784 JOURNAL OF THE EOYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



that the public could obtain it every mouth of the year. It is not that 

 this is not a fruit-producing country. It is not that our growers are 

 unskilled in fruit culture, and therefore unable to produce really fine 

 fruits. It is not that British-grown fruits are inferior to those of other 

 countries ; on the contrary, they are distinctly better. Nor is it that the 

 public do not appreciate them to the fullest extent. The simple fact is 

 that they have not been able to get them. 



There has been a missing link ; in other words, there has not been 

 until recently any really successful method of Whole Fruit preservation. I 

 have always held, and now more strongly perhaps than at any previous 

 time, that the fruit-preservers are a bigger factor in the fruit industry of 

 this country than is generally thought. The remedy for the ridiculous 

 prices at which home-grown fruits are sometimes sold upon the market 

 during the season, and their almost entire absence for the greater part of 

 the year, is to a large extent in the fruit-preserver's hands. I maintain 

 that his position should be somewhere between the grower and consumer, 

 so as to enable him to link the two together, not for two or three months, but 

 for the whole year. To the grower he should be able to say with confi- 

 dence and a certain amount of authority, " Bring all your waste land 

 under fruit cultivation ; root up your old and useless trees ; plant again 

 upon the most approved method young stock of the kinds and varieties 

 suitable for your soil ; throw into the operation all the skill and energy 

 of which you are capable ; produce the highest-class fruits possible ; and 

 then look to us as certain purchasers, at prices which will well repay you 

 for your expenditure of time, labour, and skill." What a sense of relief 

 would come to the grower. No longer need his nights be disturbed with 

 dreams of an overstocked market. No more need he smart under the 

 infliction of the commission agent's inflexible charges. Neither need he 

 remain longer a sufferer through the uncertainties and caprices of the 

 railway companies ; but, certain of fair prices and a sure market, he would 

 be able to concentrate all his time and energies upon his honourable 

 calling. 



And not only would the grower benefit largely from such a condition 

 of things, but indirectly it would save our village populations, and, to some 

 extent, help to prevent the present serious overcrowding of the towns : 

 it would also prevent the breaking-up of many families. For it is not 

 always .correct to say that the young men and young women of rural 

 England are willingly leaving village for town life ; in a large number of 

 cases it is simply a matter of compulsion. Give them some profitable 

 village industries and many of them would gladly remain among old 

 associations and friends, and many a moral wreck would thus be 

 averted. 



But, further, the preserver should also be in a position to say with 

 equal candour to consumers, " Do not cease your acquaintance with home- 

 grown fruits with the termination of the season. Science has now made it 

 possible for you to enjoy, in all their delicious freshness, these luxuries 

 all the year round. You have simply to place your orders with your 

 fruiterer, grocer, or stores, and you may have, in but a slightly altered form, 

 any British-grown fruits you may desire, at any time — alike in the dark 

 and gloomy days of winter or the freshness of early spring." And I 



