192 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



samples of the wine of the country wherewith to entertain their 

 friends. 



I said at the beginning of rny address that one reason why I 

 considered the cider and the perry industry to be the only branch 

 of agriculture capable of almost unlimited development was that, 

 unlike other products of the farm, such as corn and cattle, we 

 had not to fear competition from abroad to any serious extent. 

 I shall be asked to justify that opinion in the face of a con- 

 siderable importation from America, our only rival worth naming. 

 In a paper I read before the Society of Arts in 1895, and also, 

 I think, in my evidence before the Eoyal Commission on Agri- 

 culture, I expressed a fear that importations of cider from America 

 were largely on the increase. And truly, if one were to take for 

 gospel all that the dealers in American cider report, one would 

 conclude that the English markets were in immediate danger of 

 being swamped by their wares. The Board of Trade returns 

 which have been supplied to me from the Department up to 

 date for the purposes of this paper do not support this view. The 

 following are the figures for the last three years and for eight 

 months of this year, ending August 31 : — 



Importations of Cider and Perry into Great Britain from the 



United States and other Countries in Gallons. 



jj g Other 

 countries. 



1893 537,174 20,934 



1894 409,447 21,708 



1895 579,290 23,900 



Eight months ending \ c 



August 31, 1890. j i ' ' ' ^>«^ «.447 



From these it will be seen that in the year 1894, when I and 

 others anticipated an importation from the United States of at 

 least a million gallons, the actual amount fell short of half a 

 million, and showed a decrease over 1898. Although there was 

 a substantial rise in 1895, the imports this year exhibit, so far, a 

 great falling off, due in some measure perhaps to the partial 

 failure of the apple crop in the States last year and the abundant 

 crop in these islands. I hope, however, that the real reason 

 why the importation of American cider has not increased to the 

 extent with which we wore threatened is to be found in the 

 inferior quality of the article compared with that which wo 

 produce at home. I have already mentioned the demand for 



