OeiOBER 2?, 188*.] 



THE QAM)EXEtl& CHfiONtCLE. 



469 



self to blame for the condition of his Turnip crop, the 

 defects of which he had just described. " You should 

 wait," said Mark, " until they are nearly ripe, then 

 get up the tree and shake them down. lie found 

 that was not the way Turnips were treated, but the 

 editor had probably seen a country farmer gathering 

 hi- Bruit, for that is precisely the method he follows 

 nil such an occasion. All this and much more must 

 be changed before British fruit-growing takes the 

 important place to which it is entitled. 



Fruit as Food. 



The present position of the fruit question in the 

 public mind seems to be that fruit is now used to 

 grace the tables of the wealthy or to add a kind of 

 fashionable finish to the dinner of the fairly well-to- 

 do ; but it is seldom regarded as food pure and simple, 

 though such it really ought to be. 



Let anyone having an interest in philanthropic work 

 make enquiries amongst the poor of the large cities, 

 and he will find that fruit is almost, if not entirely, 

 absent from the list of dietary articles from which 

 the food supply of those who live in the narrow 

 streets and the crowded alleys is derived. I have 

 gathered statistics in our own district, and was 

 startled to rind how the poor live even in a provincial 

 town where a person placed at its centre might get 

 between the hedgerows and into the fields well within 

 half-an-hour. Ignorance and prejudice have helped 

 to maintain this condition of things, for they have 

 only the bare idea that fruit is palateable and have no 

 idea that is also invigorating and healthful. 



For the proper and complete development of the 

 fruit movement in this country we must have all our 

 forces to the front. There is a really steady demand. 

 we are told, for the best fruits carefully gathered and 

 well packed at most remunerative prices. That 

 seems to meet the want in certain directions, but we 

 must encourage those educational and moral 

 movements, which have for their aim and object the 

 inculcation of habits of thrift and health amongst 

 the masses of the people. 



There should be, and there must be, a very largely 

 increased demand for the home product, and the 

 home product will be then forthcoming; and this 

 brings us closer to some of the features we have to 

 face in the question of distribution. 



Distribution. 



This opens up as many avenues of thought as the 

 question of production — perhaps more, for in the 

 question of production we deal largely with matters 

 of conjecture, for we can never know the end of an 

 unfollowed course, and if you advocate two methods 

 or fifty you would find followers for each ; but the 

 question of distribution brings us at once face to face 

 with problems of £ s. d., and with the conditions of 

 market operations and regulations, 



I do not intend to take up the time of this meeting 

 by attempting to deal with one of the most damaging 

 conditions which we meet with in the very outset, 

 that, namely, of the railway rates. Nor do 1 attempt 

 to touch upon that other forcible deterrent— the ques- 

 tion of land tenure ; both these will be dealt within 

 separate papers ; but until some sweeping change is 

 made in the present system of railway charges the 

 British fruit grower will find his industry shackled and 

 weighted to such an extent as to prevent his making a 

 profit at all commensurate with that which he is help- 

 ing to put into the pockets of the railway shareholders. 



Knowledge Needed. 

 Next to the railway question we require the estab- 

 lishment of some responsible agency to take up, in 

 combination, the conditions which cannot be success- 

 fully fought singlehanded, and this agency should not 

 be merely commercially protective, but also educa- 

 tional. Amongst other matters it should collect and 

 publish careful data as to districts, climatic influences, 

 meteorological notes, and such other intelligence as 

 would serve to guide. This body would have to be 

 influential and potent, for the power of monopolyjs, 

 as matters now stand, almost invariably against the 

 producer and the consumer, and in favour of some 

 intermediate agent, and whose presence may be neces- 



sary for the discharge of commercial enterprise, but who 

 ought to be regarded more in the capacitv of a 

 carrier or an agent rather than a trader or merchant. 



Markets. 

 Next we require the provision of centres of sale. 

 Endless time is lost by the producer in his effort to 

 find a market, and neglect at home is consequently 

 unavoidable. It is essential that persons having 

 produce to sell should be brought into contact with 

 persons requiring to purchase, but we have at present 

 no such facility. Cheshire has its cheese fairs, 

 established by the order of a Council, and the staple 

 product of the county therefore holds its own in spite 

 of foreign competition. Birmingham has its Onion 

 fair, but I do not know of a town in England that 

 has its fruit fair. 



Purchase by Name and nv Sample. 



Then we ought to be able to purchase fruits by 

 name as to variety. To the farmer mind not so 

 many years ago everything green upon the face of 

 the field was grass. To the mind of the average 

 citizen or citizen's wife anything that is round, and 

 that has been plucked from a tree in an orchard, 

 is an Apple ; it matters not whether it be a 

 Crab or a Golden Pippin — it is an Apple ; but we 

 want to initiate the public into a knowledge that 

 certain Apples carry with them certain qualities 

 and certain flavours, and we want then to show that 

 precisely what they want can be supplied. There 

 are advertisements in connection with domestic com- 

 modities, which seem to suggest the grave import- 

 ance of your being sure you get somebody's starch 

 when you ask for it. The same caution should be 

 applied in the pomological department, and when the 

 cook finds out that a certain kind of Apple can be 

 depended upon for a certain quality we should find 

 the beginning, too, of a more definite order of 

 things. 



Another great impetus to the home product might 

 be insured if at railway stations and other places 

 where the public gather themselves in masses English 

 fruit could be obtainable instead of the everlasting 

 French Fears and American Apples. And I should 

 like, if those ugly iron impc dimenta called "automatic 

 deliveries," or some such wonderful name are to be 

 tolerated, that they should, in response to the penny 

 and the push, give orchard Plums instead of sugar 

 plums, and Apples and Fears in preference to choco- 

 late or candy. 



Another idea that has long possessed me is the 

 idea of the selling of fruits from sample. According 

 to present methods of distribution a producer 

 gathers his fruit and carries it away to the markets, 

 there to stand with a load of it until it is distributed. 

 Those who have learned the art of modern market- 

 ing have found out that prices decline as the day 

 wears on, for the grower does not desire to cart the 

 piece of a load home again. On the other hand, 

 there may be a system of " topping " — I may be 

 excused if I explain (for of this my present audience 

 is doubtless ignorant) that this implies a process, 

 possibly accidental, by which the larger, better fruits 

 in a basket gravitate towards the top ! This is, of 

 course, open to the suggestion of unfairness on the 

 other side, but if the grower submitted samples of 

 his fruit just in the way the farmer does who has 

 grain or seeds to sell, an immediate relief would 

 result. 



A fanner does not think of carting the yield of his 

 grain fields to the open markets, but asks the mer- 

 chant to buy upon the sample placed before him in 

 the market ; and he can sell or hold as he then thinks 

 best. He would then be in a less likely position for 

 the imposition of injustice. 



The Doty or Societies and oi the Press. 

 Then I think in the interests of distribution our 

 leading agricultural and horticultural societies — 

 agricultural societies especially — should recognise 

 the industry, and admit home fruit products into 

 their schedules of subjects for competition. I am 

 glad to observe that the Koyal Agricultural Society 

 of England has taken up the matter, and hope other 



agricultural societies may now be induced to follow. 

 It is likely that more good will arise from sources of 

 this character than through minor efforts of less pro- 

 minent bodies as the subject would then be con- 

 sidered along with the problems of land cultivation 

 in their more important and varied aspects. 



I must not forget to include the all-powerful Press. 

 We have natural friends in the editors of horticul- 

 tural publications, but I am glad to see the general 

 Press of the country is now taking an interest in the 

 question. Whilst many newspaper readers are 

 evidently competent to take an intelligent view of 

 the matter, there are some who seem to discern in 

 the agitation something like the sectarian movement 

 of a new faith for which they have quickly set them- 

 selves to invent the name of the " Faddist." Well, let 

 it be so. If we are to get public attention called to the 

 question, we may hope that the long delayed interest 

 will be fairly and fully aroused, and whilst we rejoice 

 in the peace and prosperity of a nation preferring 

 pruning-hooks and ploughshares to swords and spears 

 we shall yet the more rejoice when we gain the 

 greater victory and proclaim the wider conquest of 

 the sickle and the spade. 



ENEMIES OF THE APPLE AND PEAR. 



By Mr. .t. FRA.SER. 



[We insert woodcuts of the " Enemies" alluded to by Jlr. Fraser, 

 and our past volumes aljonud with similar illustrations.) 



Born animal and vegetable enemies are numerous, 

 but the former probably outnumber the latter con- 

 siderably. They range from the minute gall mites, 

 about one -hundredth of an inch in length, up to 

 birds, hares, rabbits, and cattle. Vegetable enemies 

 are, however, none the less destructive sometimes, 

 and certain kinds are very difficult or impossible to 

 exterminate on account of their microscopic small- 

 ness, and more especially when hypodermal, that is, 

 living beneath the epidermis of the host plant. 



Canker. 

 All diseases are attributable to some cause or 

 other, although it is difficult to detect what that may 

 be. Science may yet determine the true cause of 

 canker, even if it fail to suggest a cure. That canker 

 is something of the nature of a parasite, we have 

 evidence in its spreading and attacking previously un- 

 injured tissue (see fig. 5'J). Decay itself is brought 

 about by the action of living organisms, on matter that 

 i- aln ady dead, and effects the changes that crumble 

 organic substances into dust. There is some truth 

 in the statements that cold and uudraiued soil, 

 severe pruning, extreme variations of temperature, 

 late growth, and unripened wood, give rise to canker, 

 just as bad treatment will undermine the constitution 

 of a human being and prepare the way for disease. 

 The real enemy does bufr take advantage of the 

 weakened state of the victim. Some varieties of 

 Apples and Pears are more prone to canker than 

 others, and especially in some soils that may be 

 cold, undrained, or are underlaid by a gravelly sub- 

 soil. Here, again, we may point to the natural 

 constitution of the trees in question. Great im- 

 provements have been effected by drainage, by 

 ameliorating or supporting fresh soil, all of which 

 point to the fact that more or better nourishment is 

 needed to enable the trees to make healthy growth 

 in order to contend with an invisible but powerful foe. 

 The baneful effects, of canker may to a great extent 

 be evaded by planting in good, well-drained soil, and 

 by superior cultivation. It is not sufficient that the 

 right materials are present in a soil, but they must 

 also be in a soluble condition, so that the roots may 

 be able to appropriate them. Good tilth promotes 

 early vegetation, an early maturation of the wood, 

 and by imparting a greater constitutional vigour to 

 the tree enables it the better to ward off' disease even 

 when accidentally or otherwise injured. With this 

 preliminary I proceed to classify the other enemies. 



Animals. 



Numerous as these are they may be roughly 



divided into a few groups, such as insects, birds, and 



other animals. Kaltenbach.a German entomologist, 



