" HE'S GROWING CORN."
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—Most heartily do I agree with your correspondent, " Fruit Grower," whose grievance is, indeed, a real one. Why should the fruit farmer be assessed for rates so highly in comparison with, say, the hop grower ? Consider the capital invested in the two cases as approximately equal, acre for acre (it is, of course, not the case, but assume it), the hop grower should make a profit the third year. The grower of apples, pears, and plums must wait at least seven or eight years for a profitable crop, but he must pay higher rates than the hop grower—in this district 80 per cent. more.
It takes many years of hard work and a large sum of money to develop the land into the necessary high state of fertility for permanent fruit trees, and it is bad enough to be assessable on the result of one's pains. But what I con- sider so hard is that, as a solicitor informs me, one's per- manent trees are considered as part of the land and assessable for rates. They are the fruit farmer'Avestock, no less than the dairy farmer's cows are his livestock. Cattle are not assessable. The comparison is, I think, quite a fair one. Both cows and trees are liable to accident, disease, and barrenness, and both have to be carefully looked after.—
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