FRUIT-GROWING ON A LARGE SCALE. 



173 



Discussion. 



Mr. Smith, of Loddington, near Maidstone, opened the dis- 

 cussion. He said that of course great allowance had to be made 

 for different districts ; as, for instance, in his district they had 

 no market for yellow Plums, and the Pershore variety so largely 

 grown in some places was practically worthless to him. He 

 strongly agreed with the writer of the paper, that only the best 

 trees should be planted. Cheap trees were the most unprofitable 

 things that anyone could buy. 



Mr. Hammond, of Pilgrim's Hatch, Brentwood, said he 

 believed that at one time their Kentish friends imagined they 

 had got all the good soil available, and that the rest of the 

 country had the leavings. Whether that were so or not, he and 

 his family had for the last fifty years held their own at Spital- 

 fields and elsewhere. Fifteen years ago he had a dispute with 

 his landlord. He had planted a large area with fruit, and when 

 the lease ran out the landlord refused to renew it. After another 

 similar experience, he decided that farming under that gentle- 

 man would not pay, so he took another farm, which he had since 

 purchased. No one should plant under less than a twenty-one 

 years' lease. Farming could then be carried on with greater con- 

 fidence and more interest. With regard to yellow Plums, the 

 secret with them as with all else was to grow only what there 

 was a market for. He had every reason to be satisfied, and he 

 was not going to throw up the sponge, despite foreign competition 

 or preferential rates. If they produced fruit as good as they 

 possibly could, and sent it to market in the best possible condi- 

 tion, and only used common sense in growing, they could hold 

 their own. 



Mr. Basham, of Bassaleg, Newport, Mon., said that he had 

 learnt a great deal from the paper. He had taken an interest in 

 fruit-growing for some years past. So far, he had been success- 

 ful, although he was living somewhere near the mountains of 

 Wales. Although in many parts of the country the past season 

 had been a failure, yet he had taken sufficient Apples from trees 

 which he planted last winter to pay for the cost of the trees, and 

 when he saw the exhibits that day he felt sorry that he had not 

 competed. It was not fair that the English farmer should have 

 to compete unfairly with the foreigner, but still he saw no hope 



