176 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Another important element which must have its due place in 

 our argument is the medicinal value of a diet in which fruits 

 are largely employed. Of late years it has become fashionable 

 with the medical profession to suggest the Grape cure, and other 

 cures of like nature, the basis of cure being found in the fact that 

 an almost exclusive diet of fruits is needful, or at least beneficial, 

 to the patient. If time permitted, and if I might venture into 

 the field of literature and poetry, we should be able to see how 

 the seers of the past accepted very largely the truth of the 

 position I have thus briefly put before you, whilst they sang 

 the praises of the Apple especially, but of other fruits also ; and 

 it would be an easy matter to cull from authentic literary pro- 

 ductions an anthology which would put every fruit in a place of 

 prominence in considering the inherent virtues possessed by 

 each, and in view of such facts it seems pitiable— I had almost 

 said criminal — that the use of fruits should be restricted to such 

 a narrowed area of the population. 



There is the added evidence of the recognised value of fruit 

 as a marketable commodity borne out by statistics from a 

 different source, but readily obtainable by those who desire to 

 have them, that we, as a nation, pay millions of pounds annually 

 for the foreign importation of such articles as could readily be 

 produced at home. Let me be clearly understood. I am not 

 one of those mortals who, with pessimistic outlook and a 

 narrowed philosophy, regard every imported article as a bogey. 

 I realise thankfully the splendid addition to our National 

 resources of true wealth and health by the Grapes, the Oranges, 

 Lemons, Apples, and other choice products of nature which 

 come to us from over the seas ; but the fact still remains, that 

 there is no necessity for us to import, say, a single barrel of 

 Apples ; and whilst I thankfully realise and joyfully admit that 

 the question of fruit as food is too narrow to be only National, 

 but wide enough to be gloriously International, yet I also 

 maintain that there are no fruits for Britishers to compare witli 

 British-grown fruits ; so that, even as we stand now as to the 

 laws of demand and supply, there is room enough yet for the 

 production of home-grown fruit in much greater abundance than 

 is at present possible. 



There is another aspect which we must not overlook, for 

 whilst up to this point I have advocated the u^e of fruits purely 



