CHAPTER IV 

 THE FRUIT INDUSTRY 



THE increase in the consumption of fruit in this 

 country is described in the Report of the Departmental 

 Committee on the Fruit Industry of Great Britain, 

 issued in the summer of 1905, as ' phenomenal.' ' In 

 the last thirty years,' the Committee say, ' not only has 

 the production doubled, but our importation of fruit 

 (after deducting the re-exports), has risen from an insig- 

 nificant quantity to the colossal amount of 13,000,000 

 cwt. per annum ; and so expansive has been the 

 public taste for fruit that this enormous increase in the 

 supply has in many cases not affected the average 

 prices realized to any appreciable extent.' There can 

 be no doubt, the Committee think, that fruit is becoming 

 more and more a regular article of food for all classes, 

 and they regard it as probable that, except in special 

 years of glut, the home supply has not kept pace with 

 the demand. 



It is not only the demand for fresh fruit that has 

 increased, but the demand also for jam, preserved 

 fruits, and cider. Mr. T. F. Blackwell, of the firm of 

 Crosse and Blackwell, told the Committee that the 

 demand for fruit in various forms grows quite as 

 rapidly as the increase in the supply, adding that ' the 

 taste for preserved fruit was growing enormously.' 



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