CONFEEENCE ON FKUIT GEO WING-. 



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.£503,000, Plums £526,000, and miscellaneous — Strawberries, Peaches, 

 Apricots — £102,000, making a total value of fruit which could certainly 

 be grown in this country £4,548,000. Then, in addition to the fruit which 

 could be grown in this country, there is an important element which is 

 not really competitive because the fruit could not be grown in this 

 country. But the total of all sorts imported during 1904 into this 

 country represents a value of £10,237,000, four-and-a-half millions of 

 which at least could have been grown in this country. Of course we 

 cannot grow Bananas, representing £1,382,000, nor can we grow Oranges 

 — £2,193,000. With regard to Bananas, I do not know whether any of 

 you have a personal acquaintance with Sir Alfred Jones. He is a most 

 energetic person, and I happen to have heard what took place on the 

 question of the importation of Bananas. Travelling on one of his com- 

 pany's steamships — the Elder-Dempster Line — he landed at the Canaries. 

 He looked round and saw it was a place where Bananas could be grown. 

 He took a lease of a large area and planted Bananas. When the time 

 came he told people in Liverpool he wanted them to sell the Bananas 

 at a penny apiece. They said they could not possibly do so, as they could 

 get 2d. or Sd. apiece for them. At the proper time he sent for forty 

 or fifty costermongers who sold at a penny apiece and obviously put 

 those who wanted 2d. apiece out of the market. Then the Liverpool 

 people said that the costermongers obstructed the traffic, but Sir Alfred 

 Jones sent for a learned K.C. who established the right of the coster- 

 mongers to sell. I mention this only to show what energy will do, and 

 now the trade in Bananas is well established. In this country we 

 have our troubles, due to climatic influences, to contend with. Last 

 year in the greater part of the South-East of England we had a fair 

 supply of Apples and Pears, but this year we have but few, so that the 

 exhibition downstairs to-day is specially creditable and interesting — one 

 equally interesting to growers and consumers ; and I think I may say that 

 on the whole the exhibition, whether we refer to amateurs or to those 

 who make the growing of fruit more or less a business concern, is 

 eminently satisfactory, especially considering the season. 



When I was a boy you could not buy a pound of Muscat Grapes 

 under 12s. or 15s. or even more. Now we can get the mcst excellent 

 Muscats at 2s. 6^. a pound. That merely shows you what can be done by 

 hot-houses in this country, and I only refer to the matter to emphasise the 

 importance of fruit as a food supply. You can see in the Hall below 

 what a valuable adjunct fruit is to our national reserve of food, and it 

 has really come to this, that the fruit-growing interests of this country 

 form a very important national industry, and I think the more we can 

 do to further these home industries, the better we shall be doing our duty 

 to our country. 



I should just like to refer for a moment to the report of the Com- 

 mittee on the Fruit Industry of Great Britain. It is an alarming-looking 

 document, but it costs only i^d., and I venture to recommend it to the 

 earnest perusal of all who are interested in the fruit industry ; and as 

 I was saying to our friend and Secretary, Mr. Wilks, if the recom- 

 mendations contained in that report were carried out, we should find the 

 fruit industry in this country placed upon a satisfactory basis all round. 



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