FRUITGROWING IN OTAGO.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 807, 3 May 1910, Page 8

FRUITGROWING IN OTAGO.

NEW ORCHARDS AND VINEYARDS. Commercial fruit-growing, promises to assume- rather big dimensions m the. Alexandra district. On.the Earnscleugh Mat as many as seven. Dunedin. people have, during- the past 12 months, purchased blocks of land, for fruit-growing purposes. One .purchaser, according to the "Otago Daily Times," has take U] up 60 acres, and already has 20 acres laid out in various fruit trees Some 500 vines also have been planted nut m the open, and a further seven acres of terrace land have been leased .from Hie Government, on which it is proposed to ■plant from 12,000 to. 14,000 ..vines in tho near. future, with a view to giving-'he, cultuie of the outdoor vine a thorough Some years ago Professor Bragato reported to the Government that th<s Alexandra district was the most suited in the -irholo of New Zealand for the culture of the vine, grapes ripening th<:rc as early as the end of February, mid late varieties at that. On another of the blocks on the Earnscleugh Flat ahovo referred to 1200 fruit trees of varieties suitable for canning and bottling have been planted, and the other, blocks, which vary in size from 25 to 12j acres, are>nlso receiving* the attention (if the owners. The whole of the orchards aTe irrigated by means of a water supply from Blnckman's Gully. This year there will be COOO fruit trees planted out over the whole -area of 100 acres,-which the seven blocks represent.