26 
PRACTICAL  HINTS  ON  FRUIT  FARMING.' 
Introduction. 
Fruit  growing  is  a most  interesting  and  engrossing  occupa- 
tion, and  taking  an  average  of  seasons  is  also  profitable  if  it  is 
conducted  in  a businesslike  and  intelligent  manner.  It  happens 
occasionally,  however,  as  in  1903,  that  the  fruit  crops  are  most 
seriously  injured  by  the  weather,  by  spring  frosts,  by  abnormal 
cold  and  wet,  and  by  hail.  Again  there  are  seasons  with  a 
superabundance  of  fruit  when  the  markets  are  glutted  and 
some  of  the  more  common  kinds  as  damsons,  low-class  plums,  and 
gooseberries,  do  not  j>ay  for  picking.  This  hapj)ened  in  1898, 
when  many  damsons  were  left  on  the  trees  as  they  were  not 
worth  the  cost  of  picking.  In  1903,  on  the  other  hand,  damsons 
made  from  20.s.  to  25s.  per  cwt.  Upon  the  whole,  there  is  a 
gootl  profit  from  fruit  growing,  as  is  shown  by  the  steady 
increase  in  the  acreage.  One  great  objection  to  its  adoption  by 
tenant-farmers  was  that  so  much  time  must  ela])se  before  any 
return  could  be  made.  This  has  been  removed  in  a great 
degree  bv  the  introduction  of  trees  of  dwarf  and  quick -fruiting 
habit,  in  the  shaj)e  of  half-standards,  pyramids,  and  bushes  of 
ap])les,  ])ears,  and  plums.  Tenants  are  also  now  protected  by 
recent  legislation  which  ensures  compensation  for  reasonable 
outlay,  and  landlords  are  generally  most  willing  to  sanction 
and  encourage  such  improvement  to  their  property  and  to 
assist  their  tenants  by  providing  trees  and  in  other  ways. 
The  acreage  of  fruit  land  has  considerably  increased  in  the 
last  thirty  years  ; in  1872  there  were  169,808  acres  in  Great 
Britain  ; in  1892  there  were  208,950  acres  of  orchard  land, 
and  in  1904  this  amounted  to  243,008  acres.  In  1904  there 
were  also  77,952  acres  of  land  planted  with  small  fruit,  goose- 
berries, currants,  raspberries,  and  strawberries,  as  against  65,845 
acres  in  1893. 
It  has  been  prophesied  for  some  years  that  the  British 
fruit  grower  cannot  hold  his  own  against  foreign  rivals 
living  in  sunnier  and  less  capricious  climes.  Although  the 
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