September 13, 188S. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
233 
A S sure as the autumn comes round the attention of cultivators is 
directed to the subject of tree planting with the object of pro¬ 
viding a fuller and better supply of home-grown fruit. That 
object is a most important one and demands the best efforts of all 
who can share in its fulfilment. What we have long and frequently 
urged is being more and more recognised—namely, that owners and 
occupiers of land in this country should no longer remain content 
to allow cultivators three or four thousand miles away to have so 
large a share in furnishing British markets with hardy fruit and 
taking therefrom so much of British gold. 
The lethargy of landowners and leaseholders in respect to fruit 
culture is remarkable. They appear as a body to have shunned 
rather than encouraged it. It is true there are exceptions, but they 
are only just sufficiently numerous to prove the rule. The orchards 
of this country are, broadly speaking, a disgrace to the nation. No 
doubt improvement is apparent in some districts, and many acres of 
land are now occupied with thrifty plantations ; but all the same 
an overwhelmingly greater area is encumbered either with worn- 
out trees or varieties that cannot compete successfully with the 
well graded importations of fruit, especially Apples, from other 
lands. There is only one certain and reliable way of limiting those 
importations, and that is the natural one of growing more and 
better fruit at home. Supplies can no more be prevented reaching 
markets that are open to them than water can be prevented flowing 
down hill ; and in these days purchasers do not stop to inquire 
from whence comes the produce they buy, and that which best 
pleases the eye and suits the pocket finds the readiest sale. It was 
probably always so. It is not in human nature to prefer the rela¬ 
tively dear and inferior to the cheap and superior ; but still there 
are persons having produce to sell who appear to desire that con¬ 
sumers should become patriots and make a sacrifice in purchasing 
their wares. This will come to pass, perhaps, when the owners of 
estates in the country furnish their mansions from village shops 
instead of from London stores. The high and the low, the rich and 
the poor, purchase where they think they are served the best re¬ 
gardless of the sources of supply, and they are quite justified in 
doing so. That is the custom of mankind, and it embraces fruit as 
surely as any other commodity. 
Those persons are the best friends of their country who 
develope its resources the most completely, and it is through 
negligence, want of enterprise, trusting to chance, clinging to old 
ways under changed circumstances, waiting for public opinion to 
turn in a desired direction, and losing time in the waiting—it is 
this standstill policy, so to say, that has made the opening for dis¬ 
tant competitors, who saw their opportunity and seized it ; and at 
last there are signs that the facts of the case are recognised. A 
forward movement is necessary, for in reality there can be no 
standing still while others are passing, because the faster these go 
the further the Testers are left behind. British landowners and 
leaseholders have rested too long in the matter of fruit-growing. 
The population has increased in a much greater ratio than have the 
efforts for supplying its wants with wholesome, appetising, nutritious 
fruit. This has not been produced at home so well as in other 
lands, hence the extraordinary circumstance of Apples from Michigan 
being sold, not in our large cities alone, but in remote country 
villages with land all around them, seemingly in too great abund¬ 
ance to be tilled, waiting for trees of the best varieties to be 
No. 429. — Yol. XVII., Third Series. I 
planted. What can be expected from such inactivity but foreign 
supplies ? They are simply invited by it, and they come and are 
welcomed by those who need them. 
But the possessors of British orchards argue, “We have more 
Apples than we can sell, and they have to be wasted or given to the 
pigs. What is the use of growing more ?” It is of no use, but 
worse than useless, wasteful, growing what is worthless. That bad 
habit has endured too long. The best of fruit, and not the worst, 
must be grown, and this never fails to find purchasers at remunera¬ 
tive prices when the crop3 are fairly good. The qualification in 
the last sentence implies uncertainty. This is a necessity of the 
case, and it is best to admit it. It is not peculiar to this country, 
but a contingent of other lands. If the Apple crops fail here 
American orchardists send us fruit. Why should they not do so ? 
And if the crops fail there, and are full here, why should not 
we have as good samples to send them as they send us? The 
American Apple crop was light last year, the result being a 
decrease in our imports of nearly one and a half million bushels 
from the three millim bushels of 1886. Large consignments 
of Potatoes were sent from Lincolnshire and Yorkshire last 
year to New York, leaving a margin of profit behind them. Some 
fruit enthusiasts denounce Potato-growing as ruinous, and if their 
random writings are to be taken seriously Potato culture would be 
abolished and Apples grown instead everywhere. There is room 
for both to be grown profitably if grown well ; but if what is 
alleged to be unprofitable can be sent across the Atlantic to market 
why cannot the crop—Apples—which is, when good, certainly more 
remunerative, be disposed of in the same way ? It is entirely a 
question of quality and cost of production. As to quality, when 
the best of American Apples have been staged with English fruit at 
International Fruit Shows at South Kensington and the Crystal 
Palace, the average merit of the collections was undeniably in 
favour of the old country. That is a very significant fact, and 
shows what can be done with a good selection of varieties and high 
cultivation. 
As to cost of production, land is now almost as cheap here as it 
is in America where the best fruit is grown. The average pro¬ 
ductiveness of cultivated land is much higher here than there, as is 
conclusively shown by the Wheat averages of the two countries— 
ours being about 29 bushels per acre, theirs less than 19 bushels— 
and surely the better the land is for Wheat the better it must 
be for fruit. American summers are hotter and brighter than 
ours, increasing the colour of fruit; but there is the drawback of 
drought, and “bugs” innumerable ; also of severe winters killing 
the trees. Labour is much cheaper with us than with our trans¬ 
atlantic competitors, though they possibly turn it to better account 
than is customary in this country, and they perhaps have the ad¬ 
vantage in rates for the transit of fruit, brought about probably by 
community of effort that has resulted in a better system being 
established. We ought to do something for America in return for 
her consignments of fruit, and if we cannot yet send Apples we 
ought for every million tins of Tomatoes received to be able to 
return the compliment with as many pots of jam or preserved 
fruits, which are prepared here cheaper than there, and will be if 
sugar does not rise in price. 
American cultivators are also fully alive to the importance of 
sorting, “ grading,” and the careful packing of fruit. Their con¬ 
signments are marked by a much greater uniformity of excellence 
than obtains in the produce of home orchards. They have planted 
large tracts of land with few varieties of known marketable value, 
while the habit at home has been to plant small tracts with many 
varieties. In country districts the “ gardener at the hall ” has been 
entrusted with the choice of varieties when twenty, fifty, or a 
hundred trees have been wanted by local farmers and others 
desiring to grow “ fruit for profit,” costly mistakes having been 
made in consequence. More than half the private gardeners in the 
kingdom, however competent they may be in their calling, and no 
No. 2085.—Vol. LXXIX,, Old Series. 
