August  20,  1903. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
171 
Abnormal  Prices. 
The  subjoined  table  shows  the  high  price  of  some  of  the  fruit 
in  season — mostly  foreign — as  compared  with  la.st  year  ; — 
This  Ye.'xr.  Last  Year. 
Good  Plums  ..  ..  81.  to  Is.  per  lb . 3d.  to  8d. 
Grapes . la.  to  Is.  9d . Oil.  to  9d  rer  lb. 
Ripe  Pears  ..  ..  8d.  to  Is.  3d.  per  lb . 6d.  to  lOd. 
Bananas . Is.  to  Is.  Cd.  doz . Is.  for  2  i  oz. 
Apples . 8d.  to  lOd.  ner  lb . 3d.  to  8d. 
Failure  of  English  Fruit. 
There  is  no  English  fruit  but  such  as  lias  been  grown  under 
glass.  Frost  in  May  and  rain  during  June  have  played  havoc 
with  the  crops.  Green  Gages,  which  normally  sell  at  five,  six, 
or  seven  shillings  a  half  bushel,  are  now  bringing  anything  from 
ten  to  sixteen  shillings.  Red  Gooseberries,  ivliicli  usually  sell 
at  two  shillings  a  half  bushel,  can  now  fetch  five  or  six  shillings. 
English  Black  Currants  are  at  a  fabulous  price.  What  there  is 
of  them  in  the  market  is  going  for  fourteen  shillings  a.  half 
bushel,  against  an  average  price  of  six  shillings;  rvliile  Red 
Currants,  which  are  very  scarce,  ai’e  worth  six  or  seven  shillings 
the  half  bushel,  as  against  a  normal  three.  As  for  good  English 
Apples,  some  are  now  selling  for  four  shillings  a  half  bushel, 
for  which  in  ordina.i*j’^  times  no  one  would  pay  more  than  Is.  6d. 
or  two  shillings.  In  the  last  fifty  years,  remarks  the  “  Hackney 
Spectator,”  it  is  said  there  has  been  only  one  year  so  bad  as  this. 
Foreign  importations,  principally  from  Germany  and  the  States, 
will  make  up  the  deficiency. 
Scottish  Fruit. 
For  some  years  the  finest  Potatoes  in  the  English  markets 
have  been  of  Scotch  growth.  Scotch  Potato  values  are  always 
higher  than  English  ones.  So  with  forced  Grapes.  The  finest' 
Gros  Colman  grown  in  the  United  Kingdom  for  market  come 
from  Scotch  forcing  houses,  and  for  ten  years  and  more  they  have 
been  unrivalled  for  size,  colour,  and  ejuality.  The  same  may  be 
said  of  Tomatoes.  It  is  only  in  recent  jmars  that  the  soft  fruit 
growing  industry  has  attracted  unusual  attention  in  the  trade. 
This  year  there  has  been  a  phenomenal  boom  in  Scotch  Rasp¬ 
berries  and  Strawberries,  and  English  dealers  scoured  the  fruit 
districts  in  larger  numbers  than  ever  to  obtain  supplies.  Only 
recently  the  output  from  the  Blairgowrie  district  alone  ex¬ 
ceeded  200  tons.  The  quality  of  these  berries  must  be  good,  as 
they  are  bought  up  by  individual  buyers  in  fifty  and  100  ton  lots 
even.  Values  for  Strawberries  ranged  from  £20  to  £26  a  ton. 
Raspberries  made  from  £30  to  £40,  and  it  is  rumoured  that  as 
much  as  £43  a  ton  has  lately  been  given  for  these  fruits.  The 
present  has  been  a  record  season,  and,  as  the  result,  operations 
are  to  be  extended  during  the  next  three  or  four  months.  In 
addition  the  pulping  and  jam  making  industries  are  to  be  de- 
veloiied  by  the  Blairgowrie  growers. 
Foreign  Fruit— Enormous  Volume  of  Trade. 
As  the  result  of  the  failure  of  British  fruit,  observes  “  The 
Globe,”  the  foreign  shipper  this  season  has  got  the  trade  entirely 
in  his  own  hands.  Immense  shipments  are  coming  in  from  the 
Continent.  The  receipt  of  Plums,  Pears,  Currants,  and  Cherries 
has  been  enormous.  Over  80,000  packages  of  French  fruit  alone 
were  put  upon  our  markets  during  the  past  week.  More  than 
60,000  came  from  GermanjL  About  25,000  bushels  of  Apples 
reached  us  in  the  same  period  from  America,  Spain,  and  Russia. 
As  to  Bilberries,  over  45,000  packages  of  them  arrived  from 
Germany  and  Holland,  and  in  the  Midlands  they  have  quite 
displaced  the  popular  Black  Currant.  In  six  days  sixteen 
steamers  brought  124,000  packages  from  Spain,  made  up  of 
Tomatoes,  Melons,  and  Grapes  chiefly.  In  addition  large  parcels 
of  Plums  and  Pears  arrived  from  Belgium,  Holland,  and  Ger¬ 
many.  Among  the  10,000  boxes  of  fruit  sent  from  California 
to  Covent  Garden  were  large  quantities  of  fresh  Plums  and  Pears, 
the  latter  competing  chiefly  with  the  supplies  from  France.  Up 
to  the  present  time  over  1,000,000  packages  of  produce,  chiefly 
fruit  have  been  exported  to  England  from  the  Island  of  Guern¬ 
sey  alone.  As  some  of  these  growers  made  as  much  as  10s.  a 
dozen  for  their  forced  Peaches,  5.s.  and  10s.  each  for  their  early 
Melons,  and  2s.  6d.  a’  pound  for  their  forced  Grapes,  the 
profitable  nature  of  these  import  indu.stries  is  apparent.  The 
foreign  fruit-growers  are  having  a  record  season,  and  week  by 
week  are  taking  more  money  out  of  the  country  than  they  have 
ever  done  before.  The  trade  in  foreign  fruit  is  becoming 
immense. 
Fruit  in  Yorkshire 
The  marketings  of  fruit  are  extremely  limited  this  season 
locally,  the  failure  of  orchard  growths  falling  with  peculiar 
hardship  upon  many  cottage  occupiers  in  the  villages  of  the 
Riding,  who  have  been  wont  to  realise  their  rents  and  a  trifle 
over  from  their  summer  and  autumn  sales.  Bush  fruit  is  scarce, 
and  very  far  below  an  average  crop  ;  hence  its  dearness,  and  the 
l^rices  of  imported  stone  fruit  are  correspondingly  high,  and  ai'e 
likely  to  continue  so,  lacking  home  competition  in  the  form 
of  Plums  and  Apples.  This  will  tell  upon  the  poor,  who  will 
thus  bo  unable  to  introduce  fruit  as  largely  as  they  have  done  in 
years  of  iDlenty  into  their  daily  dietary.  The  Plum  growers  of 
Worcestershire  and  places  nearer  London  have  no  fruit  to  send, 
owing  to  the  sharp  fro.sts  of  the  spring,  and  also  to  the  strong 
winds,  which  destroyed  all  the  blossom.  These  statements,  says 
“The  Eastern  Morning  News,”  are  applicable  to  Yorkshire, 
and  there  are  orchards  in  this  Riding  which  have  not  a  bushel 
of  fruit  in  them. 
Formaldehyde  as  a  Fruit  Preservative. 
A  Press  despatch  this  week  from  Pasadena,  Cal.,  says  that 
fumigation  of  Citrus  fruits  with  a  preparation  of  formaldehyde, 
which  was  recently  undertaken  by  Manager  T.  .J .  Ashby,  of  the 
Pasadena  Lemon  Growers’  Association,  has  met  with  gratifying 
.success.  Eastern  advices  regarding  the  first  shipment  of  fruit 
upon  which  the  preparation  was  used  state  that  nearly  every  box 
of  fruit  was  in  a  splendid  state  of  loreservaticn  when  de.stina- 
tion  was  reached,  there  being  only  five  per  cent,  decay.  There 
were  also  thirty-six  boxes  of  Lemons  in  the:  same  shipment  upon 
which  formaldehyde  had  not  been  used,  and  they  showed  a  decay 
of  twenty-five  per  cent.  The  .success  of  these  experiments  has 
been  so  pronounced  that  they  have  attracted  the  attention  of 
fruit  men  all  over  the  country.  The  Agricultural  Department 
of  the  United  States  Government  has  also  become  interested 
in  them,  and  has  written  to  Manager  Ashby  asking  him  to  fur¬ 
nish  the  Government  with  full  information  concerning  the- 
methods  pursued  and  the  exact  gain  over  the  other  means  in 
general  use  to  attain  the  same  end. — (“  Fruitman’s  Guide.”) 
Isle  of  Wight  Horticultural  Association. 
A  Sweet  Pea  show  was  held  under  the  auspices  of  the  abovo 
association  at  the  Drill  Hall,  Newport,  on  July  31.  Unfortu¬ 
nately  tho  elements  pos.sessed  such  a  potential  influence  in  aiding 
success  or  failure,  that  for  a  week  previously  they  warred 
against,  us.  Five  hundred  vases  of  Sweet  Peas  had  been  pro¬ 
mised  us  by  intended  exhibitors,  but  we  had  perforce  to  content 
ourselves  with  less  than  200  staged,  all  of  which  bore  evidence 
of  violent  .storms  and  tempests.  The  twelve  vases  less  injured 
were  sent  in  by  D.  and  G.  E.  Drabble,  Esqs.,  Los  Altos;  Sandown 
(gardener.  Mi'.  Niblett).  The  Rev.  Knight  Smith  exhibited 
vases  of  the  new  pink  variety.  Countess  Spencer.  Messrs.  Peed 
and  Sons,  of  West  Norwood,  staged  fifty  good  named  varieties, 
and  those  staged  by  R.  Roach  Pittis,  Esq.,  and  Dr.  Shaw,^  were 
fairly  good.  In  the  amateurs’  class  Messrs.  Miller  and  Watson 
were  most  cre'ditable. 
Chief  amongst  miscellaneous  subjects  were  three  dozen  really 
superbly  grown  and  flowered  Gloxinias,  exhibited  by  Di.  Shaw 
(Asylum  Gardens).  There  was  staged  by  Mr.  M.  Prichard  a 
beautiful  and  extensive  collection  of  hardy  perennials  and  alpine 
plants,  many  of  them  now  and  rare,  from  his  nurseries  at 
Christchurch,  Hants;  also  grand  Gladioli  Madame  Hulbot,  deep 
purple  shade,  worthy  extensive  cultivation,  these  having  long 
had  a  big  reputation  for  this  class  of  plant.  Mr.  E.  Cave  staged 
a  clean,  healthy  lot  of  stove  and  greenhouse  plants.  The  above 
three  exhibits  formed  perhaps  the  most  prominent  features  of 
the  show.  Messrs.  D.  and  G.  E.  Drabble  sent  in  good  Muscat 
Grapes  and  collection  of  cut  flowers,  including  a  fine  lot  of  types 
of  Gloxinias;  Dr.  Shaw,  cooking  Apples;  Col.  Pearson  Crozier, 
superb  stands  of  Carnations  and  Picotees;  Mr.  W.  Tee,  New¬ 
port,  staged  beautiful  stands  of  the  former.  Ferns  were  admir¬ 
ably’  shown  by  R.  Roach  Pittis,  Esq. ;  flowering  and  foliage 
plants  by  Mr.  Parsons;  and  Begonias  by  Mil  Dyer.  The 
judging  was  in  the  capable  hands  of  the  Rev.  Knight  Smith, 
Meonstoke,  Hants,  and  Mr.  E.  0.  Goble,  Ryde  Nurseries.  The 
rev.  gentleman  subsequently  read  a  most  instructive  papei  on 
Sweet  Peas  and  their  culture.  The  secretarial  work  was  canned 
mit  by  Messrs.  Triblick  and  Kime. 
