THE: COMMERCIAL ASPECT OP HARDY FRUIT GROWING. 317 
plantation should be well placed as regards railway accom- 
modation. 
The distance from markets is not so important as many 
people imagine. Intending fruit growers are apt, I think, to 
attach too much importance to being within a moderate distance 
of a good outlet, and look upon the land and its suitability as 
a secondary matter instead of making that the first considera- 
tion. It is utterly useless to have land close to the best market 
in the kingdom if it will not grow produce that will pay for 
cultivation. Our own nearest good market is 140 miles away, 
and yet we find that it pays handsomely to send it that distance, 
as we can realise such prices as are never known in places nearer 
to us. The extra cost in carriage is not very much, and the 
receipts obtained for this slightly increased outlay are returned 
over and over again. 
Apples. 
The Apple may be termed the king of British fruits, and 
looking at the enormous importations annually, which certainly 
show no sign of decreasing, there is no fruit holding out a better 
prospect of profitable return in the future. The soil and climate 
of the United Kingdom are so admirably suited to Apple-growing, 
that if the cultural requirements are but given proper attention 
to we can more than hold our own against the world. But to 
make the cultivation of Apples the commercial success it deserves 
to be, we must radically alter our present system, or rather 
want of system, by growing the trees better and exercising more 
honesty and care in sorting and packing the fruit. 
It may be asked. What is the most paying system to follow ? 
I do not hesitate to say that the most profitable system is to 
grow a limited number of varieties as dwarf trees on a soil which 
has been proved capable of growing full crops of large Apples. 
As the many and great advantages of dwarf trees become 
more fully recognised, they are certain to be much more exten- 
sively planted in the future, to the gain of the planter and the 
country. First and most important is the quick return given by 
such trees as compared with standards. The latter must do 
exceptionally well to produce anything like a paying crop under 
twelve or fourteen years from the time of planting, whilst dwarfs 
will begin to pay the second year from planting. 
Some years ago I planted a number of Lane's Prince Albertf 
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