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THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



[Octobee 27. 1888. 



to gain your approval ; and if any remarks of 

 mine are such as to provoke hostility of thought, 

 you must please put them down to provincial 

 prejudice, or, may I say, to that simplicity which 

 is one of the most prominent attributes of raw 

 rusticity. 



I appreciate the difficulty of saying anything 

 new on the question, but I shield myself behind 

 the fact that the reiteration of a truth is not a 

 needless undertaking until precept is put into 

 practice. So long as we pay our millions of 

 money into other hands for produce which could 

 come from ourselves we are quite safe in assum- 

 ing that there is yet reason for action. 



Coming up from pastoral pursuits to this great 

 centre of crowding, clamouring life, how can one 

 express the feelings that somehow naturally force 

 themselves to the front ? They may be said to be 

 somewhat thus : Here you have in your great crowded 

 centre somewhere approaching 5,000,000 of souls. 

 This area, with its vast population, has practically 

 grown nothing but bricks and mortar save the trees 

 and flowers in its beautiful pleasure parks and its 

 promenades ; and if this great centre were dependent 

 upon its own resources for market produce for its 

 daily needs it would very quickly have to answer its 

 children's cry for bread by giving them stones. 



This great multitude must take some feeding. 

 The open country of the shires gives garden ground 

 enough for all. The earnings of the provinces find 

 their way largely into the pockets of the land- 

 owners, and they, in the natural order of present 

 day methods, spend a large portion of their time and 

 the greater part of their wealth in London. There 

 is a kind of feeling that, seeing so much of the 

 wealth of the country comes here, more might be 

 done for us and less for the foreign coquettes who 

 court your favour and gain your sympathy and support 

 for such things as we can grow quite satisfactorily at 

 home. 



I do not at all fear the bogey of foreign compe- 

 tition. This is, I remind myself, a National Con- 

 ference, but the subject is really universal. The 

 idea involved in fruit production and distribution is 

 too large for a nation. We cannot, for instance, 

 grow the Orange. We should not like to dispense 

 with it, therefore we invite the foreigner to send it 

 to us ; but we can produce Pippins ; then why should 

 you raise your eyes above the beautiful fertile plains, 

 say, of Kent and Sussex, and with the telescope of a 

 false economy find beyond the seas, in the broad 

 acres of America, Canada, Australia, and elsewhere, 

 the admitted beauty of fruitful plains, but also an 

 added imaginary beauty, really nothing beyond what 

 you could have seen without the glasses within the 

 confining hedgerows of our British orchards? 



We must, however, get somewhat nearer the chief 

 points to be considered. We must drop figure, and 

 get to facts. We think we may safely start with an 

 aphorism. Cultivation of the land is the basis of all 

 economy. Mother Earth, after all, nurtures the 

 whole family of the human race. "The profit of the 

 earth is for all ; the king himself is served by the 

 field." The political economist and the social 

 scientist can touch no profounder problem than that 

 of production, and we cannot escape the considera- 

 tion of the threefold aspect of the laws of life which 

 all rightly civilised people recognise : — 



1. The population must be properly employed. 



2. The people must be clothed and fed. 



3. As a necessary condition the land must be cul- 

 tivated and cropped. 



Now, we have already reminded ourselves that we 

 have to take ourselves outside the limit-line of 

 streets and alleys, and get into the open country, 

 where we find agriculture and horticulture side by 

 side, sometimes overlapping each other, but always 

 mainly concerned with these four phases of occu- 

 pation : — 



1. Cattle production, under which I would include 

 the rearing and breeding of all animals for slaughter 

 or other purposes. 



2. Wheat production, under which head I would 

 include all arable farming. 



3. Dairy farming, under which I would include 

 all milk, cheese, and dairy products. 



i. Fruit farming, including the production of 

 vegetables and other market produce of this 

 character. 



The consideration of the question of supply im- 

 mediately brings before us the question of demand. 

 We ask ourselves — What is demand? Why is it 

 needful to produce ? An elementary question truly, 

 but one which has been handled peculiarly by the 

 j ugglers of political and other economists. Briefly, 

 produce is needed for the maintenance of political 

 life. It was easy for the French wit to sav, " Give 

 me the luxuries of life, let who will take its neces- 

 sities ; " but necessities are — necessities ! We then 

 ask ourselves upon what can good health and happy 

 life be best maintained. 



Food Requisites. 

 Well, I fear we should here quickly get into con- 

 flict of opinion. Doctors differ. I am justified, 

 however, upon the grounds of science and of personal 

 experience in asserting that men can live, and live 

 healthfully and happily, on cereals and fruit, so that 

 a wheat farm and a fruit farm would meet all national 

 needs. I know I strike a chord which may not be one 

 entirely of harmony in a meeting of this character, 

 when I say that man can derive all needful suste- 

 nance from the cereals and fruit, that is to say, 

 humanity has in fruits — for cereals are fruits — all 

 that it needs. Mark, please, I do not say it has 

 therein all that it craves, but all that it needs. 

 Now, if in any other machine than that of man (if 

 you permit him to be so considered for a moment), 

 heat, essential for its going, could be got from deal 

 logs, and it was being fed by the engineer with 

 mahogany, French polished, and refined oils, we should 

 consider it strange. Of course he might do it if he 

 liked ; but we should wonder why. Man, so far as 

 his means permit, may, too, feed on what he likes, but 

 the economist must first consider essentials, not 

 preferences or prejudices. But I find I must push 

 forward, for I dare not pursue fancy too far in a 

 paper of twenty minutes length. 



The Labour Question. 



After the determination of what is essential for the 

 maintenance of life we must consider the labour 

 question. Which of the four systems under which 

 we have divided the question of cultivation employs 

 the largest amount of labour, and in which are our 

 labourers the most happily and healthily engaged ? 

 Unhesitatingly, with firmest decision, we answer, in 

 fruit production. Quite lately I, by chance, be- 

 came the travelling companion of one of the largest 

 agriculturists in our county, whose farm lands had 

 been laid down to grass. He had given up corn for 

 cattle, and he told me that as a result fifteen 

 cottages were at that moment standing empty so far 

 as farm labourers are concerned. He had no further 

 use for them, and they had gone — where ? He did 

 not know, but in all probability to swell the already 

 congested population of the towns. How are we to 

 get our open-faced, honest-hearted conntry popula- 

 tion back to the green lanes and the gardens ? 



One of the best methods is by the development of 

 the industry of fruit production. But is our climate 

 such as to encourage safely the cultivation of hardy 

 fruits ? Let us not commit the often rash errors of 

 a too eager enthusiasm. I do not know which 

 most to pity or blame — the blind optimist who to 

 every question suggesting the possibility of big profits, 

 Arcadian delights, and a contented population always 

 basking in the sunshine of ease and unconcern, 

 replies, " I answer enthusiastically — Yes ; " or the 

 poor pessimist who says our Apples are only Crabs ; 

 that there is a worm at every core ; that the glory 

 has departed, and we are all tumbling into the Slough 

 of Despond. 



But there is a via media,. It is possible to make 

 the crooked straight, and the rough places plain, if 

 we only set ourselves heartily to find the more excel- 

 lent way. 



Hardy fruits can be grown, and well grown, in 

 this much despised climate of ours ; but, like every 

 thing else, it must be done properly. No more 

 subtle sweetness, crispness, and altogether right 

 flavour can lurk beneath the skin of Apple or Pear 

 than can be found in the flesh of a British-growu 

 Cox's Orange, or Kibston Pippin, or some of our best 

 Pears ; and no sprightly sauciness of brisk acidity can 

 be found in the often insipid flavour of many of the 

 foreign sub-acid Apples to compare with that of a 

 Northern grown Keswick or Lord Suffield. 



Consult the Taste op the People. 



There are those about us, and apparently warmly 

 interested in this movement, who go to extremes in 

 both directions. In this problem of production let 

 us remember we have all tastes to suit, all palates to 

 please, and therefore a wide range for our catering. 

 One cannot help being amused to read of some- 

 body's Pippin that it is the Apple of the future for 

 its sweetness and syrupy juiciness, to which sugar 

 would be a superfluity if not an absolute detraction ; 

 and in another week's issue of the same journal to 

 be told that the merit of somebody else's seedling, 

 which is to be the Apple of the future, is found in 

 and founded on the fact that its beautiful tartness 

 of flavour is such as absolutely to defy the seductive 

 influence of sugar or syrup, bringing it to the dull 

 level of the popular palate which can only take its 

 Strawberries when reduced to a kind of saccharine 

 paste — which can only take Currants as preserves, or 

 Cherries in brandy. 



So long as opinions differ so widely we need not 

 fear the unavoidable influence of climate in any of 

 the home districts upon the qualities of our British- 

 grown fruits. 



Whilst admitting a certain amount of healthy 

 variation in the quality of the fruits I would venture 

 to say that the error of the past has been rather in 

 the multiplication of kinds than in the other direc- 

 tion. Some people have prided themselves upon 

 having as many varieties as they can count trees in 

 their orchids, but I could never see the full force of 

 the benefit of such possession. It is well to choosa 

 but few kinds letting them be such as are suitable to 

 the district and such as commend themselves as 

 market favourites. 



For instance, in the larger Lancashire towns 

 Apples of a brisk sharp flavour find much readier 

 sale than the sweeter fruits for which there may prob- 

 ably be greater demand in the South. If you can 

 sell at Cottonopolis Keswicks or Lord Suffields by 

 the ton why not grow them by the acre rather than 

 coddle with somebody's new seedling said to surpass 

 the Newtown Pippin in its sugary flavour when the 

 season is favourable enough for it to fruit ? Meet 

 the demand of the district and proceed cautiously ; 

 extend as rapidly as you like, but carefully. 



If it is worth doing at all it is worth doing well. 

 Do away with worthless incumbrances of the ground. 

 A good fruit is as readily grown as a bad one. This 

 is the crux in the provinces. 



Ooe ORCHARDS. 



If time permitted me to draw you a picture of the 

 typical farmer's orchard you would not wonder that 

 fruit growing was a feeble industry in many places. 

 Such so-called orchards are ,many of them, excellent 

 hunting-grounds for the entomologist or the crypto- 

 gamic botanist whose special attraction is amongst 

 mosses and lichens. Most of the trees are favourable 

 specimens of .artistic antiquity. The only evidence of 

 anything approaching a pruning process which I have 

 ever witnessed amongst some of them was the wreck- 

 age of the storm or the broken boughs at Appletide 

 which had snapped asunder under the weight of the 

 ladder against them. 



If the orchards are carelessly kept— or carefully 

 unkept — it is an equally peculiar fact that when fruit 

 is borne by the trees it seems to suggest no necessity 

 for right handling. Mark Twain in one of his 

 sketches enlarges, I think, upon his experience in 

 days when he was assumed to have the editorial 

 charge of an agricultural paper, and in reply to a 

 correspondent, he told him he thought he had him- 



