178 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



theirs up, the finest Cherries being in small square baskets con- 

 taining 4 lbs. to 6 lbs., the basket being given in with the fruit 

 and their early Currants come in flat handle baskets holding 

 about 6 lbs. each. As the foreign Cherries and Currants are 

 naturally much earlier than ours, we do not feel the competition 

 so much as in the later fruits. 



Plums come next. They also are packed in this country in 

 pecks or half-bushels, but as a rule with much less care than 

 those coming from the Continent, and although a half -bushel 

 should contain 28 lbs., it generally varies from only 24 to 26 lbs. 

 There is an unwritten law what each package of the different 

 fruits should weigh, but growers are very much afraid they should 

 exceed it, and consequently seldom reach it. 



Apples and Pears are next in order, and these are what I 

 imagine we have principally to consider to-day. They are 

 sent in bushels and half-bushels ; I cannot say packed, as 

 the bulk are simply just thrown in, without any grading or 

 packing being taken into consideration at all, in some cases only 

 a sheet of very thin paper being placed on the top, and nothing 

 else whatever to prevent the fruit being bruised by the basket. 

 A customer of mine suggested the other day that a sample 

 looked as if they had been " gathered with a clothes-prop and 

 packed with a rake." These fruits are certainly packed worse 

 now, on the whole, than they were twenty years ago, and as the 

 competition from abroad is keener every year, it is very impor- 

 tant that we should stop to consider whether we cannot improve 

 matters somewhat. 



Having recounted our present British methods, I will now 

 compare them with the foreign ones. The hothouse fruits are 

 not much affected as yet by competition, mainly owing to the 

 enterprise of our market gardeners in this branch, who have 

 certainly up to the present led the world and kept pace with the 

 times. But when we come to hardy fruits, such as Cherries, 

 and more particularly Plums, Apples, and Pears, everyone, 

 whether in the trade or not, must at once confess that the 

 worst packed produce coming on any market is the home-grown ; 

 and although we have continually improved where there is no 

 competition, we have degenerated to a great extent where there 

 is, and have so far played into the foreigners' hands who study 

 the requirements of the trade, and try in every possible way to 



