266 THE FRl'IT GROWER'S GUIDE. 



and a plum soil by the vigour and productiveness of blackthorns and bullaces. Take 

 all these things into consideration make careful inquiry, secure the opinion of experts, 

 and serious initial mistakes may be avoided. Further particulars in respect of the 

 suitability of soils for fruit trees will be found under soils and subsoils, Vol. L, page 21, 

 and a succinct account of the soils of this country for apple and fruit-growing generally 

 on pages 340343, Vol. I. 



Tenure. As a rule, the fruit grower for profit ought to own the land, or hold it on 

 a long lease, under definite and equitable terms. Practical landlords are as ready to 

 grant as good tenants are to acquire long leases. In many cases trees are found by the 

 landlord, the tenant paying for planting, but no compensation is allowed for unexhausted 

 improvements. In several instances confiding tenants have engaged in fruit-growing 

 without any security beyond that accorded by the extension of the Compensation for 

 Improvements Act to fruit trees and glass structures. This should not be considered 

 satisfactory. A special agreement is the best for both parties, as the cost involved in 

 recovering compensation under Acts of Parliament chiefly benefits assessors at the 

 expense of both landlord and tenant. 



There is no question of ownership being the surest guarantee of deriving profit 

 from land by the growing of fruit, and it should be sought near railway stations or towns 

 where produce may be disposed off and manure obtained on easy terms. 



Leases are generally framed in the interests of land-owners, as they naturally expect 

 the land to be as good at the end of the lease as it was at the beginning. The tenant 

 must act accordingly, and not indulge in expenditure from which he cannot benefit 

 during the term. For orcharding standard trees on free stocks, with or without bush 

 fruits between them, a thirty years' lease of good land is absolutely necessary to enable 

 the tenant to derive a fair share of the profit, and even then he cannot benefit to any- 

 thing like the same extent as the landlord, for when the term expires, the trees, in good 

 fruit years, will yield as much as the land is worth. Ownership is the only condition 

 of safety in orcharding, unless the tenant can command a renewal of the lease upon terms 

 equitable alike to himself and the landlord. 



Land for planting with fruit trees on the dwarfing system apple, cherry, pear, and 

 plum trees in low standard, pyramid, or bush form should be acquired under a twenty- 

 one years' lease, and the cultures restricted to early and free-bearing varieties. This, or an 

 agreement guaranteeing compensation for improvements, is essential, as the capital laid 

 out is much greater than by either mixed culture or ordinary orcharding. Ground for 



