I905-] 



Report on the Fruit Industry. 



235 



The President of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries 

 appointed a Committee in December, 1903, to enquire into and 

 report upon the present position of fruit 

 Report of culture in Great Britain, and to consider 

 on^he" 66 whether an y further measures might with 

 Fruit Industry.* advantage be taken for its promotion and 

 encouragement. 



The following gentlemen were members of the Committee : — 

 Mr. A. S. T. Griffith-Boscawen, M.P. (chairman), Mr. C. W. 

 Radcliffe-Cooke, Mr. J. M. Hodge, Colonel C. W. Long, M.P., 

 Mr. George Monro, Mr. Percival Spencer Pickering, M.A., F.R.S., 

 Dr. William Somerville (an Assistant Secretary of the Board 

 of Agriculture and Fisheries), Mr. Edwin Vinson, and the 

 Reverend William Wilks, M.A. (Secretary of the Royal Horti- 

 cultural Society). 



The Committee, after holding forty-nine meetings and 

 examining sixty-one witnesses, have now presented their Report, 

 in which they point out that the cultivation of fruit, though but 

 a small part of agriculture generally, especially if judged by 

 acreage alone, is a growing industry in Great Britain, and 

 that its increase in recent years has been remarkable ; and 

 they consider the opinion to be well founded, that still more 

 fruit might be advantageously grown, provided that certain 

 difficulties and disabilities were removed, and if extension 

 were directed into the proper channels. Nearly all the wit- 

 nesses argued that the British grower was unfairly handicapped 

 in some respects at the present moment, though their grievances 

 differed very largely, some laying stress on one thing, and some 

 on another ; and their suggested remedies differed even more 

 widely. The Committee analyse these grievances and the 

 suggested remedies in their Report, and conclude by making 

 a number of recommendations and suggestions, which may be 

 summarised as follows : — 



1. That a special sub-Department of the Board of Agriculture 

 and Fisheries be established to deal with matters connected 

 with the fruit industry. That there be two branches of such 

 sub-Department : (a) a bureau of information ; (&) an experi- 

 mental fruit farm. 



Cd. 2589. Price 4^. 



