REPORT OF THE APPLE AND PEAR CONFERENCE. 



93 



especially — should recognise the industry, and admit home fruit 

 j)roducts into their schedules of subjects for competition. I am 

 glad to observe that the Royal Agricultural Society of England 

 has taken up the matter, and hope other agricultural societies 

 may now be induced to follow. It is likely that more good will 

 arise from sources of this character than through minor efforts of 

 less prominent bodies, as the subject would then be considered 

 along with the problems of land cultivation in their more impor- 

 tant and varied aspects. 



I must not forget to include the all-powerful Press. We have 

 natural friends in the editors of horticultural publications, but I 

 am glad to see the general Press of the country is now taking 

 an interest in the question. Whilst many newspaper readers are 

 evidently competent to take an intelligent view of the matter, 

 there are some who seem to discern in the agitation something 

 like the sectarian movement of a new faith, for which they have 

 quickly set themselves to invent the name of the " Faddist." 

 Well, let it be so. 



If we are to get public attention called to the question, we 

 may hope that the long delayed interest will be fairly and fully 

 aroused ; and whilst we rejoice in the peace and prosperity of a 

 nation preferring pruning-hooks and ploughshares to swords and 

 spears, we shall yet the more rejoice when we gain the greater 

 victory and proclaim the wider conquest of the sickle and the 

 spade. 



COMPENSATION FOR ORCHARD PLANTING. 



By Mr. William F. Bear, Streatham. 



It is, no doubt, solely because of the great interest which, for 

 many years, I have taken in compensation for tenants' improve- 

 ments, that I have been invited by the Committee of this Con- 

 ference to read a paper upon a subject of the practical details of 

 which I probably know less than any person in this room. I 

 must confess that I felt a strong disinclination to place my views 

 before a body of experts, and if anyone but your worthy secre- 

 tary, who has been very obliging to me on more than one occasion, 

 had asked me to come forward, I should have declined ; for, 

 should anyone ask me what I know about orchard planting, I 

 should have to reply. Next to nothing. When I took a farm some 

 years ago, I planted some fruit trees, and had them in fine bear- 

 ing condition by the time that I quitted the holding, to the ad- 

 vantage of my successor. More recently I have planted some 

 apples and pears in a suburban garden, and have scarcely seen a 

 blossom on any of them for the last three years. However, my 

 subject is not planting, but compensation for planting, and upon 



