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Excerpt from Fruit Farming: Practical and Scientific, for Commercial Fruit Growers and Others
New occasions teach new duties; Time makes ancient good uncouth; They must upward still, and onward, Who would keep abreast of truth. Lowell. When originally invited by the Editor of the Fruit, Flower and Vegetable Trades' Journal to write a series of articles on Fruit Farming for that publication, to be subsequently supplemented and issued in book-form as a reliable text-book for the industry, I felt it would be somewhat too heavy a responsibility for my individual efl'ort. However, talking the matter over with a friend (one of the best cultivators and most successful fruit growers in Kent). He said: We fruit growers are too busy with raising and selling our produce to write books, but if I can help you by telling you anything I will at any time gladly do so. Encouraged by this offer of assistance, I entered upon the task, and with the help of gentlemen recognised as authorities in the practice and in the science of the industry, I have endeavoured to give details of the best methods of management and practice, together with advice based on some ten years' personal experience of the pleasures, difficulties and anxieties of fruit farming at Highlands, Swanley, Kent. Various work and visits had taken me into most of the fruit-growing districts of Kent and other counties, and again I have to thank many growers for so kindly showing me their plantations and patiently answering my numerous questions. Previously, in delivering courses of lectures on Fruit Growing and Insect Pests for the Worcestershire Chamber of Agriculture at eleven different centres, I had taken the opportunity of visiting the principal fruit - growing districts in that beautiful county. A year spent among the fruit growers of the Cornwallis Valley, in Nova Scotia, Canada, enabled me to observe the good work of the Nova Scotian Fruit Growers' Association, its conferences, its fruit growing school for students and farmers (which I attended during the winter), its public demonstrations in pruning and spraying, and the spirit of co - operation which inspires the fruit growers of the province to work together for their mutual advancement; it also showed me the benefit of the telephone on the farm and the packing house at the railway depot. What I saw convinced me that, although the best English fruit plantations are probably as well managed as any in Canada or the usa, the majority of the fruit plantations and orchards in England are not as good as the average of those countries, where the growers are by nature progressive, the surroundings and climate helping to make them so. Iwas much struck at the time by the excellent bulletins issued by the agricultural experiment stations and by the Provincial Government departments. However, now our own Ministry of Agricul ture has an excellent series of leaflets on fruit cultivation, insects, diseases, etc., which all fruit growers or intending growers will do well to read, mark and learn. In these strenuous times home growers, in order to maintain pre - eminence in our own markets, must work shoulder to shoulder and cease to look upon their immediate neighbours as competitors, but rather as brothers with common interests. For this second edition the whole work has been carefully revised and in many cases rewritten. Several specialists have kindly contributed valuable chapters, as will be noted by a glance at the Table of Contents. I sincerely hope the book will help the monetary side of fruit growing, and also add interest from the many points of view from which the subject is dealt with cecil henry hooper. Oxenturn House, Wye, Kent, June, 1921.
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Excerpt from Fruit Farming: Practical and Scientific, for Commercial Fruit Growers and Others On one of the Manor Cottages, No Gains, Pershore, where he lived, a Blue Diamond plum still grows. A flower of this tree was pollinated by Martin with pollen from Rivers' Early Prolific plum. He sowed the seed in a flower pot. In 1877 he moved to Broughton, 2 or 3 miles from Pershore, where he had rented 10 acres of woodland (Caddieroft), which he gradually grubbed. Here he planted his little tree. He grew fruit and vegetables for market. He took great interest in raising apples and plums from their seeds, and watched what their fruits were like, but the Pershore Purple was the best fruit tree he raised. He propagated it by suckers and grafting. It is a first-rate commercial plum, spreading over the country as its value becomes known; it is also a good stock for other plums. He cultivated his small holding up to 1900. The land now belongs to Mr. Charles Watkins. The original tree is still in the hedge. In the garden of the old toll-house where he lived (and where his grandson now lives) may be seen other apple and plum trees that he raised from seed which are of interest. Like many benefactors to the human race he did not become rich, but was of a happy disposition and contented. In March, 1919, when 91 years old, he was busy digging up plum suckers the day previous to his death. The inhabitants of Pershore some fifteen years previously presented him with a new tricycle when his old one, on which he had for many years brought his produce to Pershore Market, wore out. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, su
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