78 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



know how we can deal with these old orchards. I think it is done in 

 Canada, Australia, and the United States, but in this country people 

 will not grub them up although they know the trees are not worth 

 retaining. 



A lady : With regard to old orchards, I think it would inflict a 

 serious hardship on people if they had to grub them up, unless the 

 Government compensated the grower. These old trees ought perhaps 

 to be grubbed up, but if a man clears his ground he will suffer grievous 

 loss. A man might have an orchard with trees which had been 

 standing perhaps for forty or fifty years, and you could not expect 

 him to cut them down in order to make room for clean youngsters. 

 He might be deriving a fair income from his old trees, but if he planted 

 young ones he would derive very little income for several years. 



Th Chairman : I think it is too big a question to suggest that the 

 State should provide the capital to replant an old orchard. If you 

 do that, another man would ask the State to provide him with a new 

 orchard. I think the last speaker rather misunderstood the point. 

 The trouble was not so much with the old trees, but with some of the 

 old orchards which were infested with insect and fungus pests. I 

 do not think we can suggest that the State should compensate a man 

 for cutting down old trees, especially when we consider that at the 

 present time the State are out for collecting money and not for 

 distributing it. 



A Member : I was at a meeting at Croydon last week, when we 

 sent a letter to the Croydon Corporation recommending that in any 

 town-planning schemes consideration should be given to the planting 

 of fruit trees and fruit bushes. I think this should be done in all 

 town-planning schemes. 



The Chairman : It is a very good suggestion. 



Mrs. Arthur Webb : I think, too, fruit-growing should be en- 

 couraged on railway embankments, as it is in Holland. In Holland 

 the authorities lease the land to various growers, who plant fruit 

 trees along the railway embankments and round the reservoirs, with 

 the result that it is quite a profitable industry. There are immense 

 areas of land in England along the railway embankments. It may 

 be news to some of you, but the Underground Railway are leasing 

 certain small orchards to their employees for one shilling a year. I 

 think they get sufficient land to grow twenty trees for two shillings 

 a year. If the Underground Railway can do that, why cannot the 

 great corporations like the Great Western Railway and the London 

 and N orth-Western Railway ? 



The Chairman : I think we have had a very profitable discussion. 

 It seems to me, in summarizing the various speakers, that the best 

 thing to do is to select the right varieties which will grow in a par- 

 ticular district. It is no use having a variety which does best in a 

 neighbouring district, but you must plant the variety which will grow 

 well in your own district. Then you must grow those varieties which 

 are best suited for your purpose. If you have one hundred trees do 



