122 
THE HARDENING WORLD 
October 26, 1889. 
What was the result—the natural result—of such 
apathy ? Others, more far-seeing, in distant lands 
that were being commercially brought steadily, and 
eventually rapidly, nearer, did for us what ought to 
have been done at home—planted trees for supplying 
our markets and the homes of the million with fruit ! 
Then what did the home neglectors do in return ? 
Only what was-to be expected—condemned the intro¬ 
duction of that which they refused to provide ; wasted 
time in railing against it, and waiting for acts of 
obstruction being passed excluding it from our markets. 
Vain was the condemnation, futile the efforts of obstruc¬ 
tion, and at last the truth was realised that the only 
certain and practical way of regaining the lost ground— 
lost by inaction and the slow perception of realities — was 
to choose varieties of fruit and trees wisely, prepare 
the ground, plant, and cultivate well for producing an 
adequate bulk of useful fruit at home, equal in appear¬ 
ance and adequate in quality to the samples grown 
abroad, for meeting the demands of British consumers. 
That is the right way, undoubtedly ; indeed, the only 
reliable way, unreliable as the seasons may be ; the 
only safe and sound method of procedure under the 
circumstances ; and that it is a profitable way those 
who were the first to adopt it and carry it out on sound 
lines were the first to prove the fact, and many a culti¬ 
vator has reaped the reward of his enterprise, and 
shown by what he has accomplished what others may 
do as well as he has done. 
Those who have found that the cultivation of hardy 
fruit can be advantageously pursued in this country are 
extending their plantations, and others who have seen 
the satisfactory results achieved are engaging in the 
work, and every year brings the time nearer when the 
hardy fruit requirements of this kingdom will, in the 
absence of adverse seasons, be produced on British soil, 
and the capital that has so long been expended on 
imported produce will be invested in labour that will 
be employed in home production to the direct advantage 
of the nation. 
In England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales fruit may 
be and should be grown for the populations. In 
limited areas it is so grown, and foreign competition is 
not feared by the producers ; but only small patches, 
so to say, are as yet so occupied, and a great field is 
waiting to be tilled, while an ever-increasing popu¬ 
lation is waiting for the produce. 
It is not suggested here, nor will the proposition gain 
the sanction of practical men who have gone through 
the mill of experience, that any town worker or town 
lounger, if “planted” on an acre of ground, and a 
number of Apple trees are planted in it for him, will 
find it a paradise, and as the story ends, ‘ ‘ live happy 
ever after.” Such teaching as that is misleading. It 
is in reality trifling with a serious subject. Born on 
the land, and knowing well the hardships of a peasant’s 
life, I have an earnest longing to see the home of every 
son of toil made happier by his labour, and I know 
well that many men accustomed to agricultural work 
could, if suitably circumstanced, profit by fruit culture ; 
but forty out of fifty mere townsmen would fail in the 
effort, just as they would fail in the occupation of 
other rural pursuits, requiring less knowledge than 
fruit culture, in which they have had no experience. 
When agricultural labourers, who in too great numbers 
find their way into large cities, can be transformed into 
swallow-tailed and white-cravated waiters in hotels, 
and there gain a good livelihood, the much-to-be-pitied 
unemployed townsmen will prosper on the land as a 
fruit grower, and not till then. The great desire, as 
it seems to me, is to so conduct the operations on 
landed estates in the country, that employment can be 
given to a greater number of workers, and so keep 
them out of the too-thickly populated towns, where a 
life of misery is lived by thousands ; but the invest¬ 
ment in labour to be satisfactory must leave a margin 
of profit to the employer. Only a very limited number 
can be engaged for contributing to the luxuries of life' 
The majority must work on commercial lines, and earn 
a little more by their labour than is invested in it, or 
the connection cannot long be sustained. The in¬ 
troduction of machinery has lessened the demand for 
manual labour in agriculture. Fruit cannot be to the 
same extent grown by machinery, but it can be grown, 
and more profitably than ordinary farm crops, with the 
aid of intelligent workers, and far more of these might 
be kept in their parishes than is the case now, and the 
amount invested in their labour be remunerative to 
themselves, while at the same time all worthy, striving 
and capable men should, I think, be encouraged to 
grow fruit also on plots that in many districts might 
be provided near their dwellings. 
Regard the matter from whatever point of view we 
may, it cannot be otherwise than desirable to find work 
for labourers on the land. A contented, industrious 
peasantry is an important factor in the wealth and 
strength of a nation. Depopulation is an indication of 
decay, and the dwindling away of the people has never 
made a country richer, but left it poorer. This must 
be so, because the strong and most enterprising—the 
real creators of wealth—are the first to go and become 
in other lands competitors of their kinsmen at home, 
leaving the weak, lame, and lazy behind them. These 
prey on the accumulations of others, hence impoverish 
instead of enrich the land in which they spend their 
profitless time and live their luckless lives. 
Many of the landowners of the kingdom have it in 
their power to improve their possessions by increasing 
the productiveness of the soil by the systematic 
cultivation of hardy fruit, and at the same time by the 
necessary employment of more labour do good to others 
as well as themselves. It is not suggested that they 
will heap up riches in the work, but if they can add, 
as thousands may, an interesting and instructive 
feature to their estates and benefit others, at the same 
time realising even five per cent, on the outlay, is it 
not better than two or three per cent, derived in the 
old way, with the attendant grumbling of men who 
can scarcely find sustenance for their families ? 
I am confident that if fruit gardens of two or three 
acres, more or less, according to the extent of estates 
and the suitability of soil and position, were established 
on the residential property of the aristocracy and 
gentry, also on the glebes of certain of the clergy, that 
good would eventually result, in which all would 
share—owners, workers, and consumers of fruit, always 
provided the varieties of the different kinds of fruit 
were well chosen, and the best attention (which is the 
cheapest) bestowed on them in the work of cultivation. 
I am not now considering the interests of recognised 
fruit farmers. It is not necessary. They know per¬ 
fectly well what they are about, and I trust will 
increasingly prosper, and at the same time provide the 
great mass of consumers in large cities with a larger 
and better supply of wholesome fruit at a lower price 
than now rules for the best samples. Lower the price 
of these by increasing the supply, and the consumption 
would increase enormously, and the aggregate profits 
of the cultivator would in all probability be greater too. 
A gentleman in the Westminster Drill Hall remarked, 
on examining the fruit there last Tuesday, that he had 
ten children, and would like to keep them well supplied 
with the best fruit ; but to give 3d. each for Pears and 
2d. for Apples was too much, even for him, and he is 
not a man of small possessions. If really good fruit 
could be had at half such fancy prices, he would no 
doubt buy four times more ; and he is but one example 
of thousands. The prices demonstrate the scarcity of 
high-class fruit and the necessity for growing more, 
and trees that produce it do not take up half the room 
that those do which produce the worst. 
“Oh,” say some, “ but if you go on planting, fruit¬ 
growing will be overdone.” Who do you think preaches 
that doctrine 1 Well, I have heard it preached by old 
fogies who a few years ago said a penny a mile express 
fares on railways could never pay, and I have heard it 
preached by men who have planted thousands of trees 
and are planting more. Is not that a little significant. 
They appear to want a monopoly of the industry, but 
they will not get it. Syndicates can be overdone, and 
my desire is not only to see the acreage under fruit 
increase, but the number of its cultivators. 
I am going to tell you that the average standard of 
merit of fruit, and especially of Apples and Pears, in 
these fertile islands of ours, is miserably, disgracefully 
low. After examining the magnificent display on the 
exhibition tables, you may think that a bold statement, 
but it is true. That splendid fruit, which proves what 
can be done in England, is no more representative of 
the real supply than the faultlessly made garments in 
the best West End shops are representative of the 
habiliments of the multitude. We have to remember 
the tattered and torn in that line, and the specked and 
spotted juiceless trash in the fruit world in striking an 
average. How do I arrive at my average ? I am one 
of a few individuals who have to handle and examine 
specimens of fruit sent to be named from gardens or 
orchards in all parts of the kingdom. Do you think 
the growers of the samples send the worst ? I know 
that numbers of them say they send the best they 
could, and regret they could not send better. What, 
then, do we find ? I do not see why the truth should 
be withheld, but think from every point of view it is 
better it should come out. The truth is this—not one 
sample in twenty can, by any stretch of the imagination, 
be regarded as superior ; not half of what we receive is 
half so good as it should be, and the great bulk can 
only be properly described as “rubbish.” I speak in 
the presence of others who also spend many weary 
hours in trying to name bad fruit; and although I 
have friends on the press evidently generous enough to 
correct me when they can, they cannot make “ copy ” 
at the expense of my veracity in this matter ; and that 
being so, I shall submit with some confidence that the 
truth, the humiliating truth, of the above assertion, is 
proved to demonstration. 
We have, I am glad to say, fairly commenced a 
revolution in fruit-growing in this country, and not 
before time. Some time must elapse before the work 
is completed, and before the average yield approaches 
the standard that is set up in the show to-day. Know¬ 
ledge, practical knowledge, is wanted on the subject. 
I have nothing to say against colleges to which the 
rich can send their sous to sit under learned professors, 
but I should like to see pomological schools, in the 
form of well-managed fruit gardens, on estates in 
different parts of the country, with collections of the 
best varieties of fruit grown in them. The founders of 
such collections would stand to gain by thc-ir establish¬ 
ment, while the surrounding inhabitants would have 
opportunities for acquiring the best of information in 
the cheapest possible way that might be of substantial 
value in the cultivation of fruit for their families, and 
the populations of adjacent towns. 
-->X<-- 
THE PLEASURE GARDENS AT 
BOURNEMOUTH. 
When' staying a few weeks ago at thi3 enjoyable sea¬ 
side pleasure and health resort, I was much struck with 
the beauty of the winding valley between the east and 
west cliffs, which has been converted into a garden. 
It is about a mile and a half long, with a burn running 
through its entire length. It is charmingly picturesque 
with its shrubbery borders on either side backed up with 
Scotch Firs, Pinus Austriaca, and P. Pinaster. Here 
are shapely bushes of Evergreen Oaks, handsome speci¬ 
mens of golden and silver variegated Hollies, beautiful 
Portugal Laurels, Strawberry trees in flower and fruit, 
a fine collection of flowering Thorns, the Guelder Rose, 
full of brilliant red berries, and handsome in the 
extreme. The Mountain Ash was also beautifully 
berried, and Cotoneaster frigida was exceedingly 
bright and cheerful with its clusters of red fruits. 
Laburnums and Buddlea globosa seem to thoroughly 
enjoy the situation. The Gum Cistus also makes a 
brave show, and great masses of Helianthus multi- 
florus, 7—8 ft. across, had a grand effect in front of 
the dense foliage of the trees and shrubs. Chrysan¬ 
themum (Pyrethrum) uliginosum in large masses showed 
off its single white blossoms -with telling effect. Other 
thriving shrubs include Cotoneasters in varietj', Ber- 
beris Darwinii, B. aquifolium, B. nepalensis, Escallonia 
macrantha. I noted also a charming lawn tennis 
ground, neatly kept and surrounded with many of the 
handsome shrubs I have named. I understand the 
gardens were laid out and planted by Mr. E. White, 
of the Victoria Nursery, and I am sure he must be 
gratified with the amount of pleasure his work has 
given to others besides A Visitor. 
-- 
EL2EODENDRON ORIENTALE. 
One can understand why gardeners, owing to their 
well-known conservative propensities in the matter of 
botanical nomenclature, should still keep to the title of 
Aralia Chabrieri for the above-named plant ; but it is 
a remarkable fact in the history of the plant that when 
first disseminated throughout the country with an 
erroneous name, it was also accompanied by an equally 
erroneous description, which has been reproduced in 
different gardening works that have since appeared. 
This description was that the leaves were alternate and 
pinnate, with opposite pinnae. Now, instead of being 
alternate, the greater proportion of the leaves on the 
young plants are opposite ; what are really branches 
have been mistaken for leaves. Nor are the latter 
compound, but simple, linear, and entire, deep green, 
with a crimson midrib, and very beautiful. The (for 
gardeners) somewhat cumbersome generic name is taken 
from Elaia, an Olive, and dendron, a tree, because the 
fruits are like those of an Olive. The leaves of the 
species are Laurel-like and small. The plant as 
described is really the juvenile state, and in this 
condition is sufficiently ornamental to be deserving of 
cultivation as a stove plant. When it attains a certain 
size, it produces short broad leaves of quite a different 
character. There are some specimens in the stove at 
Devonhurst, Chiswick, about 4 ft. or 5 ft. high, which 
still retain their narrow-leaved juvenile state, whereas 
the Aralia Veitclrii (so called) produces broad coarse 
leaflets when it attains a height of from 4 ft. to 6 ft. 
