FRUIT-GROWING FOR PROFIT IMPORTATION OF FRUIT. 



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preservation, and distribution. Experienced and enlightened growers know the truth of 

 this, and it is, in fact, proved by their successful practice and extensions of culture. 

 Seasons affect the fruit-yield undoubtedly all over Europe and in America, as well as in 

 England. 



In 1893 the fruit crops in England and most other countries were full, and produce 

 of the larger kinds clear in the skin, highly coloured, and excellent in quality. Bush fruits 

 generally suffered by the extreme heat and drought ; strawberries from Hampshire were 

 in the London markets on the 4th May, fruits small, and crops of short duration. 

 "Where strawberries occupied trenched and enriched land they gave good results, while 

 the crop from old plants in exhausted soil was hardly worth gathering. 



The lessons to be drawn from the fruit crops of 1893 are: 1, neglected orchards do 

 not produce profitable crops ; 2, only well-managed trees on cultivated land bear fruit 

 fitted for present-day competition ; and 3, when the supply to the markets is inadequate 

 or inferior, foreign fruit is largely imported. 



For comparison with 1893 an unprecedentedly hot and dry season the Board of 

 Trade returns of raw fruits for 1889 and 1890 a wet year are subjoined : 



