THE FRUIT CROP

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 226, 12 June 1918, Page 8

THE FRUIT CROP

BEPJOBTS ■'FROM , VARIOUS' CEOTES. : Officers of the Horticulture Division of the! Department of Agriculture report as follow regarding the conditions; of th« fruit'crop'at the end of May, 1918: — North ' (Auckland.—Lemons: Average. Oranges: Average,- sweet; l'oorman, medium'to heavy. 'Orchai'ditts are now giving ;eomc attention'to'early winter worL-and soriw have commenced pruning operations. "■ Waiiemata.—Lemons: j-Fair average, Oranges: Foormaii, medium. All pip fruits have now been harvested. .A fair quantity of apples have Jieen placed in cool store during life month, especially Yates and Dougherty.. Pruning operations have been commenced on stone fruits. Strawberry planting ■ is nearly completed.

Auckland South.—Growers busy with autumn, work. Spraying and nrujiing commenced, also Unfortunately, owing chiefly to war conditions, only sm ill areas lxsing , planted this season: Waikato.—All iate apples have now been gathered, the weather having been very favourable, for this work. Only a few frosts experienced so far, and more would be welcomed. In some ports tho pruning'-of peaches has commenced. The Catherine, of lemony has . commenced. The weather lias.been favourable for. planting otit strawbenies, and Hie plants have taken good root hold. ; \

PoTerty Bay.—Little fruit now remains except citrus, which lire well np to 'tlie average* Swne fruit trees, on other than well-drained situations, are sufferin!,', dead wood being general, no:doubt caused by the waterlogged condition of the soil. Plums hare a noticeable ; amount of prematuriLflowers showing, this being TKore pronounced in exposed.V position's where the ti'eee were defoliated'-early in the season by high winds. ■ - ■ ■ Hawke's Bay.—lll crops" are now iiarTested. ■ ■ :,.;...' ! ■-'

Wanganui.—All' fruit harvested. In a few instances pruning;; has commenced. ■'•Small consignments of apples and pears coming on to the market-;, but taken.on the mrage \jswlly graded, and only pecoid-class frnit. There seems- to be a tendency amongst the growers not to pay much attention to grading aii'd packing of i'roit, consequently they only net a sin all return for their labour.

Paimerston 'North.—Apples: Winter varieties meetly all picked. Lemons: Few erown y. do well in- and around Otaki. Pears and applesT Cool store fruit appearing on market. Good samples. A wet month. Prices on Incut market firmw. '' - ' i

Wellington;— All crops are now harvested.

Nelson. —Apples: Some crop still remains to be gathered; Slurrners ■ and Dougherty chiefly. The drying kilns, factories, and packing aheds are .busy. Other crops are all harvested. The weather has been t ,bright- generally, but wintry towards the end of the month. .■Marlborough.—Apples: The bulk of the snriiraevand autumn varieties" have now been' disposed, leaving , the-,-district with only its winter kinds on hand, which consists mostly of Stunners. The month started with ten or twelve consecutive frosts, registering up t,o 12 degree--?. Theae are welcomed as -indicating' Mi early fall of the leaf and consequent longer season to complete pruning and other winter operations. . Canterbury and West CWst.—The frnit.crop tor the season is now practically all hnrvfsted, and has turned out lust aboat up to expectations, some growers han'ng -obtained exceptionally good crops, others having- quite-the• reverse. Pear scab has been rather prevalent, the season bejng suitable'for the spread of this disease. A i'nir quantity of fruit lias, been cool stortjd. . High prices, are being obtained fov good quality fruit. ; .v •■ Christchuroh and- Suburbs.j-All, fruit' isno\r linrve'sted. '[.'here are 'about 50,000. cases of keeping , -varieties of apples and pears in cbol'.stol'age in this district; and this -'ought. to -jteml; to regulate . prices din'hijf,"the winter, nioutlis.' Pruning operations have now commenced, and owing to the shortage of expert labour growers would be well advised, to-miss no opportunities to have this work , cai-ried out. /Where peaches are grown the iirst application of Bordeaux way .should be 'applied as early as possible. ' ;

South Caiiterbnry.—Very. dry wenlhe.r has prevailed - ' throiigliout ■ the month, and much good' work lias been'.done in the way of spraying and working up'the land. Hard frosts have been general throughout. Otago.—All crops liaryesled. Pruning operations in hand. Southland.—Deciduous trees are now almost in a leafless condition, and pruning operations have commenced to some extent.

"Since 1011 there have been no fewer than 14,000 aoroa planted in fruit trees in New Zealand," said Jlr. J. Campbell, Assistant Director of the Horticultural Division of the Dei»rtment of Agriculture, in speaking to members of tho Canterbury Fruitgrowers;' Association ou Saturday evening. "That will give some slight idea of the amount of fruit that will Boon bo coming forward. Of course more and more of these trees are coming into bearing year after year." Air. Campbell went on to say that although there might be a large amount of fruit eomini,'>,fonvanl he did not by atiy means wish to throw a damper un the local market. On the contrary, with proper co-operation ami organisation, the local market could be successfully utilised for disposing of all the fruit that could be produced.