CONFERENCE ON FRUIT GROWING. 73 



that they cannot complain of bad packing. And now a word about 

 another point. The way in which fruit is offered to the purchaser is a 

 matter of infinite importance in your interests. Upon the whole I think 

 the way fruit from abroad is packed &c. is more likely to tempt the 

 purchaser than the methods common in this country. In the next 

 place, knowledge is the basis of modern business, and we need technical 

 education applied to the fruit trade, a knowledge of vegetable physiology, 

 plant food, manures, proper varieties — they are all of vast importance, 

 and I say the education of to-day should teach more about the railways 

 of the present, than of the Eoman roads of the past. But after all, 

 the great security for persons engaged in the fruit trades is an 

 active belief in what is in my opinion the great feature of the 

 century — namely, the value of organised and systematic effort on the 

 part of traders. I have always done my best for the Chambers of 

 Commerce with that object, and I believe the more you get into con- 

 nection with Chambers of Commerce and similar institutions for the 

 purpose of conferring and acting together the better for you. Why 

 has the export agricultural trade of Denmark been so successful ? It is 

 owing to organisation and the collective system, and owing to care in the 

 matters of transport and presentment, that their produce, representing 

 thirty millions a year, comes so largely into this country. We have 

 practically the same climate and similar conditions, and by a properly 

 organised system a great deal of the imported produce could be raised 

 profitably in this country. Of course there may be other questions, 

 but let us get to know more about these things, and in that way we 

 shall in the end, owing to our national character, beat and outclass the 

 foreigner. Someone asked members of Parliament to help them. It is 

 a difficult thing for members of Parliament to render help in the present 

 condition of Parliamentary affairs. What is wanted is a consolidation 

 of our Railway Acts. It is said of a certain Roman emperor — Caligula, 

 I think — that he hung his laws so high on posts that his subjects could 

 not read them, and then he cut off their heads for not doing so. It is 

 somewhat the same with our laws. For our Acts and cases are buried in 

 great volumes, so that no one can read them, and yet everyone is assumed 

 to know the law, and is punished if he does not abide by it. All this 

 should be made plainer, so that "he who runs may read." I hope you 

 have enjoyed the Conference, and that it will forward the interests of 

 your most important trade. 



