98 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



FEUIT PEODUCTION OF THE BEITISH EMPIEE.* 

 By the Hon. John McOall, M.D., x\gent-General for Tasmania. 



When Sir Westby Perceval asked me to read a paper on fruit to the 

 members of this society, I was under the impression that I had been 

 selected to do so on account of my official connection with one of the 

 important fruit-growing centres of the Empire — viz. Tasmania, which 

 has a world-wide reputation for the lovely apples grown there. 

 Believing this, I readily assented, as it appeared to me a splendid 

 opportunity of singing the praises of an important product of my own 

 State. When I was tuning myself up for this effort the Secretary of 

 the Section interviewed me on the subject, and my mind was disabused 

 when he informed me that I should be expected to talk of the fruit 

 production of the whole British Empire. For days I could think of 

 nothing but fruit, and the more I thought of it the more I realized 

 the difficulties of the task I had undertaken. I could see no way out of 

 it, so asked for time. This being granted, I worried over how I should 

 treat my subject within the reasonable limits of a single paper. I con- 

 sulted all my friends who had had to do with fruit, but could not make 

 up my mind or have it made up for me. I read everything that had 

 been written on fruit from the time the innocent apple had been 

 plucked in the Garden of Eden and worked so much mischief in the 

 world, right up to the present day, and then with a feeling of impend- 

 ing melancholia I put away the literature in order to save my reason. 

 After a time I returned to the consideration of the subject, and decided 

 that the members of such a body as the Eoyal Society of Arts would 

 not desire that I should attempt to instruct them in the art of growing 

 fruit, or salivate them by sweet descriptions of the various luscious 

 fruits to be found in different parts of the Empire. I concluded that 

 I might render a real service if I could compile statistics of the fruit 

 production in the different parts of the Empire, and by so doing 

 demonstrate the great importance of the fruit industry. This I have 

 decided to make the main feature of my paper. I trust the result 

 of my labour may be found interesting to all, and to those who require 

 the information I have collected I can say that I have saved them 

 an immense amount of trouble, as it has been much more difficult to 

 obtain this information than anyone would suppose who has not 

 actually attempted to collect it. Before submitting the results of my 

 research, permit me to say that in many parts of the world fruit is 

 acknowledged to be quite an important part of the diet of the people, 

 and to many it serves, when taken regularly, as a medicine of great 



* A Lecture delivered before the Colonial Section of the Royal Society of 

 Arts, March 1st, 1910, and reprinted, by kind permission, from the Journal of the. 

 Royal Society of Arts, March 25, 1910. 



