1908.] Competition in Apple GrowinCx. 489 



short crops, cooking apples seldom make more than 4s. to 5s. 

 per bushel in the wholesale markets of this country, and in 

 seasons of great yield the range of prices is lower. Taking the 

 range given as about an average, and bearing in mind the fact 

 that the apples are all selected, ranking in size with English 

 11 firsts," it must be admitted that there is not much tempta- 

 tion to English growers to store apples to sell against them. 

 It is true that the quality of our home-grown apples is greatly 

 superior to that of those produced in the United States or 

 Canada ; but British consumers are remarkably indiscrimina- 

 ting in relation to the flavour of cooking apples. They judge 

 almost exclusively by size and colour, in which respects English 

 fruit needs to be very carefully graded to excel the trans- 

 atlantic supplies. 



It is to be borne in mind that if a large proportion of th e 

 home crop were kept to sell after American and Canadian 

 supplies were in our markets, the prices of the latter, and 

 also of the home supply would be reduced. But if the result 

 of storing a large proportion of the home crop of cooking 

 apples were to be the reduction of the average price of "firsts " 

 of home and outside production alike to 35. a bushel, who 

 would be the first to give up the competition which had such 

 a result ? 



There are many reasons for supposing that home producers 

 would prove the weaker competitors, and that they would be 

 driven back to their present plan of selling the bulk of their 

 apples before the end of November. Good fruit land, of course, 

 is very much cheaper to buy or hire in the United States or 

 Canada than in this country. Apart from California and British 

 Columbia, unplanted land suitable for apples can be bought 

 at the low prices of ordinary farm land, whereas, in some of 

 the best fruit districts of England, it commands £100 per acre. 

 Fruit growers on the other side of the Atlantic almost all own 

 the land they plant, and when they do the work well and 

 attend to their trees properly their farms grow in value greatly. 

 In England, on the other hand, most of the fruit land is hired 

 on an imperfect tenure as to security for improvements, and 

 planted land in full profit in some districts lets at £8 to £10 

 per acre. 



Again, for regular fruitfulness of apple trees the United 



