Fifty Years of Fruit Farming. 
179 
tions of the last few years are put before them without explana- 
tion or qualification. 
The question might also be asked, What is a " bushel " as 
applied to imported fruit ? A bushel is, and must be, rather 
an indefinite standard of measure in respect of importations of 
indiscriminate fruits. It seems almost impossible to make 
comparisons between a bushel of melons, pines, shaddocks, 
or large pears, and a bushel of gooseberries or currants, 
and to make accurate calculations based upon an arbitrary 
term . 
Except with regard to apples, the conclusion of the matter is 
that the invasion of foreign fruit need not at present till home 
pi'oducers with dismay, considering the dense and increasing 
population of this country and the extraordinary growth of 
the taste of the multitude for fruit and jam. And as to apples, 
if more care is taken in their selection, cultivation, and keeping, 
it is believed that the best sorts will hold their own even against 
the finest Canadians that may be sent over. With reference 
to the demand for English fruit, it is held that a much increased 
supply would meet with a ready sale, if it were of good quality, 
and set off so as to attract the public, especially if there were a 
better system of distribution. 
In spite of the large imports of fruit, the prices obtained for some 
farm fruits are certainly higher than when there was no supply 
from abroad and the acreage of fruit-land in this country was 
comparatively small. Apples, fifty years back, made on an average 
less money than at this time. From returns of prices made for 
apples in 1838, 1839, and 1840, upon a large fruit farm in Kent, 
it seems that the average price for the three years was 3s. l^d. 
after the salesman's commission was deducted. The grower 
paid for the carriage, as the fruit was sent by road. It ought 
to be stated that the apple crop of 1840 was very large. The 
average price of apples "home to the growers" for the last three 
years would be at least 5s. per bushel. 
In those days, when there was the least excess of supply over 
the demand, gooseberries when green made only Is. 6cl. per 
bushel, and ripe they were frequently sold at rates as low. In 
these present days, from 3s. 6d. to 5s. 6d. is about an average 
price. Plums also, according to the account of a long-established 
fruit salesman, were often sold at 2s. 6d. per bushel. Within 
the last six years plums have brought as much as 17s. per bushel, 
and cherries from 15s. to 26s. per bushel. Some fann fruits 
have not made very high prices since 1885, because of the 
enormous crops of 1886, and the late, dull, wet summer 
seasons, which always exercise a bad influence upon the sale 
N 2 
