Part 8

The market for fruit, and more especially for flowers, is a fickle one, and there is nearly always some uncertainty as to the course of prices. The perishable nature of soft fruit and cut flowers renders the markets very sensitive to anything in the nature of a glut, the occurrence of which is usually attended with disastrous results to producers. Foreign competition, moreover, has constantly to be faced, and it is likely to increase rather than diminish. French growers have a great advantage over the open-air cultivators of England, for the climate enables them to get their produce into the markets early in the season, when the highest prices are obtainable. The geographical advantage which France enjoys in being so near to England is, however, considerably discounted by the increasing facilities for cold storage in transit, both by rail and sea. The development of such facilities permits of the retail sale in England of luscious fruit as fresh and attractive as when it was gathered beneath the sunny skies of California. In the case of flowers, fashion is an element not to be ignored. Flowers much in request in one season may meet with very little demand in another, and it is difficult for the producer to anticipate the changes which caprice may dictate. Even for the same kind of flower the requirements are very uncertain, and the white blossom which is all the rage in one season may be discarded in favour of one of another colour in the next. The sale of fresh flowers for church decoration at Christmas and Easter has reached enormous dimensions. The irregularity in the date of the festival, however, causes some inconvenience to growers. If it falls very early the great bulk of suitable flowers may not be sufficiently forward for sale, whilst a late Easter may find the season too far advanced. The trade in cut flowers, therefore, is generally attended by uncertainty, and often by anxiety. (W. FR.; J. WS.)

UNITED STATES

In the United States horticulture and market gardening have now assumed immense proportions. In a country of over 3,000,000 sq. m., stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific on the one hand, and from the Gulf of Mexico to the great northern lakes and the Dominion of Canada on the other, a great variation of climatic conditions is not unnatural. From a horticultural point of view there are practically two well-defined regions: (1) that to the east of the Rocky Mountains across to the Atlantic, where the climate is more like that of eastern Asia than of western Europe so far as rainfall, temperature and seasonable conditions are concerned; (2) that to the west of the Rockies, known as the Pacific coast region, where the climate is somewhat similar to that of western Europe. It may be added that in the northern states--in Washington, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, &c.--the winters are often very severe, while the southern states practically enjoy a temperature somewhat similar to that of the Riviera. Indeed the range of temperature between the extreme northern states and the extreme southern may vary as much as 120 deg. F. The great aim of American gardeners, therefore, has been to find out or to produce the kinds of fruits, flowers and vegetables that are likely to flourish in different parts of this immense country.

_Fruit Culture._--There is probably no country in the world where so many different kinds of fruit can be grown with advantage to the nation as in the United States. In the temperate regions apples, pears and plums are largely grown, and orchards of these are chiefly to be found in the states of New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Missouri, Colorado, and also in northern Texas, Arkansas and N. California. To these may be added cranberries and quinces, which are chiefly grown in the New England states. The quinces are not a crop of first-rate importance, but as much as 800,000 bushels of cranberries are grown each year. The peach orchards are assuming great proportions, and are chiefly to be found in Georgia and Texas, while grapes are grown throughout the Republic from east to west in all favourable localities. Oranges, lemons and citrons are more or less extensively grown in Florida and California, and in these regions what are known as Japanese or "Kelsey" plums (forms of _Prunus triflora_) are also grown as marketable crops. Pomegranates are not yet largely grown, but it is possible their culture will develop in southern Texas and Louisiana, where the climate is tempered by the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Tomatoes are grown in most parts of the country so easily that there is frequently a glut; while the strawberry region extends from Florida to Virginia, Pennsylvania and other states--thus securing a natural succession from south to north for the various great market centres.

Of the fruits mentioned apples are undoubtedly the most important. Not only are the American people themselves supplied with fresh fruit, but immense quantities are exported to Europe--Great Britain alone absorbing as much as 1,430,000 cwt. in 1908. The varieties originally grown were of course those taken or introduced from Europe by the early settlers. Since the middle of the 19th century great changes have been brought about, and the varieties mostly cultivated now are distinctly American. They have been raised by crossing and intercrossing the most suitable European forms with others since imported from Russia. In the extreme northern states indeed, where it is essential to have apple trees that will stand the severest winters, the Russian varieties crossed with the berry crab of eastern Europe (_Pyrus baccata_) have produced a race eminently suited to that particular region. The individual fruits are not very large, but the trees are remarkably hardy. Farther south larger fruited varieties are grown, and among these may be noted Baldwins, Newton pippins, Spitzenbergs and Rhode Island greening. Apple orchards are numerous in the State of New York, where it is estimated that over 100,000 acres are devoted to them. In the hilly regions of Missouri, Arkansas and Colorado there are also great plantations of apples. The trees, however, are grown on different principles from those in New York State. In the latter state apple trees with ordinary care live to more than 100 years of age and produce great crops; in the other states, however, an apple tree is said to be middle-aged at 20, decrepit at 30 and practically useless at 40 years of age. They possess the advantage, however, of bearing early and heavily.

Until the introduction of the cold-storage system, about the year 1880, America could hardly be regarded as a commercial fruit-growing country. Since then, however, owing to the great improvements made in railway refrigerating vans and storage houses, immense quantities of fruit can be despatched in good condition to any part of the world; or they can be kept at home in safety until such time as the markets of Chicago, New York, Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, &c., are considered favourable for their reception.

Apple trees are planted at distances varying from 25 ft. to 30 ft. apart in the middle western states, to 40 ft. to 50 ft. apart in New York State. Here and there, however, in some of the very best orchards the trees are planted 60 ft. apart every way. Each tree thus has a chance to develop to its utmost limits, and as air and light reach it better, a far larger fruit-bearing surface is secured. Actual experience has shown that trees planted at 60 ft. apart--about 28 to the acre--produce more fruit by 43 bushels than trees at 30 ft. apart--i.e. about 48 to the acre.

Until recent years pruning as known to English and French gardeners was practically unknown. There was indeed no great necessity for it, as the trees, not being cramped for space, threw their branches outwards and upwards, and thus rarely become overcrowded. When practised, however, the operation could scarcely be called pruning; lopping or trimming would be more accurate descriptions.

Apple orchards are not immune from insect pests and fungoid diseases, and an enormous business is now done in spraying machines and various insecticides. It pays to spray the trees, and figures have been given to show that orchards that have been sprayed four times have produced an average income of L211 per acre against L103 per acre from unsprayed orchards.

The spring frosts are also troublesome, and in the Colorado and other orchards the process known as "smudging" is now adopted to save the crops. This consists in placing 20 or 30, or even more, iron or tin pots to an acre, each pot containing wooden chips soaked in tar (or pitch) mixed with kerosene. Whenever the thermometer shows 3 or 4 degrees of frost the smudge-pots are lighted. A dense white smoke then arises and is diffused throughout the orchards, enveloping the blossoming heads of the trees in a dense cloud. This prevents the frost from killing the tender pistils in the blossoms, and when several smudge-pots are alight at the same time the temperature of the orchard is raised two or three degrees. This work has generally to be done between 3 and 5 A.M., and the growers naturally have an anxious time until all danger is over. The failure to attend to smudging, even on one occasion, may result in the loss of the entire crop of plums, apples or pears.

Next to apples perhaps peaches are the most important fruit crop. The industry is chiefly carried on in Georgia, Texas and S. Carolina, and on a smaller scale in some of the adjoining states. Peaches thus flourish in regions that are quite unsuitable for apples or pears. In many orchards in Georgia, where over 3,000,000 acres have been planted, there are as many as 100,000 peach trees; while some of the large fruit companies grow as many as 365,000. In one place in West Virginia there is, however, a peach orchard containing 175,000 trees, and in Missouri another company has 3 sq. m. devoted to peach culture. As a rule the crops do well. Sometimes, however, a disease known as the "yellows" makes sad havoc amongst them, and scarcely a fruit is picked in an orchard which early in the season gave promise of a magnificent crop.

Plums are an important crop in many states. Besides the European varieties and those that have been raised by crossing with American forms, there is now a growing trade done in Japanese plums. The largest of these is popularly known as "Kelseys," named after John Kelsey, who raised the first fruit in 1876 from trees brought to California in 1870. Sometimes the fruits are 3 in. in diameter, and like most of the Japanese varieties are more heart-shaped and pointed than plums of European origin. One apparent drawback to the Kelsey plum is its irregularity in ripening. It has been known in some years to be quite ripe in June, while in others the fruits are still green in October.

Pears are much grown in such states as Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Missouri and California; while bush fruits like currants, gooseberries and raspberries find large spaces devoted in most of the middle and northern states. Naturally a good deal of crossing and intercrossing has taken place amongst the European and American forms of these fruits, but so far as gooseberries are concerned no great advance seems to have been made in securing varieties capable of resisting the devastating gooseberry mildew.

Other fruits of more or less commercial value are oranges, lemons and citrons, chiefly in Florida. Lemons are practically a necessity to the American people, owing to the heat of the summers, when cool and refreshing drinks with an agreeable acidulous taste are in great demand. The pomelo (grape-fruit) is a kind of lemon with a thicker rind and a more acid flavour. At one time its culture was confined to Florida, but of recent years it has found its way into Californian orchards. Notwithstanding the prevailing mildness of the climate in both California and Florida, the crops of oranges, lemons, citrons, &c., are sometimes severely injured by frosts when in blossom.

Other fruits likely to be heard of in the future are the kaki or persimmon, the loquat, which is already grown in Louisiana, as well as the pomegranate.

Great aid and encouragement are given by the government to the progress of American fruit-growing, and by the experiments that are being constantly carried out and tabulated at Cornell University and by the U.S.A. department of agriculture.

_Flower Culture._--So far as flowers are concerned there appears to be little difference between the kinds of plants grown in the United States and in England, France, Belgium, Germany, Holland, &c. Indeed there is a great interchange of new varieties of plants between Europe and America, and modifications in systems of culture are being gradually introduced from one side of the Atlantic to the other. The building of greenhouses for commercial purposes is perhaps on a somewhat different scale from that in England, but there are probably no extensive areas of glass such as are to be seen north of London from Enfield Highway to Broxburne. Hot water apparatus differs merely in detail, although most of the boilers used resemble those on the continent of Europe rather than in England. Great business is done in bulbs--mostly imported from Holland--stove and greenhouse plants, hardy perennials, orchids, ferns of the "fancy" and "dagger" types of Nephrolepis, and in carnations and roses. Amongst the latter thousands of such varieties as Beauty, Liberty, Killarney, Richmond and Bride are grown, and realize good prices as a rule in the markets. Carnations of the winter-flowering or "perpetual" type have long been grown in America, and enormous prices have been given for individual plants on certain occasions, rivalling the fancy prices paid in England for certain orchids. The American system of carnation-growing has quite captivated English cultivators, and new varieties are being constantly raised in both countries. Chrysanthemums are another great feature of American florists, and sometimes during the winter season a speculative grower will send a living specimen to one of the London exhibitions in the hope of booking large orders for cuttings of it later on. Sweet peas, dahlias, lilies of the valley, arum lilies and indeed every flower that is popular in England is equally popular in America, and consequently is largely grown.

_Vegetables._--So far as these are concerned, potatoes, cabbages, cauliflowers, beans of all kinds, cucumbers, tomatoes (already referred to under fruits), musk-melons, lettuces, radishes, endives, carrots, &c.; are naturally grown in great quantities, not only in the open air, but also under glass. The French system of intensive cultivation as practised on hot beds of manure round Paris is practically unknown at present. In the southern states there would be no necessity to practise it, but in the northern ones it is likely to attract attention. (J. Ws.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] _Jour. Roy. Agric. Soc._, 1899.

FRUMENTIUS (c. 300-c. 360), the founder of the Abyssinian church, traditionally identified in Abyssinian literature with Abba Salama or Father of Peace (but see ETHIOPIA), was a native of Phoenicia. According to the 4th-century historian Rufinus (x. 9), who gives Aedesius himself as his authority, a certain Tyrian, Meropius, accompanied by his kinsmen Frumentius and Aedesius, set out on an expedition to "India," but fell into the hands of Ethiopians on the shore of the Red Sea and, with his ship's crew, was put to death. The two young men were taken to the king at Axum, where they were well treated and in time obtained great influence. With the help of Christian merchants who visited the country Frumentius gave Christianity a firm footing, which was strengthened when in 326 he was consecrated bishop by Athanasius of Alexandria, who in his _Epistola ad Constantinum_ mentions the consecration, and gives some details of the history of Frumentius's mission. Later witnesses speak of his fidelity to the homoousian during the Arian controversies. Aedesius returned to Tyre, where he was ordained presbyter.

FRUNDSBERG, GEORG VON (1473-1528), German soldier, was born at Mindelheim on the 24th of September 1473. He fought for the German king Maximilian I. against the Swiss in 1499, and in the same year was among the imperial troops sent to assist Ludovico Sforza, duke of Milan, against the French. Still serving Maximilian, he took part in 1504 in the war over the succession to the duchy of Bavaria-Landshut, and afterwards fought in the Netherlands. Convinced of the necessity of a native body of trained infantry Frundsberg assisted Maximilian to organize the _Landsknechte_ (q.v.), and subsequently at the head of bands of these formidable troops he was of great service to the Empire and the Habsburgs. In 1509 he shared in the war against Venice, winning fame for himself and his men; and after a short visit to Germany returned to Italy, where in 1513 and 1514 he gained fresh laurels by his enterprises against the Venetians and the French. Peace being made, he returned to Germany, and at the head of the infantry of the Swabian league assisted to drive Ulrich of Wurttemberg from his duchy in 1519. At the diet of Worms in 1521 he spoke words of encouragement to Luther, and when the struggle between France and the Empire was renewed he took

## part in the invasion of Picardy, and then proceeding to Italy brought

the greater part of Lombardy under the influence of Charles V. through his victory at Bicocca in April 1522. He was partly responsible for the great victory over the French at Pavia in February 1525, and, returning to Germany, he assisted to suppress the Peasant revolt, using on this occasion, however, diplomacy as well as force. When the war in Italy was renewed Frundsberg raised an army at his own expense, and skilfully surmounting many difficulties, joined the constable de Bourbon near Piacenza and marched towards Rome. Before he reached the city, however, his unpaid troops showed signs of mutiny, and their leader, stricken with illness and unable to pacify them, gave up his command. Returning to Germany, he died at Mindelheim on the 20th of August 1528. He was a capable and chivalrous soldier, and a devoted servant of the Habsburgs. His son Caspar (1500-1536) and his grandson Georg (d. 1586) were both soldiers of some distinction. With the latter's death the family became extinct.

See Adam Reissner, _Historia Herrn Georgs und Herrn Kaspars von Frundsberg_ (Frankfort, 1568). A German translation of this work was published at Frankfort in 1572. F.W. Barthold, _Georg von Frundsberg_ (Hamburg, 1833); J. Heilmann, _Kriegsgeschichte von Bayern, Franken, Pfalz und Schwaben_ (Munich, 1868).

FRUSTUM (Latin for a "piece broken off"), a term in geometry for the part of a solid figure, such as a cone or pyramid, cut off by a plane parallel to the base, or lying between two parallel planes; and hence in architecture a name given to the drum of a column.

FRUYTIERS, PHILIP (1627-1666), Flemish painter and engraver, was a pupil of the Jesuits' college at Antwerp in 1627, and entered the Antwerp gild of painters without a fee in 1631. He is described in the register of that institution as "illuminator, painter and engraver." The current account of his life is "that he worked exclusively in water colours, yet was so remarkable in this branch of his art for arrangement, drawing, and especially for force and clearness of colour, as to excite the admiration of Rubens, whom he portrayed with all his family." The truth is that he was an artist of the most versatile talents, as may be judged from the fact that in 1646 he executed an Assumption with figures of life size, and four smaller pictures in oil, for the church of St Jacques at Antwerp, for which he received the considerable sum of 1150 florins. Unhappily no undoubted production of his hand has been preserved. All that we can point to with certainty is a series of etched plates, chiefly portraits, which are acknowledged to have been powerfully and skilfully handled. If, however, we search the portfolios of art collections on the European continent, we sometimes stumble upon miniatures on vellum, drawn with great talent and coloured with extraordinary brilliancy. In form they quite recall the works of Rubens, and these, it may be, are the work of Philip Fruytiers.

FRY, the name of a well-known English Quaker family, originally living in Wiltshire. About the middle of the 18th century JOSEPH FRY (1728-1787), a doctor, settled in Bristol, where he acquired a large practice, but eventually abandoned medicine for commerce. He became interested in china-making, soap-boiling and type-founding businesses in Bristol, and in a chemical works at Battersea, all of which ventures proved very profitable. The type-founding business was subsequently removed to London and conducted by his son Edmund. Joseph Fry, however, is best remembered as the founder of the great Bristol firm of J.S. Fry & Sons, chocolate manufacturers. He purchased the chocolate-making patent of William Churchman and on it laid the foundations of the present large business. After his death the Bristol chocolate factory was carried on with increasing success by his widow and by his son, JOSEPH STORRS FRY (1767-1835).

In 1795 a new and larger factory was built in Union Street, Bristol, which still forms the centre of the firm's premises, and in 1798 a Watt's steam-engine was purchased and the cocoa-beans ground by steam. On the death of Joseph Storrs Fry his three sons, Joseph (1795-1879), Francis, and Richard (1807-1878) became partners in the firm, the control being mainly in the hands of FRANCIS FRY (1803-1886). Francis Fry was in every way a remarkable character. The development of the business to its modern enormous proportion was chiefly his work, but this did not exhaust his activities. He took a principal part in the introduction of railways to the west of England, and in 1852 drew up a scheme for a general English railway parcel service. He was an ardent bibliographer, taking a special interest in early English Bibles, of which he made in the course of a long life a large and striking collection, and of the most celebrated of which he published facsimiles with bibliographical notes. Francis Fry died in 1886, and his son Francis J. Fry and nephew Joseph Storrs Fry carried on the business, which in 1896 was for family reasons converted into a private limited company, Joseph Storrs Fry being chairman and all the directors members of the Fry family.

FRY, SIR EDWARD (1827- ), English judge, second son of Joseph Fry (1795-1879), was born at Bristol on the 4th of November 1827, and educated at University College, London, and London University. He was called to the bar in 1854 and was made a Q.C. in 1869, practising in the rolls court and becoming recognized as a leading equity lawyer. In 1877 he was raised to the bench and knighted. As chancery judge he will be remembered for his careful interpretations and elucidations of the Judicature Acts, then first coming into operation. In 1883 he was made a lord justice of appeal, but resigned in 1892; and subsequently his knowledge of equity and talents for arbitration were utilized by the British government from time to time in various special directions,

## particularly as chairman of many commissions. He was also one of the

British representatives at the Paris North Sea Inquiry Commission (1905), and was appointed a member of the Hague Permanent Arbitration Court. He wrote _A Treatise on the Specific Performance of Public Contracts_ (London, 1858, and many subsequent editions).