196 
dried fig crop which a man could carry on his shoulder, there must be a 
good many fair fortunes lying about loose at the Cape, and only waiting 
for some one with moderate commercial instincts, industry. and business 
capacity to come over and appropriate them to himself. 
e March, of all the months of the year, shows the barest fruit market, 
at least in the way of fresh kinds putting in an appearance then. The 
mes are chiefly €: BPP es and pears of the keeping sorts, and these, 
n they come to sale, bear plentiful testimony to the rough way in 
which they have te handled and stored. The outside skin is ‘seratched, 
discoloured, and far from appetising. Ere long me dealers will learn 
that fruit ripened i in the storehouse must receive Se and handling 
somewhat different from that which is accorded to the or crop o 
tat few peaches of late kinds come in ena enerally secure 
gece prices. For the most part these are seedlings that ivi originated 
ere many years ago and, though fairly good, belong unfortunately to 
the series of clings tones, ere is an opening for considerable improve- 
and no doubt with a continued demand for fruits by name the dealers 
will gradually learn something more about the details of their trade 
than at present they seem to think at all necessary. ‘The month closes 
with the last of the grapes. 
* April, May, and June present few novelties. The guavas of man many 
seedling kinds fill up a place which is hardly warranted by the intrinsic 
value of the fruit as at present grown. We have them from the insig- 
nificant bulk of a gooseberry to that of middle-sized apples. But ve 
little attention has been given to culture, and still less to improvement of 
sorts. It may be said that the guava, as grown here, is often practically 
a wildling, and it would be well if nineteen out of twenty of them were 
destroyed, and selected grafted plants put in to take their place. Some 
day we shall get rid of the mass of bony seeds which fills up the centre 
of the market guava, and shall aim at making it a more presentable fruit. 
Walnuts and chestnuts now make their appearance. The former ora 
not received fair play. They, too, have been propagated in our careles 
Cape way by seedlings, and it is only within the last twenty months or 
so that the fine imported sorts, in which the French growers have ha 
dem success, have been brought into the country. The remainder of the 
supply of these months is from Natal, whence our market is flooded with 
small eye itd and bananas. The ormer are remarkable mo being 
