APPLE AND PEAR CONFERENCE. 



PEEFACE. 



EvEE since tlie holding of tlie first Apple Congress, at Chiswick, 

 by the Eoyal Horticultural Society, in October 1883, an impres- 

 sion of the importance of Hardy Fruit Culture, both in gardens 

 and also as an appanage to agriculture, has been steadily growing 

 in the public mind, and there has been an increasmg demand for 

 information as to the best sorts to grow, the most skilful methods 

 of culture, and the conditions under which a reasonable return 

 may be looked for. In order to assist in the elucidation of these 

 matters, and to correct up to the present date the Reports of the 

 Society's Apple Congress, 1883, and Pear Conference, 1885, the 

 Council of the Society decided to hold a Conference on Apples 

 and Pears in their Gardens at Chiswick in 1888. 



In the 1883 Congress it had been thought desirable to secure 

 the representation of all the varieties of apples in cultivation, 

 whether valuable or otherwise, so as to arrive by comparison at 

 an estimate of their worth. But this having been once done, and 

 the results duly recorded, it was not now considered necessary to 

 go over the same ground again ; it was only proposed therefore 

 to invite the exhibition of such varieties as find favour, or may be 

 considered thoroughly worthy of cultivation. And one object of 

 the Conference being to illustrate by facts and examples the 

 present state and future prospects of commercial fruit culture in 

 this country, it was desired that contributors should endeavour, as 

 far as possible, to furnish samples of fruits that are in favour in 

 the markets of their several localities. All fruit growers, whether 

 private gardeners or growers for market, were invited to exhibit, 

 and it was pointed out in the schedules that the wider the area 



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