Apples for Market
sm,-4 was interested to read the letters on this subject. I know it is only natural that the housewife will buy the good clean fruit, even if it is imported, and refuse the windfalls which will not keep. I knew the orchards of Kent twenty-five years ago, and they then produced the most wonderful fruit, which was all properly, graded ; no foreign fruit could possibly compete with it Today, cila! what has happened to the British grower ? He does not seem to take any, more interest in his fruit. He permits inexperienced pickers to damage the fruit by rough picking, or-by throwing the ladder roughly-nit-to-the trees and knocking all the fruit off. Also a lot of the growers do not bother to prune their trees, which then become too thick for careful picking, It seems that today all the growers want to do is to take in the money and not to lay any out for improvement. If there are any good growers left they will agree with me that you cannot produce good fruit if you do not lay any-money out for maintenance. I have come back from the Colonies after a period of twenty-five years, and I have been very disappointed to see how neglected the Kent orchards are.
In order to improve production I would like to suggest that the Ministry of Agriculture should give more grants to the Y.M.C.A. to put up some more hostels for farm-workers, so that they can be fed and housed _properly. Then the farmer will be able to get plenty of
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