COUNTRY LIFE ONE of the Ministers has been bragging about
the great number of fruit-tree stocks imported during the past year. It is, of course, much to the good that our orchards should have the opportunity of increase. We grow too little fruit and too few cider apples, and especially too few perry pears ; but why should we have to import such stocks? France has supplied us for generations with the greater number of apple-stocks used for grafting, especially it the cider country. We have quite neglected this part of the nurseryman's art. A few years ago a great cider-maker decided to try to grow his own stocks, and was himself astounded at his initial success. From the seeds he sowed (out of the refuse of his factory) the shoots-came up as thick as grass blades. You would have said that every seed must have germinated. Contiguous young trees grew over a band some two yards broad and some 200 yards in length ; and thereafter when transplanted they grew very rapidly. Yet even after such a demonstration we still pay other countries for our supplies. Why?
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