January  7,  1904. 
JOURNAL  OF  HOETICULTORE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
13 
The  Inquiry  into  British  Fruit  Culture: 
Tilt  “  Daily  Telegraph,”  London,  had  a  most  suggestive  article 
under  this  head  on  Saturday  of  last  week,  and  some  of  the  iioints 
are  reprinted  here :  — 
Vnlike  many  industries  which  have  been  inquired  into,  this 
does  not  plead  deterioration  as  a  reason  for  investigation.  On 
the  contrary,  the  orchard  areas  of  Great  Britain  show  consistent 
expansion,  the  growth  being  large.st  in  England  and  least  in; 
Wales.  Against  the  199,178  acres  of  orchards  in  1888,  we  had  in 
1901  no  less  than  234,660  acres.  So  with  small  fruit  farming. 
The  area  under  cultivation  now  is  one-third  that  of  orchards, 
and  of  the  total  acreage  one-third  is  in  Kent,  the  great  centre 
tor  Raspberries  and  Strawberries,  where  most  large  farms  have 
their  fruit  land,  and  many  farmers,  particularly  out  Canterbury 
way,  give  their  undivided  attention  to  fruit,  much  to  the  advan¬ 
tage  of  the  consumer,  who  thereby  obtains  a  better  nurtured 
article.  So  also  with  the  hothouse  culture  of  Grapes,  Cucumbers, 
Nectarines,  Pineapples,  and  so  on,  which  has  increased  tenfold 
in  thirty  years.  It  is  computed  that  in  the  whole  of  England 
there  are  over  1,200  acres  under  glas.s — but  not  altogether  for 
fruit,  flowers  demanding  a  very  large  part  of  such  careful  protec¬ 
tion.  At  Cheshunt,  Herts,  you  might  pace  every  inch  of  130 
acres  without  leaving  the  shelter  of  a  transparent  roof.  In 
Berks,  Bucks,  Cambridge,  Essex,  Middlesex,  Norfolk,  Oxford, 
Sussex,  Warwick,  Wilts,  Devon — throughout  the  west  and  south 
commercial  fruit  growing  has  made  great  strides  in  recent  years  ; 
Devon,  Hereford,  Somerset,  Worcester,  Gloucester — the  cider 
country — have  half  the  orchard  area  of  England  under  cultivation. 
So  that  it  is  not  on  the  score  of  le.ssening  vitality  that  fruit 
culture  needs  the  stimulus  of  inquiry  and  report. 
The  real  reason  is  that  there  are  so  many  ways  in  which  it 
may  possibly  be  improved  that  formal  and  exhau.stive  investiga¬ 
tion  is  desirable.  An  additional  reason  is  that  we  are  in  the 
habit  of  .spending  about  three  millions  sterling  upon  imported 
fruit,  .such  as  we  can  and  do  grow  at  home.  Over  one  million 
went  for  Apples  alone  in  1901.  In  1896  the  record  outlay  of 
£1,582,000  was  incurred.  Of  course  no  amount  of  home  cultiva¬ 
tion  could  render  us  quite  independent  of  these  imports,  but  iti 
miglit  partially  do  so. 
Cherry  growing  is  making  headway,  in  sj)ite  of  very  severe 
competition  from  France.  Cherries  are  a  perishable  fruit,  and 
taking  advantage  of  that  fact  the  home  cultivator  is  striving 
very  hard  to  keep  the  home  market.  That  his  efforts  are  justified 
is  shown  by  the  prices  yielded  ;  £80  per  acre  is  not  an  uncommon 
figure,  and  even  £100  has  been  obtained  in  exceptional  cases. 
France  has  the  pull  of  us  in  respect  of  climate.  Her  fruit  is 
quicker  developed  than  ours,  and,  reaching  our  markets  early  in 
the  season,  fetches  the  highest  prices.  But  improvement  in  cold 
.'forage  during  transit  is  tending  to  discount  this  advantage,  for 
)ierishable  fruit  may  now  be  brought  over  very  long  distances  and, 
delivered  as  fresh  and  luscious  as  when  gathered. 
With  these  not  unfavourable  facts  before  tliem  the  Depart¬ 
mental  Committee  will  be  able  all  the  more  thoroughly  to  deal 
with  details  that  bear  upon  cultivation  pure  and  simple.  There 
are,  of  course,  anomalies  of  transit  to  be  inquired  into.  It  is 
still  the  fact  that  proportionately  fruit  may  be  sent  at  cheaper 
rates  from  Kent  to  the  great  northern  cities  than  from  Kent  to 
London.  On  that  point  evidence  will  be  invited.  How  much 
can  be  done  to  stay  the  ravages  of  pests,  and  prevent  their 
appearance,  is  a  very  important  matter  for  inquir}’.  Attempts 
have  been  made  to  place  upon  the  fruit  farmer  the  responsibility 
for  damage  done  by  posts  which  have  fastened  upon  his  acres 
and  made  sorties  elsewhere.  To  such  attempts  there  has  been 
violent  protest.  There  is  also  the  question  of  cidei’-making,  and 
the. causes  of  the  slight  falling  off  in  Apple  cultivation  for  this 
business.  I'pon  this  matter  much  light  will  no  doubt  be  thrown 
by  those  who  have  been  concerned  in  the  experiments  at  Mr. 
Neville-Grenville’s  Home  Farm,  towards  which  the  Board  of 
.\gi-icuUure  have  granted  £600.  Improvements  in  the  manage¬ 
ment  of  fruit  land,  the  best  methods  of  cultivation,  the  likeliest 
areas  for  cultivation,  the  development  of  the  trade  in  soft  fruiti 
for  iam-making,  as  now  carried  on  so  extensively  in  Kent,  in 
spite  of  heavy  importations  from  France,  Holland,  Belgium, 
Spain,  and  Italy;  the  making  of  fruit  pulp — all  these  are  fitting 
matters  for  the  consideration  of  the  committee  which  has  been, 
appointed,  on  the  principle  that  if  any  inquiry  is  to  be  of  value 
it  must  cover  the  whole  subject  and  not  deal  with  separate 
branches. 
Pines. 
been  made  for  jiroduciiig  ripe  fiuii 
tliAii- "fi-o  1^''  "  British  grown  Pineapples,  from 
season  f  and  high  quality,  are  in  request  for  the  liondon 
season,  no  time  should  be  lost  in  attending  to  the  matter. 
lotto  ^^'ceUpnt  fruit,  especially  in  winter:  (har- 
tte  Rothschild,  and  Smooth-leaved  Cayenne  plants,  which 
mwever  proini.^ing  now,  failed  to  show  fruit  during  Octoher  ami 
tini'l^"' throw  up  the  fruit  in  time  to  ripen  at  the 
ti  le  named.  Attention  must,  therefore,  be  directed  to  such 
as  attain  perfection  in  less  time,  as  the  Queens,  Enville,  and 
1  rovidcnce  varieties. 
Select  at  once  those  plants  which  have  an  enlarged  base  with 
^1  to  open  in  the  centre — evidence  that  the  fruit  will 
snoitly  be  visible^ — and  place  them  in  a  light  house  or  pit,  afford- 
a  brisk  bottom  heat,  .say  85deg  to  fiOdeg,  a  top  heat  of  GOdeg 
to  Rldeg  at  night,  lOdeg  to  7odeg  by  day,  artificially,  and  lOdeg 
to  loueg  oiore  froin  sun  heat.  When  the  external  conditions 
are  favourable  a  moderate  amount  of  ventilation  must  be  given, 
and  the  atmosphere  should  be  genial,  syringing  the  plant<s  once 
or  twice  a  week,  and  then  very  lightly,  damping  the  paths  and 
similar  surfaces  in  the  house,  except  the  hot-water  pipes,  on  fine 
arternoons.  Water  will  be  required  at  the  roots  about  every 
ten  days,  but  do  not  stop  it  until  the  soil  becomes  dry  and 
then  in  a  tepid  state  with  a  little  guano  (loz  per  gallon),  or  some 
other  fertiliser  on  it,  and  always  copiously,  driblets  doing  more 
harm  than  good. — Practice. 
Fruit  at  Christmas. 
(Concluded  from  peuje  GOo.) 
The  Banana  we  are  now  accu.stomed  to  see  at  all  times  and 
on  many  tables  will  now  be  found.  Oranges,  too,  in  abundance 
one  expects  to  find  at  Chri.stmas,  but  the  less  one  saj's  as  to  the 
quality  of  the  cheaper  grades  the  better,  perhaps  :  unless  a  liiorh 
puce  can  be  afforded,  this  fruit  is  as  well  left  out  of  the  des.?ert 
list  for  a  month  or  six  weeks.  Cranberries,  Pomegranates,  and 
other  sorts  are  on  offer,  and  many  or  most  of  these  we  can  never 
hope  to  jiroduce  in  marketable  quantities  in  this  country.  The 
same  may  also  be  remarked  in  connection  with  Pines,  good  fruits 
of'  these  being  procurable  at  four  or  five  shillings  apiece' — a 
price  which  is  not  likely  to  tempt  our  own  growers  to  put  home¬ 
grown  specimens  on  the  market.  To  have  a  fine  Pine  for 
Christmas  Day  was  once  the  ambition  of  many  gardeners,  but 
now  they  are  perforce  content  to  sve  foreign  produce  installed 
in  the  place  of  their  own  in-oducts.  This  does  not  apply  to  all 
gardens;  in  some  few  Pine  growing  is  still  carried  on,  but  they 
have  nearly  everywhere  been  crowded  out  of  existence  in  this 
country. 
The  dainty  boxes  of  crystalli.sed  fruits  so  very  much  in 
evidence  at  Christmas  are  to  be  met  with  on  every  hand.  It  is  a 
matter  of  some  sati.sfaction  that  not  nearly  all  of  them  are  from 
foreign  sources.  In  this  branch  of  fruit  preserving  some  of  cur 
leading  firms  hold  a  strong  hand,  but  it  is  not  of  such  utility  or 
importance  as  some  of  those  previously  mentioned.  It  may  thus 
bo  seen,  I  think,  that  only  the  poorest  of  the  poor  need  bo 
without  fruit  at  the  season  of  iieace  and  gooclwill,  aiicl  even 
they  are  frequently  catered  for  out  of  the  gooclwill  of  those  in 
better  circumstances.  May  another  Chris-tmas  find  ns  better 
supplied  ivith  those  hardy  fruits  of  our  own  growth,  which  are 
now  generally  recogni.sed  as  factors  towards  the  health  and  well¬ 
being  of  the  population,  and  may  a  steady  advance  be  made  in 
preserving,  by  native  effort,  a  greater  amount  in  the  best  pre¬ 
sentable  form,  not  only  at  the  joyous  time  of  Yulctide,  but  for 
all  times  of  shortage  and  scarcity. — Santa  Clau,s. 
Apple,  Ecklinville. 
Every  moderately  extensive  garden  in  the  South  of  Scotland 
and  Ireland,  and  to  a  less  extent  in  England  also,  reliO'S  on  the 
Ecklinville  Apple  for  good  cooking  fruits  in  October  and  Novem¬ 
ber.  Not  that  it  is  exclusively  depended  npon,  but  it  is  sucli 
a  generally  heavy  cropper  that,  if  Ecklinville  fails,  poor  must 
be  the  Apple  .supply  in  the  district.  At  Trinity  Grove,  Edin¬ 
burgh,  where  the  soil  is  a  warm  (one  had  almo,st"said  hot),  very 
sandy  loam,  this  fine  Apple  is  regarded  as  one  of  the  finest,  and 
the  fruits  are  yearly  of  a  large  size  (as  big  as  an  average 
Warner’s  King),  with  smooth,  bronzy,  brown-spotted  skin,  and 
of  solid  weight.  As  an  eating  Apple  it  is  not  despised  by 
numbers  of  pi'ople. 
Dr.  Hogg  says  that  "the  original  tree  was  raised  at  Ecklin- 
villo,  four  miles  from  Portaferry,  and  eighteen  from  Belfast,  by 
a  Scots  gardener  named  Logan,  about  the  beginning  of  last 
contury.”  The  tree  succeeds  either  in  orchard  or  garden  in 
any  form.  It  is  a  good  market  variety. 
Potatoes  £160  per  lb.  -£358,400  per  'I’on.— Messrs.  E.  \V.  King 
and  Co.,  Coggeshall.  Essex,  recently  paid  £160  for  11b.  of  the  new 
Potato  Eldorado. 
