August 13, 1891, ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
127 
and there are various reasons for this. There is the fact of increased 
population, of better facilities for intercommunication, the emigra¬ 
tion of our sons and daughters across the seas, taking with them the 
home knowledge, and with sinews and muscle bringing the forest 
and prairie lands of the West into cultivation and productiveness, 
and sending the result of their labours into our home markets as 
an incentive to the freer use of fruits as food. Then there is the 
congested state of the towns, forcing some at least of the workers 
to the fringe of the city to seek a garden patch, and all that this 
means under conditions of this nature. Another feature is the 
evident return in many directions to the simpler methods of life, 
and a recognition on the part of science that if the dietetic prac¬ 
tices of the past have not been decidedly wrong they have at least 
been far from right. Then we have had, and have still, the great 
advantage of the assistance of philanthropic and economic societies 
and associations. In fact we find political, moral, social, and 
sentimental currents are all set in this direction. And we are 
perfectly safe, inasmuch as we yet take our millions out of the 
purses of the public and put them into the money bags of the 
foreigner. 
The idea of fruit growing opens out in many directions, any 
one of which might be profitably followed, but the subject of my 
paper is “Fruit Growing as an Industry.” It is working fora 
living, not riding a hobby or playing with a fad. It is one thing to 
grow fruit for household consumption where the garden expenses 
are merged with the other details of domestic outlay, or for pre¬ 
sents to friends ; but when you regard the question as an industry 
it then assumes the more practical aspect suggested by a title one 
often sees nowadays, “ Fruit Growing for Profit.” I claim for the 
industry that it cannot fail to give a satisfactory solution to the 
enigma couched in the prosaic phrase, “ Will it pay ? ” I claim for 
it further that it ought to be one of the most important features 
in our national economy, for it faces and grapples with some of the 
most pressing problems of the times—the land question and the 
labour question. Nay, more, it affects materially the health and 
happiness of the people, and the true wealth of the nation. 
But if I may again draw your attention to the precise title of 
my paper I would venture to emphasise the word “ industry.” 
My point is that it is not an employment or occupation that can 
run itself, or that can be run under the so-called superintendence 
of a lazy fellow, or of one who lacks method or lacks knowledge of 
a particular order. In these days there is a great deal of seeking 
for things that require but little attention, and that little not of a 
constant character. Spasms of speculation as against sustained 
occupation. A nibble at some commission in the morning, a juggle 
with a share list at noon, a manipulation of some mining venture 
or a transfer of some stocks, in the whole of which there has been 
nothing produced—may characterise rather than caricature phases 
of what has come to be called (for show of respectability) modern 
commerce. Call it or mis-call it what you like, that will not do 
for an industry. There must be work. That is a splendid feature 
of commendation—that is, permit me to enforce, one of its most 
hopeful aspects, it provides a healthy field for happy employment. 
There must be patient perseverance, untiring application, a timely 
seizure of offered opportunities, a thrifty regard for occasions 
upon which available resources should be called into united 
co-operative activity. 
It will, perhaps, assist to make my meaning clear if I assume 
for the moment that I am myself to make a start in this industry. 
Let me, then, survey myself. I must, in horticultural parlance, be 
somewhat of a hybrid ; I must, so to speak, contain within myself 
three or four elements not usually found or required in a single 
personality. We will come to this presently. Mr. Gladstone and 
other leaders, in taking up this question at the outset, spoke of 
fruit farming and the fruit farmer, and ever since there has been 
a hazy kind of notion that the movement was in the hands of the 
present-day agriculturist as we find him. The adoption of the 
title to which I have referred seems to have given colour to this 
erroneous notion. Fruit farming seemed to imply that the farmer 
is to leave his cereals and his root crops and to give his care to 
fruits. That is not so. The farmer, as he is familiar to most of us, 
can have but little part in this business as an industry. The matter 
comes much nearer to horticulture than to agriculture. The spade 
(or should I say the fork ?) and the pruning knife are the emblems 
of the cult rather than the plough and the slashing hook. This 
brings me to the qualifications at which I hinted a little while ago. 
The fruit cultivator for our industry must have something of the 
farmer, but a good bit of the gardener, and the good gardener. He 
must have business tact, commercial enterprise, the spirit of the 
student, the suavity of the salesman, the sense of the Nature-lover 
with the instinct and method of the naturalist—the art-faculty, so 
to speak, which gives a sense and an appreciation of neatness 
with the power of its accomplishment, which suggests what is 
attractive and proper, and supplies the graceful, natural adornment 
which is no insignificant element of success in market methods. 
Where is such a man ? He does not exist in large numbers. I 
could put hands on a dozen or a score, but they are not abundant. 
Yet it seems to me we must have such possessing these features 
educationally, and each of a temperament enthusiastic and optim¬ 
istic ; an eye that sees the bit of blue sky above the grey cloud— 
“ a stout heart for a stiff brae,” as they say beyond the border. 
The educational process by which such knowledge is best to be 
gained, such a character to be moulded, and such qualifications 
most likely to be obtained must claim attention. With that I do 
not propose just now to deal, but the Technical Education Act 
which has now appeared above the legislative horizon seems to 
have about it some aspects of helpfulness, and county councillors 
in their respective localities seem inclined to aid already existing 
methods and institutions in a right direction. At any rate I am 
glad to find it is likely to be so in our own county, and in other 
counties from which I have had particulars. 
Having thus hastily sketched the character that should repre¬ 
sent the central figure in our industry the next necessity is land. 
Land and locality might be considered together. As fruit can be 
grown in any county in England or Wales we need not now discuss 
locality from a geographical point of view. The limits of my 
paper, too, forbid that I should enter upon details as to the 
character of the land itself, but it is clear it should be of good 
quality. Consideration should be carefully bestowed on soil, 
shelter, and situation. In this matter it should be borne in mind 
that in the case of purchase mere cheapness may prove but a false 
economy. You must of course go beneath the surface. Nature 
quickly clothes even the waste with weeds, so that a green surface 
may conceal a subsoil of clinkers and brickbats. A patch of this 
character is not suitable. It costs as much to plant a sterile 
wilderness as a fertile valley—perhaps more—maintenance and 
other expenses are more in proportion, and there is no margin 
for waste effort or delayed result and final disappointment 
as a possibility. The best is the best, and within ordinary 
limits of fair dealing in fixing the purchase money the best is the 
cheapest. 
After the land the trees must be considered, and the scheme of 
planting generally. What shall I plant and in what variety ? That 
is a question that must be largely regulated by the market require¬ 
ments and surroundings as to climate and other matters which are 
applicable to each case respectively. In a paper of this character— 
a suggestive sketch merely and covering as much of the ground as 
time and circumstances will allow—it is not expected that I should 
name absolute kinds, though this I shall at any time be happy to do 
either by coi’respondence or otherwise. Speaking generally, I 
would say decidedly plant only the best trees, and I am always of 
opinion that it is not the best plan for the grower to select maiden 
trees because the first cost is lighter to some trifling extent, but he 
secures his purpose and serves his interest better by procuring trees 
of more matured growth, and such as have, therefore, had the 
advantage of nursery cultivation over that important period of tree 
life, when, shall I say, the future character of the tree is in process 
of formation, for trees, like human beings, have the abiding 
elements of their after character fixed in their earlier years. The 
nursery is, or ought to be, the best place for the due development of 
the earlier period of tree growth when the future possibilities as to 
productive power are largely in the hands of the cultivator. It 
always seems to me that it is better then to trust the knowledge of 
the specialist than the idea of the amateur. I should mention, 
however, that in an ideal orchard old trees will find no place. 
When a tree is past productiveness it is also past the power of 
bringing forth even its meagre crop of anything like good quality. 
Young trees of few sorts of good kinds then is what we should 
aim at. 
In the matter of the choice of kinds it seems necessary to utter 
a word of warning against the practice generally followed of 
choosing a great number of different varieties for the mere sake of 
multiplying sorts. It is much better to select such few good sor:s 
as will meet the possible demands you are called upon to sitisfy. 
Avoid, then, needless multiplication of kinds. The imported 
fruits, as received both from America and Tasmania as welt as 
from other Edens over the sea, teach us this lesson emphatically. 
Having named half a dozen kinds you have nearly exhausted the 
types of the splendid American fruits which reach us. and though 
I would not wish to suggest a strict limit or to define it I woAd 
certainly say it would be better in making out a list to be nearer 
six than sixty, that is of a given kind of any particular fruit, for T 
am not now suggesting that a fruit grower should grow nothing 
else but Apples. I would strongly urge that he should go in for 
general cultivation of Apples, Pears, stone fruits, berries, and some 
of the choicer vegetables, including Mushrooms and Tomatoes, for 
all of which there is a constant and increasingly heavy demand. 
It is desirable to have plans so arranged that no particular 
