812 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
PRIZE ESSAY ON THE COMMERCIAL ASPECT OF 
HARDY FRUIT GROWING. 
By Mr. S. T. Weight, F.R.H.S. 
In consequence of the agricultural depression, and the difficulty 
of making the cultivation of land profitable, landowners and 
others have been at a loss to know what things they could grow 
in the future with a reasonable prospect of a fairly remunerative 
return on their investment. When the venture is spread over 
a series of years, conducted on sound principles, and with energy, 
there is probably no crop that will yield such an interest on the 
outlay as hardy fruits. Pessimists and others who take a gloomy 
view of the future prospects of fruit culture in the United 
Kingdom quote our uncertain climate, foreign competition, 
preferential rates, and many other objections against its success, 
but we question if they have any practical knowledge on which 
they base their statements. We certainly have a somewhat 
fickle climate, but not much more so than in other parts of the 
world, for we frequently read of frost or a wave of cold doing 
immense damage to the fruit crops both on the Continent and 
in America, and even those who have most to say against our 
climate must acknowledge that fruit growers in this country 
never experience such a disastrous result as that felt in Florida 
this very year (1895), when the Orange groves suffered so 
severely from frost that it will take years, it is said, for the trees 
to fully recover their former fruitful condition ; so that, even if 
we do suffer from changeable weather, our competitors also 
labour to some extent under similar disadvantages. 
Foreign competition is, undoubtedly, a serious matter, and 
must be deliberately looked in the face by present and future 
fruit growers. We must all collectively and individually make 
up our minds that unless we improve on our present system of 
culture generally, also in our methods (or want of method) in 
packing and marketing fruit, foreign competition will become even 
more keen in the future thiin it is now. As the thousands of 
trees planted by our rivals during the last few years come into 
full bearing, their shipments will greatly increase to the British 
markets, which they admit are the best in the world. It seems 
