This export of apples is in sharp contrast with the
rather unpleasant figures quoted in an unusual debate in the House of Commons on jam. A great deal of the jam we eat does not contain more than some 20 per cent, of fruit, and that is in the form of fruit pulp—made doubtless out of any or every quality of fruit—imported from abroad. After the same fashion (though this was not mentioned in the House) a good deal of cider is made from imported Juices of unaseer- tained quality. Now the fruit industry in England is on a great scale. It was said that over 21,000,000 a year is spent on wages to pickers. More than one grower has already begun to grub up his bushes, owing to the jam-makers' preference for imported pulp. The organizers of the National Mark have a great opportunity. No essay of theirs promises better than the placing of the Mark on British tinned fruit. Why not National Mark jam ? Nothing is so likely to do good to British producers on the land than a demand for good food. The popularity of fourth rate stuff (such as stale eggs, skimmed and sweetened milk, composite and synthetic cream, or conglomerate jam) is twice cursed : it does the consumer little good and the home producer much harm.
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