44 Commercial Gardening 



vegetables, or if farm produce for home consumption is required, potatoes, 

 turnips, or mangold can also be grown. 



" Fruit farms worked on these lines are those which will give in every 

 way the best results. May I just give a couple of instances. In Wexford 

 and Killkenny some acres of mixed fruit were planted in 1904 in single- 

 acre plots, under the supervision of the Department of Agriculture. 

 Accurate accounts have been kept and the plots have been well cultivated. 

 Plot No. 1. The initial cost of preparing the ground and planting was 

 20, 15s. 4d, and in the first year vegetables and small fruit to the 

 extent of 9, 7s. 7d were sold off this plot, leaving a loss of 11, 7s. 9d 

 In the second year, 1905, the cost of cultivation was 15, 6s. lid., and 

 produce sold brought 24, 6s. 4d, showing a profit of 8, 19s. 5d Out of 

 the total receipts of 24, 6s. 4d, apples only produced 1, 8s. Plot No. 2 

 cost 12, 10s. to cultivate in 1905, and the produce from it was sold for 

 20, 18s. lOd, showing a profit of 8, 8s. lOd. The apples sold produced 

 2. Each succeeding year will, of course, show larger profits as the 

 apples, pears, &c., come into bearing. For instance, this last-named plot 

 in 1906, its third year, already shows a clear profit of 23, although 

 apples, &c., still remain to be sold. These are not the best plots; I have 

 selected good average plots, so as to be within the mark, but they suffi- 

 ciently illustrate the advantages of the mixed system of fruit growing." 



The above was submitted to Sir Frederick Moore, who has kindly added 

 the following statement: " I have gone over it carefully. You will see 

 that it was written some six years ago, and experience has taught some- 

 thing since then. On the whole I adhere by the statements made in it. 

 They are substantially accurate. The question as to the distances apart 

 I have modified: 12 ft. every way is too close. We now recommend 

 15 ft. every way, as that enables better and longer work to be done with 

 horse labour, which is an important matter. I still hold that it is a 

 benefit, where you are growing two types of trees, to grow them mixed. 

 You will notice in my paper I touch on the point you allude to as the 

 duration of bushes on the Paradise stock. I could go further and state 

 that I know of bushes on Paradise twenty -five years old, still producing 

 very fine quality fruit. Further, you must remember we have been 

 dealing with farmers, not skilled fruit growers, men who knew absolutely 

 nothing of fruit and who had to be taught the very elements of it. Each 

 plot consisted of one single acre; many of these farmers have now doubled 

 and trebled the acres at their own expense. The whole thing was an 

 experiment to see if the farmer could be taught to grow fruit well and 

 profitably, and then be left to work out his own destiny. It is succeeding. 



"The market-grower question and the market garden are very dif- 

 ferent matters. The prices given are actual records from these experi- 

 mental 1-acre plots, but the cost of planting and preparing did not include 

 the cost of the trees supplied. The ground was in nearly every instance 

 land under permanent grass, and we could only get the farmers' figures 

 as to cost of preparing. The amount included in cost of preparing and 



