160 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. c August is, mi. 
must be well cut back to one or two eves, much the same as when 
growing Hybrid Perpetual.?. It then llowers on shoots varying 
from 1 foot to 18 inches in length. Well-furnished little 
specimens can be grown in 6, 7, and 8-inch pots.—W. B. 
MANCHESTER FRUIT AND VEGETABLE MARKETS. 
[A Somersetshire correspondent requests that we publish 
the following concluding portion of a paper that was communi¬ 
cated to the “ Royal Agricultural Society’s Journal,” previous 
extracts from which we published last year.] 
There are yet growers bringing their goods to the Manchester 
market who can remember the time when they had no foreign 
fruit to compete with. Oranges, Lemons, and the dried fruits of 
the “ sunny south ” were merchandise that never excited their 
jealousy ; but it would be difficult to say in these days what 
kind of fruit is not imported and pitched in our markets along¬ 
side and in competition with the home grower. If we had to 
depend solely upon the British grower now, however, I fear fruit 
would be a luxury out of the reach of the working class of the 
community. Up to the lGth of August, 1838, the duty on 
imported Apples was 4s. per bushel, and in that year but 20,502 
bushels were imported. The duty was then reduced to £5 per 
cent, ad valorem, and the very next year 120,000 bushels were 
imported into the port of London alone, and the average price 
they were sold at was 4.?. 9d. per bushel. The importation of 
Apples went on steadily increasing up to the year 1846, when it 
received a great impetus by the total abolition of the duty. Yet 
the price of good Apples is higher now than when the maximum 
duty was exacted. I learn from evidence given before a Select 
Committee of the House of Commons which sat in 1839, “to 
inquire in the Fresh Fruit Trade,” that the reduction of the duty 
had driven the Kentish growers to despair, and that they talked 
of grubbing up their orchards. That did not take place, however, 
to any great extent; but where Apple trees were removed Cobnut 
trees and Raspberry canes were put in their place, and both these 
pay much better than common Apples. Home-grown fruit has, 
and must always have, a great advantage over the imported by 
being delivered in our markets fresher and in a generally better 
condition. It is the better sorts of Apples that are imported, 
such as the French “Royal Russet,” and the incomparable 
“ Newtown Pippin ” from America, that the English grower has 
most to fear from. Five other sorts of Apples, beside the “ New¬ 
town Pippin” and “Ribston Pippin,” are now sent from America, 
some only fit for culinary purposes, and all far inferior to the 
Pippins named. The cost of bringing them from New York to 
Liverpool last season was 2s. 3 d. per barrel, weighing upon the 
average 1 cwt. 1 qr. nett, and 10J. from Liverpool to the Man¬ 
chester market. In 1877 there was shipped from the United 
States to this country 336,565 bushels of Apples, and from Canada 
44,295 bushels. I cannot give last year’s importation, but I know 
it was much in excess of 1877. 
This market also receives large quantities of Apples from 
Belgium, in casks which contain about 4 cwt., and last year 
they were brought from Antwerp to Goole for 9rf. per cask ; con¬ 
veying them from Goole to Manchester cost 15.?. 10<7. per ton. 
Probably the growers of the common sorts of culinary Apples in 
Lancashire and Cheshire would find their account in superseding 
them with Raspberries, which always command a good price, 
and which will never be subject to the competition of foreigners, 
owing, from their soft nature, to the difficulty of transit. 
Excellent Pears are imported from France and Jersey. 
French-grown Strawberries now reach our maikets before the 
English are ready ; they are shipped from Brest in small boxes. 
About 7000 per week came to Manchester for three weeks this 
year. They are followed by large supplies from Cornwall, 
Worcestershire, Kent, and Cheshire, in the order named, and 
lastly from Scotland. Upwards of 3000 packages of this fruit 
were disposed of by one salesman one day this year, the cost of 
carriage by railway for which was between £60 and £70. 
The first Cherries also came from France. It takes three days 
from their starting to their delivery here, consequently consid¬ 
erable loss is occasionally experienced from their changed con¬ 
dition. Ripe fruit put on the railway at mid-day in Cornwall 
is delivered here early next morning. Put upon the railway in 
Kent or Worcestershire at five o’clock in the evening, it reaches 
Manchester by three on the following morning. This is a splendid 
service, and leaves nothing to be desired. When we consider 
that these fruits are gathered one day and sold over the retail 
counter to consumers before the ordinary dinner-time on the next, 
250 miles away, it must be allowed that the acme of accommo¬ 
dation has been reached. It takes a longer time for carts to 
reach the market from the distant parts of the adjoining county 
of Chester. 
Vast quantities of Currants are sent here from Kent; 20 tons 
have been sold in one hand in one day, Gooseberries are 
received from Worcestershire, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, and the 
north-west of Lancashire. From the first and last named places 
they are not marketed until ripe ; from the other two they 
are stripped from the trees in a green and hard state, and come to 
market in sacks like grain. The neighbourhood of Preston, in 
this county, is celebrated for the excellence of its Gooseberries. 
The trade in German Bilberries is an important one. About 
10.000 baskets of 12 lbs. each per week are received here during 
the season ; they are sold at from Is. to 3s. per basket, and cost 
lOrf. each carriage. Many are sent also in small kegs from the 
banks of the Rhine, and the cost of conveyance is 4 d. each. The 
very best Bilberries, however, are gathered on the Welsh hills ; 
they are much superior in flavour, and reach the market fresh 
and in blooming condition. From Germany come large importa¬ 
tions of Plums also, “Violets” and “Winesours,” the latter in great 
abundance ; they are a well-flavoured Plum, and their German 
name is “ Zwetchen ; ” rate of carriage, £4 per ton. From the 
north of France come “Violets,” “Black Orleans,” and “Green¬ 
gages ; ” rate, £6 per ton. 
The greatest number of baskets cf fruit pitched in the Man¬ 
chester market in one week, from 1870 to 1879 inclusive, has 
been as follows :— 
1870. 1871. 1872. 1873. 1874. 1875. 1876. 1877. 1878. 1879. 
68,000 72,000 51,100 82,700 73,500 86,250 81,450 77,200 102,250 60,000 
To enter into further details, and refer separately to all the other 
kinds of fruit which are covered by these figures, would require 
more space and time than it would be desirable to occupy, and 
as I have mentioned all the principal sorts there seems to be no 
necessity for doing so. 
Whether the promoters of this inquiry will consider that the 
writer has sufficiently obeyed their instructions in other respects 
he can only conjecture. “ The sources of supply ” are pretty 
fully indicated : it is absolutely impossible to obtain with any 
degree of accuracy “ the average quantities that arrive by road 
and railway ; ” and as for “the advantages and disadvantages of 
the local grower from climate and seasons,” I feel that it is too 
obvious that the former are far outweighed by the latter. That 
the local grower has some advantage over the distant as regards 
transit it cannot be denied, but even this is somewhat modified 
by the low rates charged for carrying foreign produce by the 
railway. I think that an examination of the figures I have quoted 
upon that subject will show that there was some ground for its 
being recently stated in both Houses of Parliament that the 
importer was more favoured in this respect than the home 
producer. As regards the market tolls, they apparently are on 
an equality; but, in fact, inasmuch as all foreign produce is 
packed in much smaller parcels than the home grown, the toll on 
the foreign is more than double that on the home-grown. A 
hamper of fruit as packed by the home-grower, and for which 
a toll of one penny is charged, will contain six times the quantity 
ns packed in small baskets by the foreigner, which are charged 
one halfpenny each. 
It will be seen that I have spoken of but oae Manchester 
Fruit and Vegetable Market, and for the simple reason that it 
has but one that need be referred to for the objects of this paper. 
There is still a Market upon the ancient site opposite the 
Exchange, which gave the name to “ Market Stead Lane,” now 
Market Street. In the spring, and through the summer, the old 
“ Stead ” is full of flowers, plants, shrubs, and trees ; it is very 
picturesque, and strikes the eye like an oasis in the brick-and 
mortar and sooty desert. There were formerly several retail 
markets scattered over the town ; but their usefulness having 
departed, they themselves no longer exist. 
The time is not far distant when retail markets will everywhere 
become things of the past—and wffiy should it not be so ? The 
system so long in vogue in London of the housekeeper being 
supplied by the “coster” is rapidly spreading in the provincial 
towns, and shops are now opened in almost every street for the 
sale of fruit and vegetables. That this must be far more econo¬ 
mical than the retail market system can be easily shown. The 
market, for the sake of convenience, must occupy a central situa¬ 
tion, and in such situations land in large towns has become 
valuable, and necessitates the payment of a heavy rent from the 
stall-keepers, and this, of course, falls upon the customer. And 
it does not require a large amount of perspicacity to see that it 
must be infinitely less costly for one dealer to convey goods to 
a hundred consumers than for a hundred customers to resort to 
a distant market for the supply of their daily wants. But these 
arguments tell in the opposite direction as regards a wholesale 
