124 HORTICULTURE LECT. vm 



of the healthy young trees that have been planted so 

 freely during the past few years, provided these are 

 well managed and supported on the lines indicated in 

 these lectures. 



QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. 



Q. Do you not think that the great increase in fruit planta- 

 tions will reduce the selling value of fruit ? 



A. It will not do so materially, and the increased crops 

 resulting from good culture, and the increased demand that 

 always follows on slight reductions in price with better goods 

 into the bargain, will afford compensation. 



Q. Which kind of fruit do you consider the most profitable 

 to grow ? 



A. That is a question to which no definite reply can be given, 

 because the crops of the different kinds vary according to the 

 seasons. Sometimes apples fail when small fruits are plentiful, 

 and occasionally, but less frequently, the reverse is the case. 

 With a judicious selection of the different kinds, adapted to 

 the soil and district, it will be veiy extraordinary if they all 

 fail. 



Q. Then you consider mixed culture the safest line to adopt ; 

 is that so ? * 



A. It is. During upwards of forty years experience I have 

 not known a well-planted and well-managed fruit garden by any 

 means fruitless. I have known every crop fail in turn through 

 some cause or other, but never all fail together, and I do not 

 expect ever to witness such a calamity. 



Q. Are we to understand, then, that the best possible 

 management cannot prevent failure ? 



A. You are distinctly to understand it in the case of out- 

 door culture. The grain harvest fails during prolonged wet 

 weather at a critical time, and ships are lost in storms. When 

 such calamities can be averted then will constant fruit crops of 

 all the different kinds be insured, and not till then. 



Q. Are fruit crops practically safe under glass ? 



A. They rarely fail in suitable structures under the manage- 

 ment of careful and competent men. 



Q. Much fruit is imported from America and other countries ; 

 Apples for instance. Do the crops fail there \ 



\ 



