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PROCEEDINGS OF THE PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 
with trees, many of the older ones having been taken 
out lately; but in former times I have seen them per¬ 
fectly clad with fruit trees, besides being filled with 
small fruit of various kinds—such as raspberries, cur¬ 
rants, gooseberries, and strawberries, — a splendid ex¬ 
ample of economising space, and just what I would like 
to see in many more of the Carse orchards. At the 
present time some of the proprietors and tenants, who 
have no small fruit, suffer considerably when the large 
fruit fails—as in the case of recent years—whereas had 
they grown, as they might have done, small fruit in the 
inter-spaces, it would have been much to their advantage. 
But, perhaps, some will tell me, as I have been told before, 
that small fruit cannot be grown successfully among trees. 
Let me say at once, in all plainness, that this is a fallacy, 
and, at the risk of being called an egotist, I will endeavour 
to give you proof of this. In my own garden I have my 
trees growing as thickly as in any orchard in the Carse, 
and yet for a good many years I have been able to take 
prizes at the Dundee Horticultural Show for gooseberries, 
and red, white, and black currants. I have shown goose¬ 
berries larger than any I have seen at the Dundee Show, 
and these grown within a yard of large fruit trees. 
I sometimes wish I had the space between the trees where 
some ©f our proprietors have nothing but wild grass. 
For example, in an orchard of about 30 acres, what 
a vast amount of small fruit could be grown : black 
currants in the strong damp clay soil ; raspberries also 
in damp, shady situations; and gooseberries and currants 
in the drier parts. With gooseberries from l£d to 3d per 
lb., and blackberries from 3d to 9d, you will agree that 
there is money derived from them. I know a garden in 
Errol, of about an acre in extent, filled with large old fruit 
trees, and yet I have known in one year of £50 having been 
obtained for one sort of gooseberry (“Bed Warring¬ 
ton”) grown under these trees. I think I have now shown 
that a considerable amount of fruit can be grown on com¬ 
paratively waste lands; but let megive you another example 
I heard of a few days ago. On the little estate of Flatfield 
is a piece of ground, nearly half-an-acre in extent, near 
the high road, and almost completely shaded with the large 
forest trees on the neighbouring estate of Megginch, with 
which it marches. You might almost call it a bog, for it 
really is so for a great part of the year, and yet the late 
proprietor, Mr Bruce, thought he would try to grow on it 
a few apple and pear trees, with gooseberries and red and 
Black currants in the interspaces. All the labour it got 
was very little indeed, some years only a rough turnover 
with the graip or spade, and sometimes not even that. 
Yet here is the result as given me by his widow, 
Mrs Bruce .-—The first year, 15s; the second, 30s; 
the third, £7; the fourth, £9; the fifth, £8; the sixth, 
£13 10s; the seventh, £9; and the eighth, £17 10s. I 
leave you to judge of the results for yourselves. When 
I look around me, I sometimes think the ground is 
not nearly cultivated to the extent that it might be. 
All along the riverside, and on the brae face, where 
there is nothing but a few forest trees and stunted 
shrubs and wild bramble—cover only for game to eat the 
farmer’s crops—what a vast amount of fruit could be 
grown. No less an authority than the late eminent arbori¬ 
culturist, Mr Matthew of Gourdiehill, said—“If I had 
the sea braes on the riverside I would keep a dozen of 
men constantly employed in fruit cultivation, and yet 
make it pay;” and he knew well the value of fruit. In one 
year, from Gourdiehill orchards, which are about 30acres in 
extent, £1400 was obtained; and this only included apples 
and pears, with a very few plums. Now, after deducting 
£200 for working expenses, this left a handsome margin to 
the grower. 
Sometimes, when I am advocating this fruit theory 
in private, I am told that the seasons are so changed 
now that we cannot cultivate fruit successfully, and cope 
with foreign importation. So far as the seasons are con¬ 
cerned, I must admit that they have been bad enough 
of late, but you may as well tell the farmer not to sow his 
fields on account of bad seasons and foreign competition, 
as tell the orchardist to give up cultivating his trees. I have 
no doubt that warm seasons will come again, as they 
did before. I have a book, written nearly two hundred 
years ago, on the cultivation of fruit, and I quote a 
sentence from it to show that sometimes they had a run of 
bad seasons then as well as now:—“Thirdly, That some 
seasons of late years have proved very bad, and may have 
spoiled the fruits, though the greatest care and skill have 
been used about them that was possible.” Now, no one 
will deny that we have had good summers since then, and 
we will have them again. So far as foreign competition is 
concerned, I grant that America can beat us in some kinds 
of apples; but with a return of fair seasons, I think we 
might hold our own in the market. Quite lately I asked 
a grower, who has been engaged half a lifetime in the fruit 
trade, what was the greatest quantity he ever took from a 
single tree. The answer was:—“ I once took 30 hampers 
of large pears from one tree in Seaside Orchard, growing 
near the Mansion-House.” Another orchard-keeper told 
me he took 23 hampers from the same tree. Another 
orchard-keeper told me she took a ton of Irish green 
apples from one tree in the Horn Orchard. Now, a 
hamper of pears weighs from SO to 100 lbs.; and apples 
