STEADY PROGRESS OF NEW ZEALAND FRUIT RESEARCH

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 42, 23 September 1949, Page 6

STEADY PROGRESS OF NEW ZEALAND FRUIT RESEARCH

Steady progress has been made in research on improvements of yield and quality of fruit in New Zealand, and recent extensions at research orchards promise even more help to Bay of Plenty growers. One of the most difficult fields of research in agriculture is that centred on fruit problems. There is such a variability of material, or which only a limited amount car be handled experimentally that progress may seem to be slow, and the fruit research worker is further handicapped because it is impossible to repeat an experiment under identical conditions from one year to another. Despite these handicaps, however, many thousands of pounds each year are saved as a result of fruit research by various organisations. Unified Control Fruit research first figured in the programme of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in 1938, and up to last year the investigations were carried out by various branches of the Department working on different aspects of fruit problems. Last year the work was brought under the unified control of a new branch known as the Fruit Research Station, and a block of 24 acres was purchased in Havelock North for development as future headquarters. The Station has now four research areas at Oratia (Auckland), Havelock North (Hawke’s Bay), Appleby (Nelson), and Eranscleugh (Central Otago). Spectacular results from fruit research can rarely be expected, but yearly progress, giving to the fruit grower the means for increasing both yield and quality of the fruit, has been constant, and has had a cumulative effect on New Zealand’s fruit production. The range of problems—calling for investigations in genetics, physiology, chemistry, entomology, mycology, refrigeration, general engineering, and by-product ' ' development—is coisiderable, and progress has been made in all these fields. Injury From Frost Certain projects, such as the'reduction of injury from frost, and the control of diseases and pests by application of therapeutants, will continue to be carried out in collaboration with other branches of the Department or other Government Departments so as to ensure that all available research resources are utilised.

The introduction of new varieties is an important phase of the work of the fruit Research Station, and several exotic species and stocks have been released to fruit growers after extensive tests have proved them to be of value under New Zealand conditions. .