260 THE FRUIT GROWER'S GUIDE. 



their choicest productions and gain prizes, if they can, at exhibitions. The growers 

 are still further encouraged by commission on sales of produce, and the result is high- 

 class fruit commanding remunerative prices, for there is always a demand for choice 

 samples in moderate quantities. 



Some landowners devote a portion of their domains to growing hardy fruit for market. 

 These fruit farms are occasionally managed in combination with, but, as a rule, separate 

 from the private establishment. In the latter case the management devolves on men 

 experienced in marketing methods, and who have been engaged in the cultivation of crops 

 from youth upwards exclusively from a pounds, shillings, and pence point of view. It 

 is simply transferring industrial energy and cultural skill from herbage, cereal, and root 

 crops to fruit production. This class of cultivators enterprising fruit farmers have an 

 immense advantage over small growers through their connections with tradesmen and 

 salesmen, and thus effecting sales on the most advantageous terms. "What large growers 

 do for themselves, small must do by co-operation, that is, combine in the purchase 

 of trees, manures, and the conveyance of goods, so as to involve the least expense in 

 production and distribution, and secure the best profits on the work. 



Tradesmen and Mechanics. These classes of cultivators mainly devote their attention to 

 growing fruit for their households. It would be a mistake, however, to conclude that their 

 cultures have not some influence on the supply of the markets. Many buy a piece of 

 land, build a residence, plant fruit trees against the walls, assign a portion of ground to 

 bush and other kinds, with the result that more fruit is grown than the occupier requires 

 for his own use. If the produce is high-class it is readily disposed of at good prices 

 for fruiterers' windows, but if the grower keeps the best for himself and friends, and 

 disposes only of the worst, he must be content with costermongers' prices, while he, at 

 the same time, lowers the prestige of the home produce. These remarks apply chiefly to 

 tradesmen and mechanics near towns with few manufacturing industries, where the soil and 

 climate are as well suited for fruit production as in many rural districts where fruit is 

 successfully grown. 



There are individuals in various stations of life, who may derive both pleasure and 

 profit in fruit-growing, if they acquire knowledge to bring the land into a high state of 

 cultivation, and send the result of their labours into the markets in an attractive and appe- 

 tising manner, leading to the freer use of fruit as food to the improvement of the national 

 health. What the sons and daughters of Britain effect in the lands of the West, and at 

 the Antipodes, they may do at home by the exercise of musclos and brains ; but nothing 



