CHAPTER 1. 

 HOW AND WHAT TO LEARN TO BECOME A FRUIT FARMER. 



The question a man or woman intending 

 to take up fruit growing as a business has 

 to decide is how to learn the business, 

 whether he or she should learn it at a 

 college, or on a farm, or on both. Thos;; 

 in authority at a college will always say 

 that while a great deal can be learnt at a 

 college, the intending grower must also 

 go to work on a well-managed commercial 

 fruit farm, for two years, if possible, to 

 learn the management of labour, buying 

 and selling, etc., and the close financial 

 part which the college training is not so 

 well adapted to impart. A month or more 

 in the fruit season spent with a fruit sales- 

 man is also a useful business training. 

 Let us examine some of the subjects of 

 which it is advisable for the fruit farmer 

 to have more or less knowledge, whether 

 he attends an agri-horticultural college or 

 not. There is a great deal that can be 

 learnt from text-books and the horti- 

 cultural journals without attending lec- 

 tures, but it needs greater patience to 

 study alone, and subjects like chemistry, 

 plant diseases, and insect pests are cer- 

 tainly far more easily studied in lectures, 

 laboratories and museums, than in one's 

 parlour on the farm. Actually fruit farm- 

 ing is nearly always combined with mar- 

 ket gardening, general agriculture, dairy- 

 ing, or poultry, but we will limit our con- 

 siderations to subjects directly affect- 

 ing fruit farming. 



Practical Work. — The student should 

 try to learn the right time and the right 

 way to do every operation on the fruit 

 farm ; pains and practice make the work 

 efficient and quick; being able to do it 

 one's self has a secondary advantage in 

 being able to judge whether another 

 person is doing it well, and in being able 

 to show how to do it. A student on a 

 farm is often asked to pay the wages, 

 which teaches him accuracy and business. 



Pomology. — Includes special attention 

 to the requirements of the different kinds 



of fruit, study of growth of the tree, and 

 the fruit of different commercial varieties; 

 I'ecognition of the different varieties, their 

 merits, and faults, and season (and even 

 their history). Planting, cultivation, 

 propagation, picking, grading, packing 

 and marketing of the different fruits. 



Land Measuring. — Includes finding 

 areas and making plans of fields and 

 orchards of various shapes; recording the 

 varieties planted on a plan; taking levels 

 for supply of water, or drainage of land; 

 understanding the ordnance and geologi- 

 cal maps. 



Building Construction. — A slight 

 knowledge of materials and construction 

 of sheds, etc. ; elementary carpentry, for 

 repair and upkeep of buildings and 

 machinery. 



Fencing. — Of various kinds, wire, live 

 fences, hedges, wind breaks. 



Farm Roads. — Their making and up- 

 keep. (A jolty road will damage straw- 

 berries and even apples.) 



Machinery. — A knowledge of the con- 

 struction of and adjustment of ploughs, 

 harrows, rolls, drills, markers and the 

 smaller implements and tools, and care of 

 same. Spraying machinery construction, 

 regulating and cleaning out of knapsack, 

 tanks and motor spray-pumps ; wind 

 pumps ; hydraulic ram ; boilers : steam, oil 

 and petrol engines as motor power. Tele- 

 phone. 



Farm Management and Economics. — 

 Principles underlying the selection of a 

 farm, whether for renting or purchase, 

 rates, taxes, tithe, quit rent. Capital 

 required to stock and develop fruit plan- 

 tations ; judging a horse ; management 

 and cost of labour, piece work, judging 

 work, fixing prices. Possibilities of co- 

 operation with neighbouring growers, or 

 profit-sharing with workers. Aim at pro- 

 ducing the greatest quantity of the best 

 quality fruit at the least cost, and at get- 

 ting the fruit into the hands of the con- 



