March 1", IS90. ] 
JOURXAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
211 
'TTTE always admire the zeal of vegetarians iu the promulgation 
'V of their views. They believe in the beneficence of the 
•doctrines they teach, and we should he sorry to thwart them in 
their endeavours to increase the consumption of vegetables and 
fruit. We desire to be very tolerant in dietary matters, and should 
•express no regret if ten thousand persons joined the vegetarian 
ranks next week. We have very good friends who have not chewed 
but eschewed animal food for years, and some of them are as 
robust in stature as they are clear in intellect. Yegetable food 
is all they need, and they have no desire for any other kind. But 
it does not follow that the diet which answers so well for them 
•would answer as well for all, nor would all equally enjoy it. Some 
•of the most earnest of the crusaders, however, call upon meat eaters 
to sacrifice their preferences, or, in other words, claim from others 
what they themselves have not conceded, for they admit that 
animal food is repulsive to them, and they could not possibly eat it. 
Obviously, then, they are not martyrs to principle, but simply 
follow the dictates of the palate. Vegetarians, moreover, not only 
•diifer from those beyond the pale, but from each other within it. 
One of the thinnest of them strenuously advocates the use of raw 
fruits, pulse, and nuts exclusively ; one of the stoutest pleads for 
good cooking. At one of their banquets a famous man and 
scientific food reformer strongly advocated the extended culture 
and consumption of Mushrooms. One of his allies, not so scientific 
perhaps, but more strongly assertive, forthwith and very forcibly 
■condemned them, because, like meat, they contained nitrogenous 
■compounds, or flesh formers ; but all the same the favourite dish 
at the banquet appeared to be Mushroom pie, and of it the supply 
was exhausted too soon. 
These remarks have been inspired by the perusal of a copy 
•of the organ of the anti-meat fraternity in London. It is appro¬ 
priately entitled the “ Vegetarian,” and is evidently a very respect¬ 
able well-conducted journal. Its contents are varied and readable. 
One of the articles in the last issue contains advice to farmers, and 
pertains to a subject of at least equal interest to gardeners. It is 
licaded “ Fruit Culture.” This is in bold type ; but it is only fair 
to say that there is placed below it in very small type a sub-head in 
parenthesis, thus—(“ A Speculation.”) Probably after perusing a 
sample of this article most of the readers of the Journal of Horti¬ 
culture will be of opinion that the headings would have been more 
appropriate if reversed in prominence. After referring to the 
normally depressed condition of agriculture, and condemning the 
advice of the “ unpractical philosophers ” relative to the increase 
■of pastures for growing meat for the market, our (shall we call him 
^‘practical” plulosopher ?) tells the poor farmer who is looking for 
better times that they are not coming from that direction at all, but 
are “ coming through the garden.” But surely it_ must be some 
girden the philosopher has been dreaming about. Here are his 
words in all their poetic jingling. 
“ The good times are coming through the garden, up along the 
■orchard, they are stealing past the bee hives, they are perfumed 
with the flowers, they are diamonded with dew, they are sparkling 
with the sunshine, their cheeks are beautiful with peachen bloom, 
their eyes are lustrous with the purple of the Grapes, their teeth 
are milky as an autumn nut, their breath is sweet as fresh ripe 
fruit—but they are yet a long way off. . . . Is it possible that 
No. 507.—VoL. XX., Third Series. 
it can be all true ? Is it possible that the stockbreeder’s best 
investment is not shorthorns, but glass ?—not fat beasts, but fruit 
frames ? Is it possible that as many tons of hothouse Grapes 
can be raised on an acre of ground as are now produced in 
Potatoes ? The imagination is staggered at a ‘ potentiality of 
riches beyond the dreams of avarice.’ Talk of gold mines in the 
far Transvaal, talk of diamond fields in the barren vandt of the 
Boers—they are a delusion and a fraud when compared with 
the golden usury of Grapes or the diamond panes of glass. 
“ There are just 2240 pounds in a ton. Twenty tons of Grapes 
can be grown upon every acre of ground. Hothouse Grapes are 
now selling from 2s. fid. to .3s. 6d. per lb. Take the lower 
figure, and an acre of glass land will give back the stupendous 
total of £5000. The ordinary agriculturist is well content if he 
can make £10 total produce for every acre of Wheat—c.y., five 
quarters of Wheat at .30s., and OOs. for the straw. What a poor 
little miserable penury is this when placed side by side with the 
profit of Grapes ? There is plenty of room here for the reduction 
of price which the development of Grape-growing will bring. 
Divide the gross total by 10, so that every child in the East 
End slums may revel upon hothouse Grapes at Id. per lb., 
and there avill still remain over £700 as the product per acre 
of land. 
“ Let us reason this matter out a little more closely in figures. 
Take a farm of ten acres devoted solely to Grapes grown under 
glass ; assume the cost of erecting these vineries to be 23. per 
square foot of land thus covered. This is a full estimate, and 
would include glazing, painting, hot-water piping, making of Vine 
beds, purchase of Vines, &c. The total cost for ten acres would 
be £43,560. Assume 5 per cent, for interest on capital invested 
and depreciation ; this would give an annu.al charge of £2178. 
The other expenses might be estimated as follows :—Twenty gar¬ 
deners at SOs. a week, £1560 ; coal, say 20 tons per diem for 100 
days in the year, at 12s. per ton, £1200. This gives a gross annual 
expenditure of £4938, say £5000. The receipts may be estimated 
as follows :—200- tons of Grapes at 3d. per lb., £5600 ; but in 
addition to this may be reckoned the profits from early vegetables 
grown under the same roof— e.g., Potatoes, Carrots, Peas, &c. ; 
such fruits as Figs, Tomatoes, &c.; flowers for forcing— e.g., Roses, 
Lilies, bulbs of all kinds; and the general profits from this branch 
of the business ought not to be less than £100 per acre. This 
gives a grand profit of £1600 for a year’s work on a ten-acre farm. 
But suppose the Grapes to be sold at Od. per lb.—and who would 
not rejoice at the near prospect of such an eventuality !—the fruit 
farmer’s profit would mount by leaps and bounds from £1600 to 
£7200 per annum. 
“ And what is true of Grapes is equally true of all the finest 
classes of fruit. Peaches, Apricots, Nectarines, Figs, Apples, Pears, 
can all be grown with advantage under glass, and will well repay 
their shelter. Farmers, awake ! ” 
Yes, “ Farmers, awake,” you have been sleeping too long. 
Bring out your £43,560 and cover your 10 acres ; but why with 
this “potentiality of riches” before you, stop at 10 acres? A 
hundred acres would only be a small slice from some of your 
farms, and this could be covered for £435,000 ; then suppose, yes 
“ suppose,” you can grow 200 tons of Grapes, as the philosopher 
suggests, and sell them for 6d. a pound ; also realise £1000 more 
by the odds and ends he mentions, you have a profit, don’t you see, 
of £73,000 ? When you obtain it every child in the East End slums 
“ will revel upon hothouse Grapes.” Happy farmers; happy children ! 
We tremble for the realisation of the “ speculation.” What a lucky 
thought to interpolate the word ! The author of the programme 
must be something of a philosopher after all. We cannot see 
through it, and are bound to regard as the truest words those in 
which he suggests the good times of which he dreams “ are yet a 
long way off.” 
Another and truly great vegetarian, physically and mentally, 
teaches somewhat differently. In a lecture on the “ Foods of the 
Vegetable Kingdom,” delivered at Manchester, Mr. E. J. Baillie, 
F.L.S., observed, “Education is needed in many departments of 
fruit culture, but we must also educate on other lines. We cannot 
live upon raw fruit alone, and we must educate people not only to 
use it but to use it properly cooked. We ought to have a cooking 
crusade as well as a whisky war. The cultivation, preparation, and 
distribution of foods from the vegetable kingdom offer oppor- 
No. 2103.— VoL. LXXXII,, Old Series. 
