374 
The  Progress  of  Fruit  Farming. 
note  of  advice.  It  has  become  so  general  to  consign  fruit  to 
England,  that  it  is  stated  that  frequently  the  markets  in  French 
towns  are  badly  supplied.  A friend  who  has  lived  in  France 
for  many  years  says  that  the  increase  in  the  production  of  fruit 
during  the  last  twenty  years  is  astonishing ; yet  to  obtain  his 
supplies  he  was  compelled  to  send  into  the  fruit  market  before 
5 o’clock  A.M.,  or  the  fruit  would  have  been  all  sold  and  cleared  off 
for  consignment  to  England.  A French  writer,  skilled  in  horti- 
culture and  agriculture,  remarks  that  the  cultivation  of  fruit  in 
France  has  greatly  increased,  but  that  the  demand  has  by  no 
means  been  satisfied.  He  estimates  that  more  than  twenty-three 
millions  of  pounds  of  fresh  fruit  are  annually  consumed  in  Paris 
alone  in  various  forms ; although  the  Parisians  are  by  no  means 
a fruit-eating  people.  He  counsels  the  French  cultivators  to  plant 
fruit-trees,  and  in  answer  to  the  question  which  is  frequently 
asked,  “ If  all  the  world  plant  fruit-trees,  what  is  to  become  of 
the  fruit  ? — it  will  fetch  a poor  price  : ” he  replies  : “ This  is  a 
gross  error  ; the  more  the  production  increases  the  greater  will  be 
the  consumption.  We  produce  ten  times  more  fruit  than  we 
did  forty  years  ago,  and  has  the  price  decreased  in  any  degree  ? ” 
Then  he  goes  on  to  advise  the  cultivators  not  to  centre  their 
efforts  upon  producing  wheat  and  oats  upon  land  that  will  grow 
fruit.  “ What,”  he  asks,  “ will  corn  pay  him  ? ” He  answers, 
“ Nothing.  The  cultivator  is  a manufacturer  ( fabricant ),  and 
it  is  his  duty  to  abandon  a certain  production  that  does  not  pay 
for  another  that  will  pay.”  * This  advice  has  been  taken,  as 
any  one  can  clearly  see  by  the  increase  in  the  importation  of  fruit 
from  France  in  the  last  few  years.  It  is  cited  here,  as  it  is  pecu- 
liarly applicable  to  English  farmers,  upon  many  of  whose  farms 
fruit  that  would  pay  might  be  cultivated  in  the  place  of  corn 
that  does  not  pay.  Let  America  grow  the  wheat  as  long  as  she 
will,  while  English  farmers  endeavour  to  turn  their  land  to  better 
account.  We  have  allowed  foreign  fruit-cultivators  to  steal  a 
march  upon  us.  Though  the  importations  of  fresh  fruit  have 
been  quadrupled  since  1871,  the  increase  in  the  acreage  of 
English  fruit-land  during  this  period  is  equal  only  to  about 
16  per  cent.  Foreign  producers  discovered,  some  years  back, 
that  there  is  a practically  unlimited  market  for  fruits.  Their 
fruits  have  improved  in  appearance  and  quality  in  the  past  ten 
years,  though,  with  the  exception  of  apples  and  pears,  they  are 
not  equal  to  the  fruit  grown  in  England,  whose  soil  and  climate 
are  suitable  for  the  production  of  fine-flavoured  and  good-sized 
fruits. 
* ‘Arbres  Fruitiere.  Culture  et  Taille  rationelles  et  c'conomiquee.’  Far 
V.  Lebeuf. 
