[MPORTB AND EXTORTS AFFECTING BRITISH HORTICULTURE. 183 



IMPORTS AND EXPORTS AND ACREAGES AFFECTING 

 BRITISH HORTICULTURE. 



Statistics of Interest to British Horticulturists. 



In view of the interest evinced in the statistics which have for the last 

 two years appeared in the Journal (vol. xxviii. pp. 597-600 and vol. xxix. 

 pp. 700-703), and of the more general interest in such questions as 

 foreign imports, these tables have been brought up to date and some- 

 what expanded. The general result might be regarded as satisfactory 

 as the acreages under horticultural products are increasing and the 

 imports of fruit and flowers are decreasing, but we still spend many 

 millions sterling on imported fruit, vegetables, and flowers, most of 

 which might be spent in this country, if we had more land under 

 such cultivation, and if better and more scientific methods were more 

 generally employed. The timber and forest statistics are less satis 

 factory, and although they may be regarded rather as agricultural, yet 

 they have a very direct bearing on horticulture, because if less timber 

 were imported more would be grown at home. This would considerably 

 affect the rainfall. There are many gardens, especially in the Midlands 

 'and the North, which formerly were surrounded by bare hills and rocky 

 slopes, but now are covered with firs and pines, and the difference is most 

 striking. 



TABLE I. — IMPORTS OF FRUITS. 





1903 



Quantities 

 1904 



1905 



1903 



Values 

 1904 



1905 



Fruit : 



Apples, raw . . . (cwts.) 

 Apricots and Peaches, raw „ 

 Bananas, raw . . (bunches) 

 Cherries, raw . . . (cwts.) 

 Onrrants, raw „ 

 Gooseberries, raw . . „ 

 Grapes, raw ., 

 Lemons „ 

 Nuts : Almonds „ 

 „ other nuts, used as fruit „ 

 Oranges . . . . „ 

 Pears, raw „ 

 Plums, raw . . . . „ 

 Strawberries, raw . . „ 

 Unenumerated, raw . . „ 



Total value of Fresh Fruit . . 



Fruit, Dried : 

 Currants . . . .(cwts.) 

 Raisins . . . . „ 



4,569,546 

 9,578 

 3,087,516 

 110,192 

 76,419 

 34,312 

 684,084 

 978,318 

 157,156 

 791,281 

 6,176,752 

 271,518 

 594,626 

 32,644 

 688,873 



3,771,781 

 13,465 



3,910,511 

 260,724 

 116,888 

 36,215 

 853,572 

 989,296 

 153,011 

 706.064 



5,853,254 

 535,614 

 493,707 

 34,524 

 654,765 



3,494,650 

 23,321 

 5,743,914 

 186,682 

 82,438 

 17,159 

 700,049 

 837,028 

 159,422 

 803,704 

 5,068,526 

 417,654 

 480,291 

 29,399 

 502,096 







£ 



2,781,643 

 21,584 



1,196,889 

 167,142 

 110,535 

 28,444 

 715,057 

 406,728 

 544,934 

 667,902 



2,275,400 

 326,463 

 622,268 

 49,362 

 449,413 



£ 



2,118,294 

 32,907 



1,382,572 

 319,824 

 143,983 

 21,024 

 827,634 

 408,500 

 515,005 

 590,334 



2,193,146 

 503,573 

 526,438 

 49,536 

 372,575 



£ 



2,065,193 

 51,962 

 1,770,256 

 253,042 

 94,590 

 11,941 

 761,632 

 419,049 

 543,761 

 735,591 

 1,949,491 

 407,679 

 524,673 

 40,120 

 354,140 



~ 







10,362,764 



10,005,345 



9,983,120 



1,159,400 

 758,191 



981,883 

 669,444 



1,078,034 

 737,072 



966,176 

 1,150,541 



822,434 

 994,675 



939,427 

 990,581 



1,917,591 



1,651,327 



1,815,106 



2,116,717 



1,817,109 



1,930,008 



The enormous increase in the quantities of bananas imported between 

 1903 and 1905, as shown in the above table, probably accounts for the 

 marked decline in the imports of such fruit as apples and oranges. 



