REVIVAL OF TREES

Chronicle (Levin), 15 October 1946, Page 5

REVIVAL OF TREES

-Press Association

CHEMICAL TABLETS INJRCTED

Bv Telegraph—

NELSON, Oct. 9. The injection of tabiets of chemicals into ti-ees to revivify thein strhck him as unique, said Mr. A. B. Congdon, Dominion president of the New Zealand Fruitgroye.rs ' Federation in the course of an address at jMapua in whieh he touched on aspects of farming in Britain. The. speaker had been a recent visitor as a dele,gate to the primary producersf CQiiference. Mr. Congdon was referring to experiments at horticnltural and agricultural f'arms in Nottingham. The experiment was to bore lip]es iu a tree that looked a bit siek, or dying back, and to put three or four tabiets (not aspirin, he said amidst laugliter) into the lioles. Some remarkable 'fe's'ults were obtained in reviving ttees. These and other experiments he th ouglit would be in the near future ' " of great benefit to the fruitgrowing iii'd'ustry in New Zealand. Also he li'ad' seen experiments with "full set" on tomatoes,' the application of hormonesj iu whieh sprayiug on the flowers under glass had the effect of setting every tomato. Probably this wonld ha.ve very usefnl result s wlien able to be applied here. Experiments with eloelies, or little glass tents over plants such as tomatoes and strawberries had interested him. The metliod resulted in producing fruit three or four weeks earlicr than would result from plants exposed in tlie normal way to the ordinary atmosphere. Continuing, Mr. Congdon said that his impression of the orehards in England was that the owners seemed to take it for granted that if they had a good crop one year, then they rmist expect a poor one the following year. This acceptance of the apparent inevitability of alternative bearing was all wrong, in the speaker 's view, and he thought that the solution lav in more pruning and more intensive cultivation. ile was sure that in Engiand the growers did not pay nearly as much attention to cultivation and" general orehard practice, as in New Zealand. If the fruit industry had here the same problem of alternate bearing, obviously it could not earry on under present market conditions. Experiments were being condueted in Britain to try to overeome the prolilem. The speaker considered that it should he the funetion of "the New Zealand ■A. .

trintgrowors to export every possihie case of appies to Engiand next season, partieularly Cox Grange, Pippin, and Jonathan. Ile urged the necessitv of that.