832 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
August 29, 1891. 
too, just now is there found in our market, and sell¬ 
ing at what presumably are moderate prices. 
Plums in variety, Cherries, Gooseberries, Pears, 
Apples, imported Pine Apples, Peaches, Filberts, 
Melons, &c. Many hundred of pies and puddings 
will the fruit sold in the market make for the Sunday 
dinner. Among vegetables, Potatos, Peas, Mar¬ 
rows, Carrots, Turnips, Cabbage, Cauliflowers, 
Tomatos from ijd. per lb., Cucumbers from id. each, 
all are wondrously plentiful, and very good of their 
kind. Verily our market is an important local 
institution in the interests of Gardening.— A. D. 
--f-- 
FRUIT GROWING AS AN 
INDUSTRY.* 
Sometimes I think the surface facts connected with 
the idea of British fruit growing must begin to 
appear wearisome, but on reflection it will at once 
become apparent that persistent repetition of fact is 
needful until practical effect is given to statistical 
report and to theoretical argument. In any depart¬ 
ment of social morality or national economy per¬ 
sistent repetition is needful to gain public attention, 
and to urge the public mind first into sympathy and 
then into active support. Now that is precisely our 
position in the matter of the subject we are called 
together to consider and discuss this afternoon. Is 
there a fair demand for fruits that can be grown at 
home ? My best answer for this occasion (partly 
because it is a recent utterance, and partly because 
it is the utterance of a responsible member of the 
Government, whose official duties bring him into 
direct contact with the subject)—my best answer 
may be found in some remarks made by Mr. Chaplin, 
M.P., President of the Board of Agriculture, at a 
meeting held in the Mansion House, London, a few 
weeks ago, under the auspices of the Fruiterers’ 
Company, when he pointed out that the future of 
agriculture w’ould extend considerably in the direc¬ 
tion of fruit culture, and from the tone of his remarks 
he was evidently inclined to regard these supple¬ 
mental conditions hopefully, as likely to prove 
satisfactory and successful. He dealt with some 
extraordinary facts and figures concerning dairy 
products, and the prices we pay for importations of 
these. In his opinion, ^1,200,000 of the money paid 
for imported fruits might have been saved by the re¬ 
placement by home-grown produce of the hardy 
fruits represented by that amount. This sum 
represented but a portion of what had been handed 
over to the foreign growler for wjiat he had sent us to 
help to supply the demand. It was gratifying to 
Mr. Chaplin to find that considerable movement in 
a right direction had already been made, as last year 
over 2,400 acres had been added to our orchards. 
The Manchester City News, a reliable authority, stated 
in its issue of the 18th July last that in June of the 
present year no fewer than 64,034 bushels of Apples 
were imported into the United Kingdom, of the value 
of ^37,854—last year only 8,798 bushels, valued at 
^6,237, were imported. The increase was largely 
due to Tasmania. It is my intention, if time permits, 
to come back to this matter again, but the facts are 
so readily admitted and the correctness of these so 
readily obtained that this brief reference may suffice 
in the meantime. As long as we pay, I will not say 
millions, but even thousands of British money for 
the importation of fruits that are essentially, for us, 
British fruits, the desirability for extension need not 
be questioned. 
Fruit and fruit growing we find very much in the 
air just now, and there are various reasons for this. 
There is the fact of increased population, of better 
facilities for intercommunication, the emigration 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 practices of the past have 
not been decidedly wrong they have at least been 
* A paper read by E. J. Baillie, Esq., F.L.S., at the Cardiff 
Conference of the British Fruit Growers’ Association, Aug. 
I2th, iKc,i, 
far from right. Then we have had, and have still, 
the great advantage of the assistance of philanthro¬ 
pic 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 for a 
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 presents 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 pre¬ 
cise 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 appli¬ 
cation, 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 some¬ 
what 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 move¬ 
ment 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 horti¬ 
culture 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 accomplish¬ 
ment 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 optimistic; 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 help¬ 
fulness, 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 represent 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 dis¬ 
cuss 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. Con¬ 
sideration 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. 
Alter 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 sug¬ 
gestive 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 correspondence or otherwise. Speaking gener¬ 
ally, 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 productive¬ 
ness 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 wha{ 
we should aim at. 
(To he continued,) 
—-sfs- 
Linaria pallida. —Most of the creeping species oj 
Toad-flax have relatively small flow'ers, but that 
under notice is an exception, for the individual blooms 
are of appreciable size and of a piale purple or lilac 
hue with a white palate. It should be planted where 
the creeping stems may run freely amongst stones) 
3yhen flowers will be developed in 'abundance, 1 
