FEUIT CULTUEE. 



CHAPTER'!. 

 GENERAL PROSPECTS OF CULTURE FOR PROFIT. 



As we have been passing through a time of agricultural 

 depression, when wheat-growing has ceased to be the 

 profitable occupation that it once was, and as there is no 

 prospect of a return to the old prices, it behoves all 

 cultivators of land to consider what other means may be 

 adopted in the way of producing other crops that will be 

 likely to yield a more satisfactory return. 



One of the directions in which cultivators may turn to 

 realize this is that of fruit culture. 



We are at the present time, as a nation, consuming 

 enormous quantities of fruit, the supply of which comes 

 very largely from abroad, and of kinds that could be 

 grown at home. Here, then, is a large standing order for 

 a commodity that might be produced by our own culti- 

 vators, our own land, and our own labour, but which we 

 arc quietly allowing the foreigner to supply. 



Farmers, as a rule, are not in a hurry to turn from the 

 beaten track and to try experiments in new directions ; 

 and frequently the chances and opportunities in this 

 respect are against them. 



Want of full knowledge of the subject, the need of 



