WHOLE FRUIT PEESERVATIOxV. 



781 



been made by early arrivals of foreign fruits, in many cases double and 

 treble the prices given for early arrivals of fruits grown at home. Only 

 this season early arrivals of Greengages from the Continent fetched 

 easily 7s. to 10s. a half sieve of 24 lb., whereas English Greengages, 

 with infinitely more flavour, but coming later, did not realise more than a 

 third of that sum. 



The British grower is also heavily handicapped by the railway com- 

 panies, some of which charge as much, and certainly with much less care 

 and attention, to carry home-grown fruits a few miles as they do to bring 

 the same fruits from France or Holland. 



He has also to pay the recognised charges of his commission agent, no 

 matter how flat the market may be, so that not infrequently, after having 

 paid for labour, carriage, and commission, the grower receives absolutely 

 nothing himself for his fruit. 



Is it any wonder that the British grower should in some cases become 

 disheartened, or that he should become careless in the cultivation of his 

 fruit crops ? Nor is it a matter for surprise that the young men and 

 women of our villages should migrate to the towns, and that our rural 

 districts should become depopulated. 



The probability is that this migration will continue until something is 

 done to make it worth while for young people to remain in the country 

 villages, either by re^dving old industries and making them profitable or 

 by the establishment of new ones. 



Among the many remedies proposed it has frequently been suggested 

 that the waste lands and vacant farms should be brought under fruit 

 cultivation, but this of itself can be of little use unless such undertakings 

 could be made more profitable than fruit-growing has proved during the 

 last few years. 



The all-important question is. How is it to be done ? My conviction 

 is that the remedy will be found in the direction of finding some new and 

 profitable outlet for our home-grown fruits. Hitherto the British groAver 

 has had but two outlets for his produce ; unlike Continental growers, he 

 has had no export trade, and has had therefore to confine himself to the 

 open market or to the jam manufacturer. As regards the former, I have 

 already referred to the uncertainty of his return ; and as regards the latter, 

 the demand is chiefly for his smaller and later fruits. 



Notwithstanding the fact that largely increasing quantities of fruit 

 are required every year for manufacture into jams, and also that the con- 

 sumption of fruit is rapidly on the increase, the grower has no certain 

 means of disposal for the finer and choicer varieties upon which he has 

 spent most of his time and labour. 



To the grower, therefore, the creation of a new outlet for his finest 

 produce would come as a most welcome boon. If it were possible — and I 

 am prepared to show that it is — for the finest fruits of this country (or at 

 any rate those that were not required for immediate consumption) to be 

 preserved whole, in such a way as not to destroy their delicious flavour 

 or colour, and so that they might be obtainable all the year round, it 

 would give the fruit industry of this country an enormous impetus, and 

 place the growers in a better position than at any previous time. In- 

 directly it would also furnish one of the ways by which the depopulation 



