REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE FRUIT INDUSTRY. 555 



small Apples for the manufacture of cider. They could, apparently, only 

 be used successfully when mixed with cider fruit, whilst in years when 

 the Apple crop generally is abundant the cider fruit would be abundant 

 also, and there would be ample of it for cider purposes without using 

 other fruit. Cold storage also has been mentioned as a means of 

 mitigating the effects of a glut or of an inrush of foreign fruit. Its 

 adoption must obviously be left to private enterprise, although investiga- 

 tions at an experimental station would probably add much to our know- 

 ledge of the most suitable temperatures for the preservation of various 

 fruits. 



103. A temporary lowering of the railway rates in order to deal with 

 gluts has also been suggested, and, apparently, has received a certain 

 amount of encouragement from some of the railway companies. A some- 

 what similar plan has been for years past adopted by the railways with 

 regard to excursion traffic by passenger trains on special occasions. The 

 objection to such a temporary lowering of the rates is stated to be the 

 difficulty of raising them again afterwards. Sir Herbert Jekyll pointed 

 out that if rates were temporarily lowered, and the companies sub- 

 sequently endeavoured to raise them to the old standard, they would, in 

 the case of complaint, have to justify the reasonableness of the increase 

 before the Railway and Canal Commission under section 1 of the Act of 

 1894. The Committee think that this difficulty might be overcome by 

 arrangement ; but if this be not possible, they recommend that the Act 

 be amended so as to enable it to be done with proper safeguards. The 

 results would be advantageous to the companies as well as to the growers, 

 for they would have fruit to carry which would otherwise rot on the 

 ground. 



104. Evidence was given before the Committee by Mr. Cowan, the 

 representative of the British Bee Keepers' Association, as to the great 

 advantage to fruit growers of keeping bees in or near their plantations. 

 It is claimed that bees perform a very useful and necessary function in 

 fertilising the blossoms, thus assisting the fruit to set, and preventing 

 unfruitfulness. Bees carry the pollen from the blossom of one variety to 

 that of another, producing what is called " cross-fertilisation," which is 

 necessary in the case of some varieties. The Committee do not doubt 

 that this is perfectly true, and although other insects perform the same 

 functions, the keeping of bees is probably exceedingly advantageous, 

 because of the numbers available to perform these services. Mr. Cowan 

 estimated that where bees were kept there were twenty bees flying in 

 spring to one of any other insect. Another witness, a practical fruit 

 grower, stated that he had experienced the advantage of keeping bees, 

 which, moreover, were very profitable in themselves. 



105. One witness called the attention of the Committee to the dangers 

 attending the growth of fruit on sewage farms. In France the sale of 

 sewage-grown vegetables which are to be eaten uncooked is prohibited, 

 and it is stated that Strawberries are grown on sewage farms in this 

 country, and that their sale should be stopped here. The matter is one 

 affecting the public health, and the Committee suggest that the whole 

 question of sewage-grown fruit and vegetables should be inquired into by 

 the department concerned. 



