FRUIT CULTURE FOR PROFIT. 413 



FEUIT CULTUEE FOE PEOFIT IN THE OPEN AIE 

 IN ENGLAND. 



[Read before the Society of Arts, London, April yd 1889.] 



THE question of fruit culture in the open air in 

 England is at the present time engrossing a large 

 share of public attention, and in my opinion not more 

 than the importance of the subject deserves. Anything 

 that will add to the income derivable from the cultivation 

 of the land by the employment of manual labour, and at 

 the same time add to the supply of wholesome and nutri- 

 tious food, should receive the amplest and most direct 

 encouragement. Our gardening papers have been fully 

 alive to this fact, and have ably discussed the question. 

 But the matter has not been allowed to rest there. We 

 have had fruit conferences, fruit leaflets, a controversy in 

 the "Times," and articles on the subject in the "National 

 Review" and the "Nineteenth Century." 



Now, it may probably be a matter of surprise to some 

 that this simple question should have given rise to such a 

 diversity of opinion as to leave the outcome a matter of 

 perplexity and doubt. To those who know, the issue is 

 clear enough, but to those who do not know, the subject 

 must, I think, appear to be left in a hopeless tangle. The 

 task I have allotted myself to-night is the disentanglement 

 of this disorderly skein, and the attempt to lay the threads 

 of it before the public in clear straight lines, so that the 

 beginning, the middle, and the end of it may be distinctly 

 seen. Much that has been said and written on this subject 

 has about it the clear ring of truth, but statements have 

 also been made which if accepted and acted on will surely 

 lead to disappointment, vexation, and a wasteful expendi- 

 ture of money. To be told on the one side that "the 

 salvation of England depends on the future of its fruit 

 culture " to be advised to break up rich meadows already 



