PUKEKOHE POTATOES.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 235, 4 October 1928, Page 4

PUKEKOHE POTATOES.

STORMS CHECK GROWTH. EARLY CROPS LIGHT. Reviewing the conditions of the Pukekohe potato crop Messrs. H. H. Pattle report as follows:— Weather conditions have lately had an important bearing on local crops of potatoes. It has been stormy and wintry with the result that growth has been severely checked and the crops have been badly threshed about —so much so, in one or two cases on the hill, that they are being ploughed up and the land sown in onions. It is now certain the October crops will be lighter than usual and considering Southern developments October prices will no doubt be firm. Crops round Auckland also have suffered. It is too early to say what the position will be in November. The planting is normal—good weather conditions will give a, good crop, while bad conditions will, of course, give bad crops. The spring is the wettest and coldest we have had for many years. There appears to be a probable lack of keep-over seed for October planting—(February digging) and prices may, therefore, be firm after the New Year. Present quotations, on trucks, Pukekohe, are 3%d per lb.