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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



position, however, for anyone to be in, was to bold under an 

 intelligent and enlightened landlord, who would go hand in 

 hand with his tenant, and facilitate the transfer of improvements. 



THE RAILWAY DIFFICULTY IN RELATION TO FRUIT, 

 AND HOW TO DEAL WITH IT. 



By Mr. D. Tallerman, F.R.H.S. 



The railway difficulty and how to deal with it presents a 

 social problem for solution of such immense magnitude, involv- 

 ing interests of so vast a character, that to justly determine it 

 with due regard to the rights of all parties demands the most 

 serious and earnest attention. On the one band we have the 

 enormous sum of £845,972,000 sterling invested as a paid-up 

 railway capital in a movement ostensibly for the benefit of the 

 public, which sum is entitled to a reasonably fair interest, while, 

 on the other hand, the natural development of the resources of 

 the nation are largely interfered with by the courses that have 

 been followed by those having the control of the internal traffic 

 incidental to the distribution of home-grown produce. 



The full extent to which the agricultural classes as a body 

 suffer by this course of procedure is beyond the scope of our pre- 

 sent Conference, which, as far as possible, should be confined 

 specially to the interests of fruit-growers. 



That these may be clearly understood I have prepared a map 

 of England and Wales, showing each county with its population, 

 its total area, and the extent of that area devoted to fruit-grow- 

 ing and its allied industry, market gardening. The facts thus 

 disclosed are of a most startling character, as they show that in 

 the major portion of the country there is little or no fruit or 

 green foods locally produced to supply the requirements of the 

 people. There may be different opinions as to the cause or 

 causes of this alarming condition of things, but there will be a 

 consensus of opinion upon one point, which is, that the charges 

 of our railways for the carriage -of home-grown produce and the 

 general arrangements for its transmission have been of such a 

 nature and extent as to render the cultivation of these commodi- 

 ties unprofitable where it has been carried on, and to deter the 

 extension of cultivation in other districts by reason of the want 

 of facilities to despatch the produce when grown to centres of 

 consumption for profitable sale, thereby failing to encourage the 

 production of a supply of home-grown food for the people. 



With every regard for the rights of investors to a legitimate 

 interest upon their capital, the question must be removed from 

 that comparatively narrow sphere of consideration to the far 



