1028 PRACTICAL GUIDE TO GABDEN PLANTS 



PAET III 



THE HARDY FRUIT GARDEN 



Although the cultivation of Fruit has always been an important feature of 

 British gardening, not only in market gardens but also in private establish- 

 ments, it has of late years attracted far more serious attention perhaps than 

 at any other period. The tons of imported fruits which find a ready sale and 

 consumption in the British Islands are in themselves sufficient evidence that 

 the fruit industry has been considerably neglected in years past in our own 

 country. And it is now recognised that if it pays growers to send Apples and 

 Pears from America and other distant parts of the world it ought to be at 

 least as remunerative to growers who live within a few miles of the markets, 

 and who have not to meet the heavy charges of packing and carriage which 

 are necessarilyi a great expense to those who send their fruits hundreds and 

 thousands of miles for sale. 



Rather late in the day perhaps it has been recognised that the growing of 

 Hardy Fruits in the British Islands might be carried out on a more extensive 

 scale, and great efforts have been made to show that our climate, notwithstand- 

 ing its proverbial fickleness, is capable of producing excellent and highly 

 flavoured fruit. These efforts have been highly successful, and cottagers and 

 amateurs in all parts of the kingdom are now taking a keener and more in- 

 telligent interest than hitherto in making the land at their disposal more 

 productive. This is of course as it should be, as it is the reverse of economic 

 to buy imported fruit from over the seas, that can easily be procured and 

 cultivated at home. 



The amateur grower of fruit however must not be led astray by some of 

 the glowing pictures that have been drawn as to the wealth that can be made by 

 making fruit-growing a commercial undertaking. The impression has gained 

 ground that an amateur has only to plant a few acres with fruit trees, and 

 when the fruit is ripe he has but to send it to market to realise first class 

 prices for his produce. There are many people in the country who fondly 

 imagine that, by sending their sons at great expense to a third-rate garden 

 where a few Apples and Pears are grown not for commercial purposes at all, 

 at the end of a year or two these young men, who probably know nothing 

 of the commercial value of plants, will be fully equipped with all the requisite 

 knowledge to enable them to enter the arena against growers who have been 

 engaged in the culture of fruit from boyhood, and who have had to go through 

 many years of hard practical training before they were able to secure a profit- 

 able return for their labours and knowledge. 



