THE F*RUIT QUESTION CONSIDERED. 431 



Otherwise he should employ skilled labour. Judging by 

 results, the farmers of the past were better fruit growers 

 than those of the present day. 



The position of the cottager and small owner or 

 occupier differs little as cultivators from that of the 

 farmer. The former would necessarily have to depend 

 more on their own knowledge, as they probably could 

 not afford to employ skilled labour. If before com- 

 mencing operations they acquired a good knowledge of 

 the subject by observation, inquiry, and reading, they 

 would be likely to avoid a wasteful expenditure of both 

 material and labour. 



The proposal of the Fruiterers' Company to offer 

 annual prizes for the best-managed fruit farms, planta- 

 tions, and orchards, is no doubt a good one, as calculated 

 to call attention to and develope a rising industry. The 

 recipients of these prizes would be, in the first instance, 

 proprietors, or leaseholders not likely to be largely in- 

 fluenced by these awards, which their knowledge, skill, 

 and industry, had merited and obtained ; their manage- 

 ment, although not incapable of improvement, would have 

 already reached a goal which was at least satisfactory 

 to them because profitable. The national importance 

 and value of these awards, then, would consist in the 

 definite setting up of a standard or standards for the 

 uninitiated to study and reduce to practice. I would 

 venture to suggest that these prizes should have the widest 

 possible scope, framed so as to embrace the cottagers, 

 the small growers' holdings, the farmers' orchards, and 

 the fruit-farms pure and simple. The whole country 

 should be mapped out into districts, and separate prizes 

 should be given for each district, so that the growers 

 in the least favourable climates might in this respect com- 

 pete with their fellows on equal terms. And further, 

 these prizes should vary in their nature from year to year, 

 so as to comprehend in time the whole rationale of fruit 

 culture. 



