404 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



FORCED FRUIT. 



The cultivation of forced fruit for market has made enormous 

 strides during the last twenty-five years. The small and com- 

 paratively trivial quantities grown in 1837 are now hardly worth 

 considering. The few Pineapples and Grapes then grown were 

 obtainable only by the wealthy, Cucumbers were grown in 

 frames and pits, and Tomatos were unknown as food and 

 popularly regarded as poisonous. No doubt the high prices 

 realised by Grapes and Cucumbers led to their more extended 

 cultivation, and the success attending these efforts, together with 

 the more natural method of growing Cucumbers pendent, and 

 the education of the public taste for Tomatos as food, has opened 

 out the trade beyond all anticipation. 



Other fruits forced are Strawberries, Peaches, Nectarines, 

 Melons, and Figs. The introduction of Madeira Pineapples has 

 caused their culture for market as an English hot-house crop 

 to cease. 



Many of our large fruit growers under glass also grow flowers, 

 and by a judicious system of management reap considerable 

 advantage from a succession of crops. As a rule, the most 

 successful men engaged in this business have grown up in it. 

 Having satisfied themselves of the soundness of its commercial 

 character, they have applied their acquired experience in the 

 practical details of their work to its extension. The enormously 

 increased production has had the effect of greatly lowering the 

 market values, and this has let in as buyers and consumers a 

 large class, who thus obtain choice fruit at reasonable prices. 

 This extension of trade has been made profitable by the cheapen- 

 ing of materials, and the more economic use of them by horti- 

 cultural builders, and by improved systems in the construction 

 and heating of greenhouses, and by more effective methods of 

 carrying on the work on a large scale. Through these means 

 the grower is enabled to face reduced prices with a fairly satis- 

 factory result. One of our largest market gardeners thus sums 

 matters up : — "I have to invest more capital, to employ more 

 labour, and to work harder myself for less percentage of profit. 

 The public reap all the additional advantage." 



In visiting the establishment of any one of the large market 

 gardeners we cannot but admire the excellent order and regular 



