediately interested in the subject are getting bored and 

 beginning to ask: 'Why all this fuss about fruit?' Those who are directly 

 interested, and who have watched the trend of events, have no reason to 

 feel discouraged at the results which have so accrued, more or less directly 

 stimulated by the flow of speech and ink. The uninitiated may find some 

 difficulty in discovering these results, but the nurseryman, the market 

 salesman, the market grower, the retailer, and the consumer all know and 

 feel that a great and drastic change is taking place in Irish fruit growing 

 and in Irish methods of producing and marketing fruit a change which 

 is one of gradual advance in the right direction. Only those who have 

 refused to march with the times have cause to grumble, and they fortu- 

 nately are being gradually crushed out, leaving the field open to more 

 progressive competitors. Perhaps it is not altogether a misfortune that 

 our Irish orchards fell into such a neglected condition during the last 

 half-century. It opened the way for modern systems of cultivation, 

 modern varieties, and a fresh start with young trees. It would be no 

 misfortune if many of the old orchards still remaining were cut down 

 and burnt, and new orchards planted to replace them. 



" Many timorous people look aghast at the idea of planting more apple 

 trees in Ireland when they read of the enormous imports of American 

 apples into this country, when they have it officially recorded that there 

 are this year 200,000,000 fruiting apple trees in the United States, which 



