THE COMMERCIAL ASPECT OF HARDY FRUIT GROWING. 319 
sheltered ; and even when unusually high winds cause the fruit 
to fall, it has only a few feet to drop from the dwarf trees, and 
consequently is not much bruised, and if picked up immediately 
and consigned to market it will sell freely at satisfactory prices. 
It may be stated here that all possible despatch should be used 
in sending wind-fallen fruit away quickly, so as to get it on the 
market before there can be any glut of the same. On one 
occasion we had a violent gale pass over us, bringing down a 
great weight of Apples ; those from standard trees were generally 
smashed, and useless to send away, but the fruit from the dwarfs 
was scarcely injured. Varieties such as Echlinvillc Seedling, 
Warner's King, and Golden Spire made 15s. per cwt., and 
Worcester Pearmain sold for 24s. per cwt., proving beyond 
question the value of dwarf trees. 
The fourth advantage is that all malformed fruit can be 
plucked from the trees while small, so that when the fruit is 
gathered it can be put straight from the trees into the hampers 
with very little sorting, and fastened down to be sent to market 
at once. The less fruit is handled before reaching the pur- 
chaser, the better its appearance and the higher its value. Again, 
by thus gathering the fruit, and putting it into the hampers as 
picked, there is no attempt at deception, as the Apples are of a 
uniform size and quality throughout the package. Buyers 
quickly note this honesty, and the sender acquires a reputation 
that makes his consignments eagerly sought after. The insane 
policy of topping the packages with the finest fruit, with a mass of 
very inferior " stuff" beneath, cannot be too strongly condemned ; 
purchasers resent such fraudulent methods by paying a low price 
and giving the sender anything but a complimentary name. 
Having decided on the form of tree to be grown, it is im- 
portant that early orders should be given to a nurseryman of the 
highest repute, who would not permit a bad tree, or one not true 
to name, to leave his nursery. Many of our leading firms 
annually burn numbers of trees simply because they do not 
consider them up to their standard of excellence, and it will pay 
any intending fruit grower to purchase all his trees from such a 
source rather than buy from a firm which is careless in this 
respect, for when trees are badly grown or wrongly named the 
labour and expense incurred is frequently thrown away, and 
what should have been a profit turns out a oss. 
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