THE GARDEN AND ORCHARD

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1715, 11 January 1905, Page 72 (Supplement)

THE GARDEN AND ORCHARD

HOW TO GROW FRUIT FOR PROFIT. STRAWBERRIES MOST PROFITABLE. (From a Home Paper.) Fruit, both cooked and uncooked, is now more eaten than ever it was. In the form of jam it. is also rapidly displacing the Dutch and other cheap margarines. But its modern uses by no means end here. The various fruit wines seen in confectioners’ shops are enjoying an increasing popularity, while such fruit as damsons, black currants, and raspberries is now extensively used even foi dyeing operations. The foreigners themselves admit that most British fruit is immeasurably superior to that grown on the Continent. How comes it, then, that British fruit gardens and orchards are, generally speaking, not being made to pay ? The answer is that it is not a case of “John RuLl can’t,” but of “John Bull won’t.” John can do a great deal when he sets himself to it, but at present he is letting the foreigner sell him fruit when he ought to he selling to the foreigner. Fruit growing in almost any form will pay in this country if undertaken on the right lines. There is no ordinary fruit which cannot be grown to perfection in some part or other of the British Isles. HOW TO GRO W GOOD APPLES. Such fruits as the peach, grape, and apricot may in places be gro\yii in tlio open air—even the fig will ripen in a bright, sunny chalk-pit—-while it lias been recently demonstrated that a mixed plantation of such hardy fiuits as gooseberries, currants, raspberries, plums and apples can be made to yield from £35 to £35 an acre net annual profit. o>r course, a man going in, say, for apple growing would have to avoid one of those old-fash 1 oned orchards whioro the trees have been planted for generations, ay, even fer centuries. Instead, he should buy healthy young trees from a reliable nurseryman, taking care not to allow their roots to become dried by wind or sun. By bestowing on them his best attention cluiing the early months of the year they will become vigorous and Avelhgt own by autumn.

The beginner should beware of “dwarf” trees from foreign stocks, which bear prodigiously in their early years. Such trees are a bad investment. Being thus enfeebled in infancy they do not “wear.”

“But where should I start fruit growing?” the anxious reader asks. “Almost anywhere,” it may be answered.

THE BEST PLACE FOR A FARM. Of course, a Yorkshire hill-side or a. Devonshire moor is not so suitable for

fruit-growing as the more level and richer lands of Kent or Hereford : still there is capital growing land in the former countries, and it is a fact that the superficial geology of a single acre is often of quite opposite formations. In other words, as a Sussex farmer remarked to the writer, “I have in one c-f my fields some of the worst and some of the best land in all Sussex.” In districts where a little fruit is already grown an idea can often be gained as to whether fruit trees of a particular kind will flourish by noting the appearance of the trees in cottage gardens, gentlemen’s orchards, and the like. For anyone going in for jam-makiiig along with his fruit-growing water carriage would have to be available. He would have to settle the banks of some river or good canal. Bottles, jars, and the like are apt to be smashed if sent by rail. Land that will grow good wheat, or potatoes, or cabbages, will grow good apples. But care must be taken in manuring the young trees.

FRUITS THAT PAY FOR GROWING

It is a mistake to place the manure at the bottom of the hole in which you plant the tree, or yet on the surface of the ground after the tree is planted. The proper way is to fill the hole up to within about three inches ; then to put in about two inches of manure, and cover up with one inch of soil. For sheer profit no kind of fruit can approach the strawberry during the earlier years of its existence. In districts where strawberry farming has been taken up in earnest, the value of land lias been raised from 30s to £3 an acre, and, in some instances, more. The gooseberry has an advantage over moat of its competitors in that it is as much appreciated in the unripe as in the ripe state. It is a simple and hardy plant, and, if growing room be scarce, may even be trained along walls and fences. For a “gooseberry fence,” you first secure the bushes to up-right stakes, then train across wires fixed to the posts.

The raspberry will grow anywhere in clumps or thickets practically wild, while of the black currant it lias been said that “if one position in the garden is cooler and damper than the it may be planted with black-currants. ’ The fruit-grower has won half the battle who can successfully cope with the numerous, bird, animal and insect pests. It, is a pity that a pretty bird like the bullfinch should be subject to the tender mercies of the shot-gun, but it is inevitable, as he simply plays havoc among the green buds. He is a silly bird,however, and an enterprising Jventish farmer is now trapping him by the hundred, and sending him to a certain depot not far from Holborn, where he sells at threepence each. Sparrows also can be readily trapped. A curious fact is that near towns the best bait is soft- bread. In the countiy, however, the sparrow is used to corn, and prefers it in his trap. For the numerous insect pests no-

thing is better than the common or garden fowl, half starved for preference to make lnm voracious. If keptin this condition he will follow you whenever digging operations are in progress, and the number of insects and grubs lie will swallow is incredible. HINTS FOR PACKING. For insects also there are many forms of spray. Among the best of the insecticides is the simple but deadly tobacco water. Two ounces of strongest shag to one gallon of boiling water, and the mixture is ready when it is cool. yß‘ut mo 'amateur should rush into fruit-growing with a view to making his Living out of it all at once. There is much to learn, and a young man who is ambitious cannot do' better than v ork for a while as “labourer” for a recognised grower. There is no need to pay

a “premium.” It is a great tiling to get the fruit to market in proper condition. With rare exceptions, the British grower has no idea how to pack his fruit. He takes the trouble to sort his potatoes, but as to such articles as apples and pears, he lias no idea of what the Americans call “grading.” He just gathers his fruit into baskets, and then clumps it out as though it were so- many hundredweights of coals.

He should take an example from the Continental growers. More French and German newspapers probably come into this country wrapped round various kinds of fruit than in any other way. British fruit is too apt to get to market in a state of pulp. HOW TO SEND OFF THE FRLIT.

Honesty is also a prime requisite to the successful grower. Apart from other considerations, it pays. The Americans know this. With them, there is no putting good “Baldwins” or “Newtons” on the top to hide bad ones underneath. If a thousand barrels of American apples are sold by auction, only one or two at most are sold by auction. The rest can be depended on as being “up to sample.’ Certain kinds of fruit are now often sent per parcel post. Railway transit is still very far from what it ought to be. However, it is improving, and growers accustomed to deal with the big companies know that there are “wheels within wheels.” Various little handbooks are published on raiLway rates which give excellent information. A first-rate plan is to start your growing where there are two opposing lines. Growers banded together in such districts are able to obtain all sorts of Luxuries in the way of “fruit specials,” that otherwise they would only be able to dream about. Nearness to the sea or a navigable river is also very useful. Some Lincolnshire growers recently brought a great railway to its knees by threatening to charter a steamer to put their produce on the London market.