426 FRUIT CULTURE FOR PROFIT. 



often be disposed of to advantage in the neighbourhood 

 where grown, and when this is the case the costs of pack- 

 ing, carriage, and commission are saved. Like other men 

 of business, the grower of fruit for market must be suffi- 

 ciently intelligent, industrious, and energetic to find the 

 best market for his wares, or he misses the reward of his 

 skill and labour. 



6. Holdings. It is often said one should not plant 

 fruit trees for profit except on his own land. But this 

 would unnecessarily limit the number of growers. A long 

 lease, however, is indispensable. According to calculations 

 I have made, but with which I need not trouble you, 30 

 years is the shortest lease I should advise anyone to plant 

 under, but this, of course, may be qualified in some measure 

 by the rent. If the lease be for a shorter period, I think 

 the tenant should expect from the landlord either a 

 renewal at the same rent as before, or that his trees 

 be taken at a valuation, or some equitable arrangement 

 made for compensation if the lease is not renewed. It 

 may be thought by some that this is asking too much from 

 the owner of the soil, but I do not think it is more than it 

 is his interest to concede. By such concession he may 

 secure a good tenant and a good rent, and there is ample 

 security for his rent in the value of the trees on the soil, 

 which there is not always in the case of farm crops. 



I will read a brief extract from a recent number of the 

 Sussex Advertiser, in reference to land tenure in Kent : 

 " One of the results of the unsatisfactory system of land 

 tenure now prevailing in this country is to be seen at 

 Knockholt, Kent. The lease held by Mr Edwin Bath, of 

 Curry Farm, in that parish, expires at Michaelmas, and he 

 is not allowed to renew his tenancy, nor can he recover 

 compensation from his landlord for a valuable plantation 

 of 30 acres of raspberries on the farm. Consequently the 

 extraordinary spectacle may now be seen of a reaping- 

 machine cutting down, and a steam plough following it, 

 rooting up this plantation, which has cost a very large 



