Hints on Vegetable and Fruit Farming. 5 



Foreign competition will not interfere with these industries. 

 This game, at all events, is in the hands of the home producers. 

 The chief drawback to the full development of this trade is the 

 unsatisfactory present mode of distribution of nearly all kinds of 

 farm produce, and especially of these minor kinds. In existing 

 circumstances, the producers get the minimum value and the 

 consumers have to pay the maximum price. The pernicious 

 system of salesmen and middlemen, and the routine of markets, 

 hinder enterprise and check production. In no cases is this 

 so much felt as in those of vegetables and fruit, which are 

 confined to a few centres — markets, for the most part, utterly 

 inadequate for anything like general distribution. Even with 

 the system now holding, it is fully believed that the production 

 of vegetables, salad plants, and fruit coull be very largely 

 extended, to the gain of the cultivators and to the infinite 

 satisfaction of would-be consumers who live in towns, and of 

 those who have no gardens, who constitute a vast proportion of 

 the population. This paper, therefore, has been written at the 

 request of the Council of the Royal Agricultural Society, to 

 point out the importance and advantage of adding these special 

 cultures to the ordinary farm crops, and to give some practical 

 information as to the most desirable sorts of vegetables and 

 fruits for this purpose, together with details as to the modes of 

 cultivating them, and the circumstances of soil, climate, and 

 situation that are required. 



It is not by any means suggested that vegetables and fruits 

 are to be made at once to take the place of corn and other 

 customary crops of the farm, nor that their cultivation should 

 be generally and indiscriminately adopted ; but it is desired to 

 show that vegetables may be extensively grown in rotation with 

 ordinary farm crops, as the practice is in Essex and other counties ; 

 also that a few acres of fruit-land may advantageously be added 

 to almost all farms ; and in some cases large plantations may be 

 made. Before proceeding to descriptions and details, it will be 

 desirable to mention, and if possible to meet the objections that 

 are urged by interested, and, it is also fair to say, disinterested 

 persons, against a considerable increase in the vegetable supply. 

 Market-gardeners proper say that their profits have considerably 

 diminished, and also that occasionally the markets are glutted 

 with vegetables. No doubt the market-gardeners whose land 

 is situated within 20 miles of the metropolis have lately felt the 

 competition of farmers, who ought to be able to produce vege- 

 tables more cheaply, since their rents are lower and their taxation 

 is not so heavy, and they have the advantage of being able to vary 

 more frequently the courses of cropping upon the larger area of 

 a farm. Farmers also within reasonable distance of London now 



