June 12,1800. ] 
JOURXAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
477 
■TT7 E are reminded by a circular received from a great firm of 
IV city fruit brokers (Messrs. W. N. White & Co., of Covent 
'Garden) that the time has arrived when an approximate estimate 
-can be made of the fruit supply of the year. The Report before 
-us embraces a very wide field of culture—namely, England, France, 
Holland, Belgium, and Germany. London fruit dealers are very 
matter-of-fact individuals, and are as ready to obtain “ goods ” 
from any of the countries named, also from America and the 
Antipodes, as from British gardens and orchards. They have no 
prejudices. They will buy British fruit as readily as foreign, and 
foreign as readily as home-grown produce, when the samples and 
prices are “ right.” In thus acting they are but servants of the 
public—the great body of consumers. The best that can be had at 
■the lowest price is the great governing factor of the whole question. 
If a London fruit broker is told it is unpatriotic to search the 
world for fruit for stocking the home market he will quickly tell 
you that business is patriotism, and that fruit-buying patriots are 
influenced by pennies. We suspect there is a good deal of truth 
in the proposition, and the whole matter seems to resolve itself 
into solving the old fashioned problem of giving the best penny¬ 
worth for a penny. That is what consumers demand, be they rich 
-or poor, and that is what producers must strive to supply in the 
form of fruit for our markets. If we may judge by the Report in 
•question home and foreign growers have much the same natural 
impediments to contend with, and we are sorry that the best we 
■can say in respect to the international outlook is that we are not 
much worse o£E than our neighbours. Our readers can, however, 
judge for themselves 
“ England. —Reports from the home counties early in May 
•spoke favourably of prospects and anticipations of good crops of 
all kinds of fruit. Since then changeable weather has been ex¬ 
perienced, some days very warm, other days very cold, morning 
frosts, and all kinds of fruit have suffered severely. 
“ Plums (Damsons, Plums, and Green Gages).—The prospect is 
■very bad, not one-tenth of a crop. In many places there are 
absolutely none. 
“Pears.—Although all kinds, except ‘Hazels,’ blossomed well, 
very few have properly set, and there are not many in England of 
either early or late kinds. 
“Black and Red Currants promised well—even as late as a 
week ago it was thought that crops would be good ; but since 
then, in some districts, they have been attacked by the ‘ honey- 
■dew,’ and the crop now cannot be more than one-half, even 
if that. 
“ Cherries promised well, but early kinds were destroyed the 
second week in May. Since then the later sorts have suffered ; 
taking reports all round they cannot be reckoned at one-third of a 
crop. 
“ Strawberries and Raspberries promise well, but it is feared that 
unless warm weather soon sets in the fruit will be small and the 
bulk reduced one-half. 
“ Gooseberries at one time were believed to be an exceptionally 
■fine crop, but since then many districts have been attacked by 
vermin, and the morning frosts in exposed situations have done 
great damage, so much so that they can only be reckoned at a good 
half-crop. 
“Apples blossomed well in some districts, in others not so well. 
Where growers have washed their trees they will no doubt save the 
bulk of the crop ; but in many districts where they have not 
washed them the trees are attacked by vermin, and the crop (if any) 
No. 520,— VoL, XX., Third Series. 
must be a very poor one. On the whole we tl ink the crcp can be 
reckoned at barely one-half. 
“ France. —Crops generally in the early part of May looked 
very favourable indeed. Since then they have had a continuation 
of very cold wet weather, and early Cherries have suffered 
severely. On the other hand. Apples in the south are said to bo 
good crops. Plums and Green Gages half a crop. In the north Black 
Currants are only half a crop. Cherries are fairly good ; but of 
stone fruit (Plums and Green Gages) it is stated that the oldest 
inhabitants never knew the crop to be so bad as it is this year. 
Pears are a fair crop. Apples look fairly good. 
“ Belgium. —Reports from Ghent, Ostend, Maestrich, Sliedinge, 
and Namur speak of Cherries from a quarter to one-third of a 
crop ; Green Gages and Plums only a quarter crop; early Pears half 
a crop ; late Pears a fair crop. Apples are said to look well, with 
every prospect of a fair crop, although reports from one or two 
districts during the past few days speak of Pears and Apples being 
attacked by vermin. 
“ Holland. —Crops of fruit have suffered much with late frosts 
during May, particularly Cherries, Gooseberries and Pears. In 
the district of Gelderland particularly the fruit has received much 
damage from “ hail-storms.” Gooseberries and Currants are said to 
be a fair half-crop. Cherries are not more than one-third of a 
crop. Pears one-third of a crop, and Apples fairly good. Plums 
are a small crop. 
“ Germany. —Owing to the mild spring crops are forward, and 
fruit from the Rhine districts promised to be most plentiful ; 
but the weather in May has affected them also, and they have 
been attacked by vermin ; so much so that Apples are now 
said to be a bad crop, and Cherries only half a crop. Plums a 
bad crop. 
“ Taking these reports as a whole it will be seen that Cherries 
are bad all round. Plums are very short, and for Pears England 
will have to depend upon foreign countries for supplies. It would 
therefore appear that on account of their scarcity, all kinds of soft 
fruit in good condition will meet with a profitable market.” 
The above Report, so far as it refers to this country, probably 
fairly represents the prospective fruit supply. The crops, as is 
usually the case, vary considerably in different gardens and dis¬ 
tricts ; but so far as our observations and information enable 
us to form an opinion on the subject it is that the Apple crop is 
decidedly below the average. The best crops are on young trees 
—strong, yet not over-luxuriant, and in which overcrowding of 
the growths was prevented by timely and judicious pruning. 
Apart from the ravages of caterpillars many old orchard trees 
are almost quite destitute of fruit, and the national crop will be 
light. 
The “ one-tenth of a crop of Plums ” is a very low estimate, 
but we are not prepared to say it is too low ; it certainly is not as 
applied to several extensive plantations we have seen, though we 
trust there may be others much more productive. As in the case 
of Apples, young trees blossomed much better than old, and on some 
fair crops of fruit set, and what remains ought to be very fine. 
Pears are, generally speaking, perhaps a little more promising than 
Plums, but a large per-centage of trees are barren, and the crop is 
not likely to equal that of Apples, light as this must be. The 
“ Hazels ” referred to are Hessle Pears, which is usually one of the 
most productive varieties. Cherries blossomed very well as a rule, 
but the fruit did not set and swell satisfactorily, and on the whole 
we doubt if anything like a third of a crop will be gathered. We 
hope and suspect there wiU be more than half a crop of Currants, 
Gooseberries, Raspberries, and Strawberries, though we are aware 
that this cannot apply to all localities, for frost at the close of 
May wrought ruin in some gardens. 
The year wiU teach another lesson, that fruit cannot be grown 
by arithmetic as taught by book-worms who know nothing practi¬ 
cally of the difficulties cultivators have to encounter. Caterpillars 
in the west and sparrows in the east have asserted their power as 
preventers of fruit. Relative to the latter, a correspondent 
writes:— 
“ The present year promises to be the most disastrous ever 
known in East Suffolk for hardy fruits, such as Pears, Apples, and 
No. 2176.— VOL. LXXXII., Old Series. 
