FRUIT-GROWING ON A LARGE SCALE. 171 



fruit trade at the expense of the British grower : — " The rate on 

 fruit in one-ton lots from Folkestone and intermediate stations 

 up to London is 25s. 7c?., with an extra charge for returning the 

 empties. Should, however, the fruit be of French growth, and 

 the point from which it is despatched Boulogne, the rate is 

 12s. 5d. — less than one-half of what is squeezed out of the home 

 grower — and the empties are returned free. It is these pre- 

 ferential rates, and the oppressive manner in which they bear 

 upon the fruit-growers, that crush the heart out of whole dis- 

 tricts, and help to create the statistics quoted with wearisome 

 but necessary iteration against the food-producing capacity of 

 this country." * The present preferential rates favouring the 

 foreigner is a question of vital importance, and growers should 

 unite and do all in their power to induce the railway companies 

 to meet them and to re -adjust the rates. 



Assuming that during the next twenty years the acreage 

 under fruit in Great Britain, and the imports, increase as rapidly 

 as during the past twenty years, the question arises as to whether 

 or no the supply will exceed the demand. If we look at the 

 enormous increase in the consumption of fresh fruit, and also of 

 jam, throughout the country (the number of jam factories with 

 their trade increasing each year), and the increase in the popula- 

 tion, it hardly seems possible that, at all events for many years 

 to come, fruit-growing can be overdone. 



Jam is now within the reach of all classes, and if only fresh 

 fruit could be distributed as easily, there would be no fear of 

 markets being glutted. In almost all the large towns throughout 

 the country there are fruit markets, and there are many towns 

 with no fruit market in which one might be advantageously held 

 say once or twice a week. This season we have heard of Plums 



* Extract from the Evesham Journal. — [Editor's note : — The Secretary 

 of the South-Eastern Eailway, refering to the above, writes to us : " The 

 paragraph quoted from the Evesham Journal is absolutely incorrect. 

 The rates from Folkestone to London (station to station) are 15s. Id., 

 18s. 3d., and 21s. 4d. per ton, according to the kind of fruits. From inter- 

 mediate stations between Folkestone and London the rates are relatively 

 lower. 



" The rates from Boulogne to London are 32s. Qd. and 40s. per ton (tpaay 

 to station), the larger proportion of the fruit paying at the rate of 40s. 



" All empties are charged for, whether to local stations or to Boulogne." 



The Editors would point out that the writer of the paper is in no way 

 answerable for what appears to be a gross misrepresentation, but the editor 

 of the newspaper which gave publicity to the statement.] 



