October 27, 1888. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
129 
opinion. Doctors differ. I am justified, however, upon 
the grounds of science and of experience in asserting 
that men can live, and live healthfully and happily, on 
cereals and fruit, so that a wheat farm and a fruit farm 
would meet all national needs. Cattle farming we are 
not now concerned about. 
I know I strike a chord which may not he one 
entirely of harmony in a meeting of this character, 
when I say that man can derive all needful sustenance 
from the cereals and fruit ; that is to say, humanity 
has in fruits—for cereals are fruits—all that it needs. 
Mark, please, I do not say it has therein all that it 
craves, but all that it needs. 
The Labour Question. 
After the determination of what is essential for the 
maintenance of life we must consider the labour 
question. Which of the four systems under which we 
have divided the question of cultivation employs the 
largest amount of labour, and in which are our 
labourers the most happily and healthily engaged ? 
Unhesitatingly, with firmest decision, we answer, in 
fruit production. Quite lately I, by chance, became 
the travelling companion of one of the largest agri¬ 
culturists in our county, whose farm lands had been 
laid down to grass. He had given up corn for cattle, 
and he told me that as a result fifteen cottages were at 
that moment standing empty so far as farm labourers 
were concerned. He had no further use for the latter, 
and they had gone—where ? He did not know, but in all 
probability to swell the already congested population of 
the towns. How are we to get our open-faced, honest- 
hearted country population back to the 
green lanes and the gardens ? 
One of the best methods is the develop¬ 
ment of the industry of fruit production. 
But is our climate such as to encourage 
safely the cultivation of hardy fruits ? 
Let us not commit the often rash errors of 
a too eager enthusiasm. I do not know 
which most to pity or blame—the blind 
optimist, who to every question suggesting 
the possibility of big profits, Arcadian 
delights, and a contented population always 
basking in the sunshine of ease and un¬ 
concern, replies, “I answer enthusi¬ 
astically, Yes,” or the poor pessimist who 
says our Apples are only Crabs ; that 
there is a worm at every core ; that the 
glory has departed, and we are all tumbling 
into the Slough of Despond. But there 
is a via media. It is possible to make the 
crooked straight, and the rough places 
plain, if we only set ourselves heartily to 
find the more excellent way. 
specimens of artistic antiquity. The only evidence of 
anything approaching a pruning process which I have 
ever -Witnessed amongst some of them was the wreckage 
of the storm, or the broken boughs at Appletide which 
had snapped asunder under the weight of the ladder 
against them. 
If the orchards are carelessly kept—or carefully 
unkept—it is an equally peculiar fact that when fruit 
is borne by the trees it seems to suggest no necessity 
for right handling. Mark Twain in one of his sketches 
enlarges, I think, upon his experience in days when he 
was assumed to have the editorial charge of an agri¬ 
cultural paper, and in reply to a correspondent, he told 
him he thought he had himself to blame for the con¬ 
dition of his Turnip crop, the defects of which he had 
just described. “You should wait,” said Mark, 
“until they are nearly ripe, then get up the tree and 
shake them down.” He found that was not the way 
Turnips were treated, but the editor had probably seen 
a county farmer gathering his fruit, for that is precisely 
the method he follows on such an occasion. All this 
and much more must be changed before British fruit¬ 
growing takes the important place to which it is 
entitled. 
Market Operations and Regulations. 
I do not intend to take up the time of this meeting by 
attempting to deal with one of the most damaging 
conditions which we meet with as a most serious 
obstruction in the very outset, namely, that of the 
railway rates. Nor do I attempt to touch upon that 
other forcible deterrent—the question of land tenure ; 
Tastes Differ. 
Hardy fruits can be grown, and well 
grown, in this much-despised climate 
of ours ; but, like everything else, it must 
be done properly. No more subtle sweet¬ 
ness, crispness, and altogether right flavour can lurk 
beneath the skin of Apple or Pear than can be found in 
the flesh of a British-grown Cox’s Orange or Ribston 
Pippin, or some of our best Pears ; and no sprightly 
sauciness of brisk acidity can be found in the often 
insipid flavour of many of the foreign sub-acid Apples 
to compare with that of a northern-grown Keswick or 
Lord Suffield. There are those about us, and appa¬ 
rently warmly interested in this movement, who go to 
extremes in both directions. In this problem of pro¬ 
duction let us remember we have all tastes to suit, all 
palates to please, and therefore a wide range for_our 
catering. 
For instance, in the larger Lancashire towns, Apples 
of a brisk sharp flavour find much readier sale than the 
Sweeter fruits, for which there may probably be greater 
demand in the south. If you can sell at Cottonopolis 
Keswicks or Lord Suflields by the ton, why not grow 
them by the acre rather than coddle with somebody’s 
new seedling said to surpass the Newtown Pippin in 
its sugary flavour when the season is favourable enough 
for it to fruit ? Meet the demand of the district, and 
proceed cautiously ; extend as rapidly as you like, but 
carefully. 
The Typical Farmer’s Orchard. 
If time permitted me to draw you a picture of the 
typical farmer’s orchard, you would not wonder that 
fruit growing is a feeble industry in many places. 
Such so-called orchards are, many of them, excellent 
hunting-grounds for the entomologist or the crypto- 
gamic botanist, whose special attraction is amongst 
mosses and lichens. Most of the trees are favourable 
Apple, Lady Sudeley. 
Certificated at 
See p. 133. 
the Chiswick Conference. 
be 
both this and the railway question will, I find, 
dealt with in separate papers ; but until some 
sweeping change is made in the present system of 
railway charges, it seems that the British fruit grower 
will find his industry shackled and weighted to such an 
extent as to prevent his making a profit at all com¬ 
mensurate with that which he is helping to put into 
the pockets of railway shareholders. 
Next to the railway question we require the estab¬ 
lishment of some responsible agency or agencies to 
take up, in combination, the conditions which cannot 
be successfully fought single-handed, and this agency 
should not be merely commercially protective, but 
also educational. Amongst other matters it should 
collect and publish careful data as to districts, 
climatic influences, meteorological notes, and such 
other intelligence as would serve to guide. This body 
would have to be influential and potent, for the power 
of monopoly is, as matters now stand, almost in¬ 
variably against the producer and the consumer, and 
in favour of some intermediate agent, whose name is 
legion, apparently, and whose presence may be 
necessary for the discharge of commercial enter¬ 
prise, but who ought to be regarded more in the 
capacity of a carrier or an agent rather than a trader or 
merchant. 
Next we require the provision of centres of sale. 
Endless time is lost by the producer in his effort to 
find a market, and neglect at home is consequently 
unavoidable. It is essential that persons having 
produce to sell should be brought into contact with 
persons requiring to purchase, but we have at present 
no such facility. 
Buying Fruit by Name. 
Then we ought to be able to purchase fruits by name 
as to variety. To the farmer mind not so many years 
ago everything green upon the face of the field was 
grass. To the mind of the average citizen or citizen’s 
wife anything that is round, and that has been plucked 
from a tree in an orchard, is an Apple ; it matters not 
whether it he a flavourless Crab or a Golden Pippin--* 
it is an Apple ; but we want to initiate the public into 
a knowledge that certain Apples carry with them cer¬ 
tain qualities and certain flavours, and we want then 
to show that precisely what they want can be supplied. 
There are advertisements in connection with domestic 
commodities, which seem to suggest the grave import¬ 
ance of your being sure you get somebody’s starch 
when you ask for it. The same caution should be applied 
in the pomological department, and when the cook 
finds out that a certain kind of Apple can be depended 
upon for a certain quality we should find the beginning, 
too, of a more definite order of things. 
Another great impetus to the home product might 
be insured if at railway stations and other places where 
the public gather themselves in masses, English fruit 
could be obtainable instead of the everlasting French 
Pears and American Apples. And I should like, if 
those ugly iron impedimenta called “ automatic 
deliveries,” or some such wonderful name, are to be 
tolerated, that they should, in response to the penny 
and the push, give orchard Plums instead of sugar 
plums, and Apples and Pears in preference to chocolate 
or candy. 
Selling from Sample. 
Another idea that has long possessed me 
is the idea of the selling of fruits from 
sample. According to present methods of 
distribution a producer gathers his fruit 
and carries it away to the markets, there to 
stand with a load of it until it is dis¬ 
tributed. Those who have learned the art 
of modern marketing have found out 
that prices decline as the day wears on, 
for the grower does not desire to cart even 
part of a load home again. On the other 
hand, there may be a system of “ topping” 
—I may be excused if I explain, for of 
this my present audience is doubtless 
ignorant, that this implies a process, 
possibly accidental, by which the larger, 
better fruits in a basket gravitate towards 
the top ! This is, of course, open to sug¬ 
gestions of unfairness on the other side, 
but if the grower submitted samples of 
his fruit just in the way the farmer does 
who has grain and seed to sell, an im¬ 
mediate relief would result. A farmer 
does not think of carting the yield 
of his grain fields to the open markets, 
but asks the merchant to buy upon 
the sample placed before him in the 
market ; and he can sell or hold as he then thinks best. 
He would then be in a less likely position for the 
imposition of injustice. 
Recognition of the Fruit Industry. 
Then I think in the interests of distribution our 
leading agricultural and horticultural societies—agri- 
cultural societies especially—should recognise the 
industry, and admit home fruit products into their 
schedules of subjects for competition. I am glad to 
observe that the Royal Agricultural Society of England 
has taken up the matter, and hope other agricultural 
societies may now be induced to follow. It is likely 
that more good will arise from sources of this character 
than through minor efforts of less prominent bodies, as 
the subject would then be considered along with the 
problems of land cultivation in their more important 
and varied aspects. 
I must not forget to include the all-powerful press. 
We have natural friends in the editors of horticultural 
publications, but I am glad to see the general press of 
the country is now taking an interest in the question. 
Whilst many newspaper readers are evidently com¬ 
petent to take an intelligent view of the matter, there 
are some who seem to discern in the agitation some¬ 
thing like the sectarian movement of a new faith, for 
which they have quickly set themselves to invent the 
name of the “ Faddist.” Well, let it be so. 
If we are to get public attention called to the 
question, we may hope that the long delayed interest 
will be fairly and fully aroused, and whilst we rejoice 
in the peace and prosperity of a nation preferring 
pruning-hooks and plough shares to swords and spears 
we shall yet the more rejoice when we gain the greater 
victory, and proclaim the wider conquest of the sickle 
and the spade. 
