Fruit farming: practical and scientific, for commercial fruit growers and others

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FRUIT FARMING:

PRACTICAL AND SCIENTIFIC

Chapter I. How And What To Learn

The question a man or woman intending to take up fruit growing as a business has to decide is how to learn the business, whether he or she should learn it at a college, or on a farm, or on both. Thos: in authority at a college will always say that while a great deal can be learnt at a college, the intending grower must also go to work on a well-managed commercial fruit farm, for two years, if possible, to learn the management of labour, buying and selling, etc., and the close financial part which the college training is not so well adapted to impart. A month or more in the fruit season spent with a fruit salesman is also a useful business training. Let us examine some of the subjects of which it is advisable for the fruit farmer to have more or less knowledge, whether he attends an agri-horticultural college or not. There is a great deal that can be learnt from text-books and the horticultural journals without attending lectures, but it needs greater patience to study alone, and subjects like chemistry, plant diseases, and insect pests are certainly far more easily studied in lectures, laboratories and museums, than in one’s parlour on the farm. Actually fruit farming is nearly always combined with market gardening, general agriculture, dairying, or poultry, but we will limit our considerations to subjects directly affecting fruit farming.

Practica, Worx.—The student should try to learn the right time and the right way to do every operation on the fruit farm; pains and practice make the work efficient and quick; being able to do it one’s self has a secondary advantage in being able to judge whether another person is doing it well, and in being able to show how to do it. A student ona farm is often asked to pay the wages, which teaches him accuracy and business.

PomoLocy.—Includes special attention to the requirements of the different kinds

TO BECOME A FRUIT FARMER.

of fruit, study of growth of the tree, and the fruit of different commercial varieties ; recognition of the different varieties, their inerits, and faults, and season (and even their history). Planting, cultivation, propagation, picking, grading, packing and marketing of the different fruits.

Lanp Merasurina. — Includes finding areas and making plans of fields and orchards of various shapes; recording the varieties planted on a plan; taking levels for supply of water, or drainage of land; understanding the ordnance and geological maps.

Buitpine Construcrion. — A slight knowledge of materials and construction of sheds, etc.; elementary carpentry, for repair and upkeep of buildings and machinery.

Fencina.—Of various kinds, wire, live fences, hedges, wind breaks.

Farm Roaps.—Their making and _ upkeep. (A jolty road will damage strawberries and even apples.)

Macuinery.—A knowledge of the construction of and adjustment of ploughs, harrows, rolls, drills, markers and the smaller implements and tools, and care of same. Spraying machinery construction, regulating and cleaning out of knapsack, tanks and motor spray-pumps; wind pumps; hydraulic ram; boilers: steam, oil and petrol engines as motor power. Telephone.

Farm Manacement inp Economics.— Principles underlying the selection of a farm, whether for renting or purchase, rates, taxes, tithe, quit rent. Capital required to stock and develop fruit plantations; judging a horse; management and cost of labour, piece work, judging work, fixing prices. Possibilities of co-operation with neighbouring growers, or profit-sharing with workers. Aim at producing the greatest quantity of the best quality fruit at the least cost, and at getting the fruit into the hands of the con-

x sumer in the best condition in the shortest time, and at a reasonable price; if successful give the workers a bonus.

Account Kerepinc. — Wages book or journal, invoice book, cash book with columns to analyse under headings the amounts received and spent, bought and sold books or ledger of unpaid accounts, money due and money owing; cheque book, paying-in book, pass book. The object of accounts is to show where one stands, and at the end of the year whether there is a profit or loss. For the purpose of Income-tax, the receipts and payments have to be analysed into headings such as rent, wages, manures, implements, etc. For this purpose an inventory and valuation should really be made yearly. An account should be kept of packages (empties). It may be well sometimes to keep cost of certain crops, as to yield, etc., to see whether they pay.

Bre-Kreepinc.—To handle and manage bees throughout the year; the diseases of bees and their treatment.

If the fruit farm pupil goes to College he should learn :—

HorricuLTuRAL CHEMISTRY.—The necessary elements required by plants; the various manures, their uses and what they supply; to understand a chemical analysis of a manure and value a manure from its chemical composition; what manures can be mixed and what should not be mixed; test a soil for lime in the field. Be able to interpret to some degree a soil analysis. Study results of experiments in the manuring of different kinds of fruit. Have some knowledge of the composition of fungicides and insecticides, and what substances can be mixed, and which are unsuitable for mixing. Hard and soft water.

Botany.—How plants grow, and how plants feed, structure of a plant and the functions of its different parts; knowledge of the common weeds and their destruction; principles involved in keeping plants in health; physiology of taking cuttings; winter and summer pruning; grafting; budding; plant reproduction; plant-breeding; pollenation and fertilization; to distinguish flower and leaf buds in the various fruit trees and bushes; the stocks used for different fruits.

Piant Parnotocy. — Recognition, prevention and cure of the more common fungous and bacterial diseases of fruits, together with their life-history, including apple and pear scab, brown rot of plums, cherries and apples, American gooseberry mildew, apple canker, cherry leaf scorch, peach leaf-curl, silver leaf, die-back of gooseberries, strawberry mildew; be able to prepare and mount microscope slides of plant diseases; make up Bordeaux mixture, lime sulphur (understand hydrometer), winter and summer strength spraying. Powder dusting. Uses and costs of different fungicide applications. The control of insects and fungous pests by legislation.

ZootoGy AND EnromoLtocy.—The influence of the common animals and birds on fruit-growing; useful insects; injurious insects, their life histories, prevention and remedy, including codlin moth, apple sawfly, apple sucker, woolly aphis, winter and allied moths, lackey moths, the various aphides, apple blossom weevil, raspberry and loganberry beetles, gooseberry sawfly and magpie moth, black-currant gall mite, red spider, wasp, scale insects, capsid bugs. The proportions and methods of mixing the standard insecticides for winter and summer washes for the various insects; some knowledge of the caustic washes, lime spray, emulsions, poisons, nicotine wash, and whether they may be mixed to kill more than one class of insect at a time; the relative cost per 100 gallons of different sprays; quantities required per tree or per acre. Knowledge of the best trade insecticides and fungicides. Dust insecticides; fumigation, grease banding, soil sterilization.

GeoLogy.—The relation of top soil to subsoil and underlying rocks; the likes and dislikes of plants as to soil and moisture in soil; influence of local geology on wells, water supply and drainage; what a mechanical analysis of a soil is; the classification of soils (sand, clay, humus, lime, loam, etc.) ; cover crops.

MereoroLocy anpD Puysics.—Heat and light, their influence on a favourable aspect, earliness, influence of colour of soil; evaporation, dew, mist, mist-line; influence of water, river, lake and sea on fruit growing. Foretelling of frosts in spring; smudging and orchard heating. Gales, direction of prevailing winds, wind breaks; local geography of district in which one lives. Rainfall and temperature as influencing crops.

Law 1N Revation to FruirGrowine.— If land is to be rented, ascertain two things: (1) that the land is suitable for fruit-growing; (2) that the landlord is in sympathy with the use of his land as a fruit farm, and will compensate you on quitting if you have really improved the letting value of his farm by planting fruit. Study the Agricultural Holdings Act as regards fruit planting, realise that the words ‘‘ this farm is let as a fruit farm,”’ must appear in the agreement or lease, in order to be able to claim compensation for fruit planting. Solicitors who control and manage estates appear to think it their duty to be unfair to the fruit farmer, and omit the words, or put in something to make the Act not apply. Beware! If no compensation is agreed, insist on the lease being for 21 years or longer. Deal with the landlord himself, or his agent, rather than with a solicitor, who knows nothing about land management, and cares nothing about the property, except for grinding rent out of it. A landowner, of course, has a right to know what acreage a tenant wishes to plant, and what compensation would be likely to be. Do not enter the farm till all points in the agreement are on paper and you have agreed to them. The best English landlords are the best in the world; many take personal interest in their estates and in the weltare of their tenants; choose one of them and prove yourself worthy.

An agreement for one or two years can be drawn up by a land agent, but a lease for three or more years must be drawn up by a solicitor, for the latter there is a scale of fees based on the rental. The cost of the lease should be borne equally by landlord and tenant. The cost of a lease can be arranged beforehand independent of the scale.

Lanp PuRcHASE AND ENFRANCHISEMENT or CopyHoLtp.—If purchasing land or a farm, study the system of National Land Registry; the office is in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London. It is the best possible system, adopted in Canada and other Colonies. The deeds are registered once for all and a property can be transferred in half an hour by buyer and seller meeting at the Land Registry, instead of a squabble between solicitors lasting, say, half a year, thus saving time and money. C. H. H. has had some experience. If one wishes to enfranchise copyhold land and redeem “‘ quit rent,’? get it carried through by the Ministry of Agriculture, rather than by solicitors. I know of one case in 1920 in which the buyer and seller of a property had to pay £20 between them to get rid of the copyhold tenure and annual quit rent of 2s. on an acre of grass land. England wants inexpensive and quick transfer of land, the heavy expenses, largely owing to legal expenses, are a tremendous hindrance that should be done away with for the good of the country.

Chapter II. Capital Required For Fruit Farming

PREPARATION OF LAND FOR FRUIT PLANTING.

With regard to the best and most economical method of preparing land for fruit planting, one of the largest and best cultivators of fruit in Kent steam cultivates his land intended for planting, after dunging it, ploughing 9 inches deep and subsoiling 9 inches deeper. The subsoil is only stirred and not brought up to the surface.

The manuring would be either dung, costing £7 per acre, or, as he more often uses for fruit, one ton of wool waste and half a ton of bone meal, costing a little under £5; steam cultivating £2; total £7 (pre-war cost).

Potatoes form a good crop to precede fruit, if manured well with dung and artificials and well worked.

It is very important to have the land thoroughly clean of weeds before planting, as if couch grass gets among the roots of trees or bushes it almost involves -digging them up in order to get the weed from the roots. Convolvulus or bindweed is also a very tiresome weed among fruit. Dandelions are troublesome if among strawberries.

Tue Starr.

Supposing a man starts with 12 acres ot suitable land, either buying it at, say, £35 per acre, or renting it at 30s. to 50s. per acre, with an equitable agreement with his landlord as to compensation if his plantations are successful in case he has to leave. The soil is good, the land fairly high lying, consisting of 6 acres on each side of a high road, within half a mile of a railway station, or within, say, four miles of a seaside resort. The two fields are surrounded by good hawthorn hedges, and there are no rabbits and hares that in an ordinary way enter these fields. If fencing is required against rabbits, and for protection, the present cost is about 1s.

per foot run, or about £10 per acre. After the land has been ploughed, followed by subsoiler, or deep steam cultivated, a roadway is made through the centre of each field, and _ planting is commenced, consisting in one field of bush apples, chiefly on broadleaved paradise stock, 12ft. apart; black currants, 6ft. by 3ft., probably strawberries between, and possibly with onions sown between these in the first year. The other field may be plums or Morello cherries, with a few pears, with, say, raspberries, gooseberries or red currants between. Pears do not thrive and pay everywhere, by any means.

This little farm may employ one or two men, as well as the owner, and the latter must endeavour to limit his expenses for three or four years, to, say, £60 to £100 a year for personal expenditure, and stick close to his work,

With regard to the buildings, I would suggest as desirable for a 12 acre fruit farm an arrangement as follows, wooden buildings with corrugated iron roof and weather board sides.

My late friend, Corporal A. D. Nickalls, when carpentry instructor at Wye Agricultural College, kindly calculated the cost of such a building, 56ft. long, 12ft. wide, 8ft. high to eaves; packing shed 21ft. long ; office 8ft.; cart shed, 15ft. ; tool shed, 6ft.; stable, 6ft.: as follows:— Plates, 17s. 6d., £1 3s. 4d.; posts, 6s. ; studs, £3 6s. 8d.; rafters, £2 13s. 4d.; tie beam, 8s. 4d.; weatherboard, £5 14s.: 7 windows, £5 5s.; 6 doors, £1 15s. ; purlin, £1 1s. 8d.; partitions, £2 18s. : roof (ron), £10 5s.; floor to office, £1 5s.; packing benches. £1 3s. 6d.: labour, £14 10s. ; creosote, 7s. 6d.; nails, £1 2s. 6d.: total £52 2s. 4d. If lined, £8 1s. 6d.; if brick foundation, £6 extra. Total, £68 3s. 10d, This being previous to the war, let us say £150 now.

In a paper I read some time ago at the

Surveyors’ Institution on ‘ Fruit-growing lack of which was the great drawback to as an Auxiliary to Agriculture,’ I said all ventures, he thought I had somewhat that ‘ fruit-growing requires a larger under-estimated this. He found that on working capital than ordinary agricul- plantations in full bearing it took £20 to ture. If £10 per acre is needed for agri- £25 to cover labour, picking, manure, rent. cultural land, probably £15 to £20 will be rates and taxes, marketing, interest on required for fully-grown fruit trees and capital, and a proportionate amount of bushes on arable land. For new land more capital to be written off each year, and he capital is necessary, first, to plant the thought that at least £30 an acre was _land, secondly, to maintain it till it viclds required to take a fully-planted fruit farm sufficient to pay expenditure. This latter in full bearing, especially as there was point is one of great importance, as while always a chance of one or two successive in ordinary farming one gets payment bad seasons to start with.

during cach year for what is grown, in ‘He estimated the cost of planting a the case of newly-planted fruit trees and mixed plantation (i.e., half standard or bushes one has to wait a considerable time standard trees, apples, plums, or cherbefore a profitable return commences. ries, with bush fruit below) at £24 per Strawberries and raspberries are the first acre, provided the land was clean, and

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Sn 56% oe? ~ Grounpn Puan of Buitoines ror a 12 acre yt u! 4* Fruit Farm we crops that become remunerative, the exclusive of the cost of wire netting, which former in their second year after }.lanting, was necessary where hares and rabbits the latter in their third. Gooseberries, abounded, and also exclusive of anything black and red currants, require four or which might be due for cultivation, corn five years before they yield satisfactorily. and cake, etc., to an outgoing tenant. A Plums, nuts, apples, cherries and pears man who took bare land and planted it need longer still; for some of them as with fruit would require at least £80 per much as ten years are required before acre for capital.

they can be really called profitable. “He would never advise persons, if Hence it is necessary to have capital to they could help it, to plant fruit with bormeet the expenses of rent, labour, rowed capital; the interest would hang manure, taxes, rates, etc., until the crops like a load round the neck of the business. return a profit; and it is therefore not It was much better to begin by planting advisable to plant too large an area unless @ small area and to feel one’s way there is ample capital.’ gradually.

In the discussion that followed my “ Fruit growing was a business and a paper, Mr. ©. D, Wise (who for twelve science, and it was only by experience, - years had managed the Toddington fruit and in many cases by loss of capital, that farm of about 1,000 acres established by men who embarked rashly in the business Lord Sudeley) made a number of interest- found this out. As in the case of all trades ing remarks on the subject of fruit farm- an apprenticeship must be gone through. ing He said: ‘In reference to capital, “A tenant could only hope for success on selected areas, where soil and situation were favourable, near a railway station, and with security of tenure—say, a lease of at least 30 years—with a distinct understanding as to compensation at the end of the tenancy.

“‘ Given capital, a landlord who would find the trees, some knowledge of the business and a favourable spot on which to commence, there was no doubt that many a tenant farmer might augment his income by planting a small acreage of fruit to commence with, and, by gradually feeling his way, might establish a good business. The landlord would be increasing the value of his estate, and the labourer would find a greater inducement to remain on the land.”

Again, when preparing a paper on “‘Compensation for Fruit Planting,” to read before the Surveyors’ Institute, Mr. Walter Kruse, of Truro, Cornwall, most kindly wrote to me on the subject of the cost of raising a plantation of fruit. ‘‘ In my opinion the cost of raising a plantation of fruit has been vastly under-estimated. The estimates may be very well on paper, but do not work out in practice. Tt is all very well to put down the cost of trees and planting the ground, etc., but nothing is allowed for contingencies which always occur and there are a great many expenses not included. Nothing is allowed for fencing, gates, fruit lodges, making roads into the plantations, broken trees, re-grafting varieties which prove unsuitable, or for that which is much the greatest item—the cost of cultivation until profitable, together with tithes, taxes, etc.

““T have planted several farms in Kent, and I will give the cost of the second of these which I planted. It was a farm of 28 acres, the whole of which I planted with fruit (except, of course, the land occupied by the house, yard and buildings).

“The cost of planting and cultivation the first two years, after deducting the amount of fruit, potatoes, etc., sold, was £2,070. Besides this, there was an outlay of £90 for fencing, lodges, cart lodges, etc. This makes a total of £2,300, and with loss on cultivation a little longer until the fruit trees paid expenses, came to about £2,888 or fully £100 per acre. My subsequent experience in planting confirms this sum. If and £140 for fruit.

worked out on the actual net acreage, after deducting rates, etc., the cost would be higher. I went to work as cheaply as I could and grew strawberries to bring a quick return, as my name was known in several markets for sending the best strawberries to those markets, I got very good prices, so I doubt if anyone could do it for less money.

““Mhe reason the cost of planting 1s usually under-estimated is, I think, because the expenses of cultivation are mixed with those of other crops, and farmers do not keep a sqparate account of them.”

Estimate oF Cost oF Prantine, by Mr. Walter Kruse :—

Cultivating and clearing land, £2 to £4 ...... 3 Manuring, from £1 to £10 . 4 Setting out plantation, 12 feet apart for 6ft. by 3ft. for bushes oo... ees 305 apple and plum trees, at Is... 15 5 0 2,115 gooseberries at 12s. a 100 ...... 1214 0 2,420 a Digging holes and planting trees

at 8s. per 100, £1 4s. 4d.; stakes

and staking at 2d. each, £2 10s. 10d. 315 % Digging holes and planting goose-

Rent, docks, couch, ete., by hand, pruning, and general cultivation, washing, re-tying trees, share of foreman’s time, finding men work when cultivation cannot be done—for thre years at £10 a year . 3000 Replacing dead trees and bushes .. = 12 0

£75 110

Share of fencing and packing lodge 5 0 0 Share of roads ........... E a bien eo iaeeas Fe 10

9 010 rates, cultivation, including digging

—— 0 0 Interest on capital £66, at 5 per cent., equals 6s. per annum for three years ............ 918 0

£90 19 10

I have quoted Mr. Wise and Mr. Kruse at length, because of their wide experience, and because they expressed their opinion in a very lucid manner. My experience coincides with what they said, but is on a smaller scale.

Owing to the vastly changed conditions of labour and all else, the prices and figures quoted can only be taken as referring fairly approximately to things as they were before the war. At the present time it is almost impossible to offer any reliable estimate, but it is fairly safe to predict prices and cost will never again come within 50 per cent. of those before the war. See also Appendix notes.

CHAPTER ITI.

ON THE SELECTION OF A FARM FOR FRUIT GROWING.

There are many points to be considered in taking a farm; one will probably not get everything satisfactory in any farm, but it is essential to strive to get as many details promising success as_ possible. Suitable land is necessary in a convenient locality and at a reasonable price, if purchased; if rented one wants it at a fair rent, with a reasonable landlord, and, if possible, one who takes interest in the venture.

There are undoubtedly many advantages in ownership of land for fruit farming. It, however, necessitates double the amount of capital, so that in most cases a tenancy is preferable when all things are considered.

The land should be fertile, preferably a somewhat deep soil and one that is kindly to work, otherwise one has to spend an undue amount of money ‘in muscle and manure ’’ in order to get good crops.

As to situation, some grewers favour moderately high land, if not too much wind swept, and a great point is to choose land as little exposed as possible to the danger of injury by spring frosts. The fertile fruit-growing district around Wisbech, although flat and low-lying, is nevertheless little liable to damage by frost, apparently due to the sea alr. In this immunity it resembles the famous apple orchards of the Annapolis and Cornwallis valley of Nova Scotia, which is near the sea, yet sheltered from it by a range of hills. Local observation is therefore necessary, together with the experience of those who live in the district. One can point cut on the map the districts that have proved themselves the most successful fruit growing parts of Britain. Some of these are favoured by soil, as the Kentish rag near Maidstone, the old red sandstone in Herefordshire and the lias clay in Worcestershire. There are many districts where fruit thrives well in gardens, where commercial fruit growing has never been tried, which might be suitable if convenient for the sale of the fruit. In a new district it is necessary to train men to the work and to ascertain what varieties of fruit thrive best before planting extensively.

For soft fruits (strawberries, raspberries, ripe plums and = gooseberries), which need to be sent away as soon as gathered, the farm needs to be within, say, 2 miles of a station, or say 10 or 15 miles of a market town. Apples and nuts not needing quick despatch may be grown further from a railway station.

Another consideration is shelter; the land should not be too much exposed to strong winds, which cause many apple fruits to fall if there is a gale.

For unplanted land for fruit farming one does not generally want to give .nore than £50 per acre to purchase, or 30s. per acre to rent. Fruit growing districts usually pay slightly higher wages for labour than agricultural districts, and, for fruit picking, women and children are usually easily got either locally or from neighbouring towns, as the pay is fairly good, the time of year pleasant, and the work, though long, is not too arduous. The amount of labour employed on a fruit farm is probably ten times as great as on an agricultural farm, and still far more so than on a grass sheep farm of the same size in the same locality, so that fruit farming is a fine industry for employing labour, and is therefore of national advantage.

It is as well to have some ready-planted fruit land on the farm (if it has been well planted and managed), otherwise the waiting period is so long, as some fruit trees, even as bush, do not do the planter much good till they have been six or eight years in the land, though currants, gooseberries and raspberries will help when three years planted, or strawberries their second year; vegetables and other crops may be grown between, however, if there is a sale for them. To work fruit land takes a great deal more capital per acre than agricultural land does, requiring, say, £30 per acre for ready-planted land, and to plant trees on arable land will need an outlay of close upon £100 per acre, and now, with increased costs, even £150, before they are remunerative. Even strawberries will have cost £35 or more, if well manured and cultivated, before they begin to bear. The rent of an established orchard may vary from £5 to £15 or even more per acre, according to its capacity of money return. The price of fruit on the trees or bushes when sold by auction per acre varies in Kent from about £2 to £20 or more for the best, according to crop, variety and locality.*

In renting land it is very desirable to know something of the landlord and his agent. I thm it may be accepted in general that the best landlords are those whose ancestors have for generations proved themselves fair to their tenants, have realized that ownership has its duties as well as its privileges and who carry out a principle of ‘live and let live.” Times have, however, been hard on many landowners owning agricultural property without any town or other property to help the balance.

Landowners freshly come from business or professions often lack the mutual trust and interest in local affairs that men have who have known the inhabitants from boyhood.

A man generally makes a better landowner than a woman, the latter being apt to look on her landed possessions simply as rent-making machines, taking little or no interest in the welfare either of the property or its people. This is accentuated if she employs her family solicitor to transact her business instead of a land agent who understands agricultural affairs. The former is apt to act in an unmerciful way with a tenant to extract

*In view of the changing conditions through which the industry is now passing, these figures can only be taken as representing comparative values.—Editor, F. PF. and V.T. J.

the last pound of flesh in the way of rent and neglect necessary repairs, regardless of the permanent welfare of the estate. The cost of an agreement or a lease should not be great and it should be borne equally by landlord and tenant and not charged to the tenant only.

I knew one case of a solicitor who apparently knew nothing of the farm he was letting. In the draft lease, amongst the many clauses and restrictions inserted, was one that “‘ fishing and shooting were reserved to the landlord.’’? Actually a rain water tank was the largest sheet of water on the farm. In this case the prospective tenant, in self-protection, got his own solicitor to look after his interests in the lease. The total result was that he had to pay for the time of both solicitors, and the lease cost the tenant £50 for a farm of 130 acres. I merely mention this as a warning, as I fully believe there are many landlords who are and would be willing to make equitable arrangements with tenants who intend planting and cultivating fruit.