FRUIT-GROWING AND PRESERVING. 5I: 



CHAPTER IV. 



FRUIT-GROWING AND PRESERVING. 



The main institute for research in fruit-growing in this 

 country is the Agricultural and Horticultural Research Station 

 at Long Ashton, attached to the University of Bristol. A 

 second research station has been established at East Mailing 

 in Kent. Investigations into methods of fruit preserving and 

 vegetable drying are conducted partly at the Long Ashton 

 Institute, and partly at a station set up for this purpose at 

 Campden, Gloucestershire. The latter station was established 

 to continue the experimental work carried out directly by the 

 Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries during the War; arrange- 

 ments have recently been made under which the station has 

 been taken over by the University of Bristol so that its work 

 may be supervised by the Long Ashton Institute and co-related 

 with the investigations there being conducted. The present 

 chapter will give an account of the main lines of investigation 

 at all three centres, and inasmuch as work of this character 

 must normally be continued for several years before results 

 are obtained, it will be necessary to refer to the work of previous 

 seasons in describing experiments now in progress. 



Root-Stocks. 

 It will be convenient to commence with some account of 

 the investigations of root-stocks and their influence upon the^ 

 tree. These have been carried out partly at Long Ashton and 

 partly at East Mailing. At the former station the study of 

 various aspects of the root-stock question has been in progress, 

 since its establishment in 1904, the questions receiving most 

 attention at the outset being the possible influence of the root- 

 stock on the quality of the fruit borne by the tree, and the 

 vegetable propagation {i.e., propagation by layers) and com- 

 parative trials of certain selected types of " free " apple stocks. 

 When some eight years later the East Mailing station was started 

 and a programme of work was considered, it was decided that 

 the time had arrived for a more exhaustive investigation on 

 root-stocks than had previously been possible at Long Ashton 

 alone. It was recognised that the root -stock question was of 

 fundamental importance to fruit growers, who at that time 

 either regarded the subject with indifference or, in the case of 



