82 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ February 3,1687. 
A few semi despairing letters appeared, but the 
majority disjilay a consciousness of the ability of home 
growers to supply our markets with produce that by its 
excellence would command a ready sale. It is rare in¬ 
deed that there is a plethora of tirst-class fruit; it is the 
inferior that drugs the market and gives satisfaction to no 
one, for if the public will not buy, obviously the grower 
must lose. There are vast quantities of fruit sent to 
market which, instead of being tempting, is repulsive. 
The best sells readily enough, and the sturdiest of pro¬ 
tectionists, and most exacting of fair traders, will not pur¬ 
chase comparatively inferior English fruit if they can 
obtain superior foreign produce at the same or a lower 
price. Raise the standard of quality of home grown fruit, 
and increase the quantity of that high quality, and a 
“ taste ” for fruit as a “regular article of diet” would 
soon be created; then, as Mr. William Paul suggests, the 
increased sales of retail dealers would allow them to sell 
at smaller profits than when the demand is fitful and 
limited. When it is remembered that healthy trees of 
superior varieties occupy no more space than enfeebled 
trees do of inferior sorts, it follows that the best only 
should be grown and the worst uprooted, and the more 
quickly aud extensively that system is carried out the 
better will it be for all. 
Mr. Smith combated, I think through misapprehen¬ 
sion, the method that is in operation, and which I sug¬ 
gested should be more extensively adopted—namely, the 
conversion of much of the plethora of soft fruit into jam 
“ on the spot.” When Lord Vernon established his butter 
factory he did not choose London for its site, but planted 
it, so to say, amongst the cows. It has proved a great 
success, the butter averaging 2d. a pound more than the 
produce of individual makers. In respect to fruit, hun¬ 
dreds of tons are sent scores of miles to market, and after¬ 
wards sent on another journey to be boiled down. The 
waste in transit and through fermentation in hot weather 
is enormous, and such injured fruit cannot be made into 
jam equal in quality to that made from fruit fresh from 
the trees. Very large manufacturers contract for fresh 
fruit, yet, nevertheless, more jam factories in the fruit¬ 
growing districts, to which growers could send their crops 
quickly and cheaply, could scarcely fail to be of advantage 
to producers and consumers. 
The following letter, which lias been sent to me, may 
possibly be worthy of insertion and comment:— 
“ I have read your letter in the Daily Neivs , and am desirous 
of confirming what you say as to so many of our Kent orchards 
having far too large a proportion of useless trees in them— i.e., 
trees cankered, trees barren, or trees producing poor low quality 
fruit. Upon seeing my trade card you may say, What does a 
plumber and painter know about gardening ? Well, upon the 
principle that ‘ a looker-on sees most of the game,’ I think I am 
likely to know, because my trade takes me into very many gardens 
in East Kent ; some of them are attached to cottages, some to 
mansions, and some are simply market gardens carried on for 
business. 
“ Why does not the Kent market gardener grub up half-worn- 
out trees and plant young trees of good quality, and then wait 
years for a crop like the American grower does ? Because the man 
in Kent pays yearly about £6 per acre for rent and tithe, whereas 
the man in America pays less than that amount for the freehold ; 
therefore the man in Kent, having to pay a yearly rent, tries to get 
a yearly crop, even if a poor one, and even if he has capital, and 
can afford to wait a few years, being only a yearly tenant, he has 
no security, and very little inducement to make improvements. 
The only planting or improvements he dares venture on are such 
as produce quick returns, say Currant and Gooseberry bushes, or 
Cherry trees. An alteration of our land laws, giving the tenant 
some kind of transferable and saleable tenant-right, must soon be 
made, or else we shall find our fruit markets still more supplied 
from abroad. 
“ Next you will ask, Why does not the cottager, or the small 
country householder, or the gentleman's professional gardener, plant 
better trees ? I reply, because they know very little about fruit 
trees, and the ‘ professional ’ is too much devoted to ‘ incurved 
Chrysanthemums,’ or ‘carpet-bedding’ and ‘ribbon borders’ to 
learn. 
“ Will you recommend four or six sorts of Apple trees most 
suitable for East Kent ? When we ask fruiterers or gardeners why 
we can buy so few Ribston Pippins or King Pippins, we are gravely 
assured that they have died out—that the old trees are cankered, 
and that newly planted young Ribston trees would soon become 
diseased. 
“ I feel certain that many persons in the suburbs of Canterbury 
would gladly plant Apple trees in the gardens attached to their 
houses if they knew what trees were most likely to succeed. 
“ Thinking that you may perhaps publish the whole or a part 
of this letter in the Journal of Horticulture , I enclose my name, &c. 
—INVICTA.” 
My first observation on that letter is this—if a yeai’ly 
tenant can afford to pay £6 an acre, the case is proved 
that iruit culture is profitable in England, though it 
does not necessarily follow that all tenants get a satis¬ 
factory share of the profits. Every case on that matter 
must he judged on its merits. 
As regards the cheapness of land in America, the 
absence of tithe and the lightness of taxes there is the 
ti’iple set off - of (1) a greatly higher wage rate; (2) an 
enormously greater distance from market (English), 
necessitating great care and considerable outlay in pack¬ 
ing; and (3) the dearness of money. Numbers of 
American cultivators are rich, but it may not be generally 
known that many more, and probably the majority, work 
largely with borrowed money, for which they pay interest 
at the rate of 8 per cent, per annum. That this is so in 
one of the western States I have evidence that places the 
matter beyond a doubt. Under those circumstances, in 
the work of hardy fruit cultxxre for our home consumption, 
I think “ Britons ” should “ hold their own.” 
Extensive fruit culture can only be satisfactoi’ily con¬ 
ducted under reasonably long leases on an equitable 
basis, though prudent landowners do not hastily disturb 
good yeaidy tenants now-a-days. Tithes are doomed, at 
least in their present incidence. 
Compensation for unexhausted improvements granted 
to tenants by the last A gricxxltural Holdings Act applies, 
I think, to fruit trees, provided the trees are planted with 
the written consent of the landlord, not otherwise; but on 
this ixnportant point I anx open to correction. 
As regards gardeners, they vary in capacity the saixxe 
as plumbers do. As a matter of fact, some of the best 
growers of Chi-ysanthemums are also the best cultivators 
of fruit, and take leading prizes for both ; and one of the 
most skilled flower gaixleners in the kingdom is the author 
of an excellent work on fruit culture. “Invicta” has 
perhaps scarcely seen enough of the “ game ” to enable 
lxinx to judge accurately on this matter. 
There remains the question of varieties that I am i*e- 
quested to consider. It is not easy to choose “ four or 
six” varieties satisfactorily withoxxt knowing whether 
dessert or culinary Apples are preferred. As four only I 
venture to l'ecommend Lord Suffield, a well-known early 
bearing and productive variety ; Duchess of Oldenbui’g, a 
beautiful dessei’t or culinary Apple, in use in August and 
September; Lane’s Prince Albert, a great and almost 
certain bearer of good and attractive fruit; Eeklinville, a 
valuable Apple, and the tree a good grower and free 
bearer, the fruit “ taking ” well in the market. To make up 
half a dozen add Cox’s Orange Pippin, October-January, 
the best dessert Apple in cultivation; and Warner’s King, 
a very large, late, cook ng Apple. Those named are free 
and early bearers, especially on the Paradise stock, Blen- 
