FRUIT GROWING PROBLEMS.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20101, 3 December 1930, Page 11

FRUIT GROWING PROBLEMS.

MR HATTON'S VISIT TO CHRISTCHURCH. LOCAL ORCHARDS INSPECTED. "The investigator into fruit growing problems, and tho orchard instructor, aro never going to bring a rabbit out of a hat," said Mr R. G. Hatton, Direotor of the Imperial Bureau of Fruit Production and of the East Maling Research Station, Britain, after inspecting several Christehurch orchards yesterday. "The problems are not sioplo, for there are a great many factors involved in each one of them, and duo consideration lias to be given to all before even a guess at a remedy can b« made." Mr Hatton arrived from Nelson on Monday evening, and although he mi unable to address any gathering of fruit* growers, he spent yesterday visiting a number of local orchards. In the morning he inspected orchards in the Papanui and Styx areas, which wero mostly devoted to apples, and in the afternoon went to Governor's Bay, where liis attention was given to cherry and peach trees. Ho also visited tha home of Mr E. F. Stead, at "Ham," Riccarton. The accompanying party consisted of Mrs Hatton, Dr. G. H. Cunningham, Mycologist at the Plant Research Station, Palmorston North; Mr B. G. Goodwin, Orchard Instructor for the Department of Agriculture; Mr F. W. Cone, Director for Canterbury cf the New Zealand Fruitgrowers' Federation; Mr T. D. Lennie, president of the Canterbury Council of the New Zealand Institute of Horticulture; Mr C. G. Wilkinson, manager of the Canterbury Branch of the Fruitgrowers' Federation; Mr J. D. Carolin, Assistant Orchard Instructor, and Mr G. H. Holford, B.Ag., Advisory Officer for Imperial Chemical Industries, Ltd. Boot Stock Problems. "What I have seen in the orchards about Christehurch has shown me that, in particular, problems concerning root stocks and soils want looking into," said Mr Hatton. "From the old seedling trees that I have seen it is obvious that it would be possible to pick out good stocks, and by raising from root cuttings to start a new race of trees from them. From experiment we have found that the same variety grown from different stocks will vary tremendously, and that even though tho rtock is of an early variety it does not follow that the result will be an earlyflowering or fruiting tree.

"Where the orchards have been in the right locality successful fruit has been grown, and there has been very good tree development, but in others it has been obvious that sufficient attention has not been paid to drainage. There are obviously manurial problems to be considered, for the state of the foliage of some of the trees suggests that the advantages of manures could be more closely investigated in relation to deficiencies in the soil. Silver Blight Treatment; "As for silver blight, which seems to be causing, considerable agitation among fruitgrowers here, the trouble is largely a matter of sanitation and hygiene, and regulations enforced will help to a solution. We are probably more opposed to regulation in these matters in England than you are here, but this matter of silver blight is just one of the few things that the English growers have accepted as needing tho enforcement of regulations, and of very strict ones, compelling them to cut out any wood bearing infection or likely to bear infection.

"Seven or eight years ago onr stone fruits were in much the same condition as those I have seen here this afternoon. As a result of the enforcement of the regulations, of cutting and pruning the infected trees at the right time, and of painting over .the cuts with an antiseptic, the trouble has been considerably lessened. A® this, of course, is known by experts in New Zealand, and the information is available to the growerß, but it is a question of getting the individual grower to realise the urgent need of taking what may seem to him to bs drastic steps."

Cherries in England.

Mr Hatton was particularly interested in a cherry orchard he visited at Governor's Bay, and was astonished to find the whole orchard covered with, netting to prevent the ravages of birds, for he had never seen anything like it." In Kent, he said, great areas of cherries were grown, areas of as .much aa 1000 acrcß being devoted to this fruit alone, although, of course, several orchards would be included in such a block. The trees generally were grown forty feet apart, had a six-foot stem to permit sheep to graze between them, and reached a height of forty feet. The trees he saw hero were about eight years old, and he considered that they showed a wonderful development, far in advance of what ho • -ould expect from similar trees in England, where the development was very much slower, especially in the first five years. "People in New Zealand dp not seem to realise the tremendous quantities of fruit and flowers that are grown ill England," said Mr Hatton, in conclusion. "In one county we probably grow more fruit than the whole of the Dominion, and many of the fruit farms are very large, one man in Kent having 1000 acres, and another near 1 the East Maling Station 350 acres. Where New Zealand has one advantage is that its fruit is better graded for the market than ours. "A great deal of research has been done, and advanced methods tried out, but England does not advertise herself, so that orchardists in the Dominions are inclined to think that America is the place from which to learn the latest word In orchard practice. An example is to be found in the use of underground pipes to carry spraying fluid to all parts of an orchard, which is regarded .here as the latest thing from America. In actual fact the method was used in England eighteen or twenty years ago, but it has not been applied extensively because of the large areas to be covered, and because of the numbers of different sprays that have to be used. America can teach you one lesson, though. That is in the variation between cultivation between the trees and letting grass grow, for when the fruit begins to fail in colour it is often an advantage to alter the conditions existing between the rows. There la no need to adhere with absolute rigidity to the. system of keeping the ground between the trees clean; what matters is what the tree needs at any particular tlma in. order to giv* the beat