552 JOURNAL OF THE KOYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



them. The operation of the Acts, however, may be modified by the 

 Home Secretary on the initiative of the County Council. He may extend 

 or vary the close time, or exempt a county or part of a county from it 

 altogether, as to all or any wild birds ; and he can add to the schedule, 

 thus depriving owners and occupiers of the right to destroy destructive 

 birds in the close time. From this it follows that the fruit grower has no 

 legitimate grievance against the general law ; but if a destructive bird 

 has been added to the schedule in his county (so that he cannot kill it in 

 the close time), he should make his complaint to the County Council, and 

 from it seek redress. But it is clear from the evidence that growers are 

 in most cases quite unaware of their rights, and, especially, that they may 

 destroy non- scheduled birds in the close time. The Committee hold 

 that in the publication of their Orders under the Acts, the County 

 Councils should state explicitly the rights of owners and occupiers. 

 There seems, also, to be an idea prevalent that an owner or occupier may 

 only authorise one person besides himself to destroy birds on his land. 

 This may be due to the existence of a somewhat analogous provision in 

 the case of the Ground Game Act. But, according to Mr. Clark, he may 

 authorise any number of persons to destroy birds on land in his occupation, 

 though, if they shoot them, they must procure gun licences. 



The Effect of the Rise in the Pbice of Sugak on the Jam 



Industiiy. 



92. The importance of the jam industry to the fruit growers cannot 

 be over-estimated. The jam maker, as one witness put it, is the fruit 

 grower's best customer. Immense quantities of fruit are grown for the 

 express purpose of being made into jam ; and all growers, including 

 those who produce the highest and choicest class of fruit, send a large 

 part of their crops to the jam factories every year. As Mr. Berry stated, 

 they depend on their best fruit to pay their expenses ; the "second size " 

 and "common varieties" are sold to the jam manufacturer, and give to 

 the growers their profit. The jam industry has enormously increased in 

 recent years, the public taste for jam having steadily grown, and a con- 

 siderable export trade having sprung up. One cause of this development 

 has certainly been the cheapness of sugar. 



93. During the earlier sittings of the Committee several - witnesses 

 expressed a fear that the price of sugar might rise in consequence of the 

 imposition of the sugar duty and the abolition of the bounties. But 

 although some of these witnesses alleged that there had been a slight 

 increase, none of them could say that the jam industry had been 

 seriously affected at that time ; in fact, both Mr. Blackwell and 

 Mr. Chi vers, the two jam makers then examined, emphatically stated 

 that little, if any, damage had been done to the fruit-growing industry. 



94. Since then, however, there occurred the remarkable rise in the 

 price of sugar in the last months of 1904, and the Committee, there- 

 fore, summoned another witness, Sir Thomas Pink, in order to ascertain 

 what had been the effect of this rise on the jam trade. His view was 

 that the effect so far had not been great, since the rise had taken place 

 after the fruit crop of 1904. At the same time he attributed this rise 



