WHY APPLES ARE DEAR

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 78, 27 December 1918, Page 6

WHY APPLES ARE DEAR

I STOKE ORCHARDIST'S EXPLANATION

HIGH PRICES NEXT YEAR

PREDICTED

! . "Apples, Is. lb." "Good Stunners, Is. [' 6d. lb. J ' Most of the local fruit- • omitted to put price cards on [ their apples during the last few' weeks, ! but those who have shown any have 1 been compelled to price their apples as j. above, ajid they assert that even at those ; prices there is "nothing in it." Desiring ; an explanation, a Dominion - reporter J sought out a Stoke crchardist in the per- ! son of Mr. Agmen Smith, lvti'o, as u ' grower, explained why apples are abnor- ! mally high priced ,at,the present time, ; . and why such conditions'were likely to i obtain, throughout next yqar. | "I "grow Sturmers," 6tiid Mr. Smith, i "for the simple reason that they are ; good keepers, but even v ith Sturmers, a j. splendid apple with no appearance, wo I Lave to take a risk cwing to the losses f .sometimes made in told store. Few or- : chardists ever, get out of cold store what they put in, and .1 could tell of cases - where asymtich as ten tons of apples 'has been tossed out as rubbish, not ali together the fault perhaps of the store, ! but owing also to bad picking and the ... absence of knowledge of when to pick. is,a' most important matter. One must know to the day when to pick, for [ if the apples are put in ripe they go ; rotten, and if placed in cold store too i green they 'aro apt to shrivel, and that, : spoils their appearance on the market. | Thes'e are common facts known to every ! experienced grower, yet mistakes are , made and have paid for. ! "But, first, I would like you to undcrJ stand that when apples are being sold j at is. and ,ss. a'caso in Wellington, some j 'poor beggar, of an' crchardist is paying I the.piper. Take the cost. Here it is api proximately:— !: s. d. / i ... .For. picking 2 per case j Cartage to shed 1 „ „ ; Grading 8 „ „ >■ Coses (in pieces) 11J each : Nails 1 per case { Making up cases 3 „ '„ . Wood wool „ ; Paper for wrapping 4 „ „ Packing in case 2 „ Cartage to wharf •2} • „ „ j Wharfago (at Nelson) ... 1 „ „ Freight to Wellington ... l(l|. „ „ i Whnrfage at Wellington H „ „ i Cartage to auction ■lj „

i , Total : 353 "On' top of ihat," said Mr. Smith, : "there ia the auctioneer's commission of 10 par cent., and the loss from ullage ; Red bruised fruit. A case is opened out . at. the auction room. The auctioneer • eings out "Ullagedl" end the price drops t;,.down at once from Bs. or 9s. to 3s. or ■' That is the orchardist's loss. So I: that you can see at a, glance that before : a penny profit can be gained by the orchardist a case of apples in the flush I ; of the season cannot be sold untfer ss. i• a ;Case. And, by tha way, I 'have made i no allowance at all for his wages. Please i' understand that. "

i Cost of Cold Storage. ! ' "Then if you go in for keeping apples .-Starmers, as I do—there is the always' |; mounting cost of having them in 'store, I and the ever-present risk that something f> may go wrong with them. The picking |. of Sturmers depends on tho season, but , say-they are picked in May, . and axe j. shipped over to Wellington at this time-, ! one has to pay lOd. per case for the flrsi j month arid sd. for each subsequent • month. That means another 3s. 4d. per [•' case, in addition to which there is ca'rtj: age to from the store; so i that; providing no loss is sustained every case, (bushel cases I'm referring : ' to) costs the grower something like 7s. , 6d ; . to get to the market. But, as I •' said before, no grower gets out of 6tore all that he jjuts in—some lose ;. hundreds of cases—which, increases tho r 'cost pro rata of every good case, and then his .apples—the Sturmers ere rot . pod lookers—have to be sold against the j; bright red-skinned apples from Amer-.y-ica. The' 1 problem of keeping, apples in •; cold store has not yet been solved in s, Nelson. ; It has-been overcome in Tasmania and America, where tho loss on !. kept'apples is under 2 per cent. There, ptoo, the cost of cold storage.-is Is. Gd. ! per.case for a whole season—in Nelson ;; it is 3s. 4d. for seven months, as I have shown—so that we are not yet. in the j:, Tanguard. of the industry." , ! The Co-operation Question. ■ Mr. Sm'ith said that growers', organisa- ! tions had not achieved what they had set out to do through lack of proper or- .- ganisation and good co-operation. Some : . growers, instead of sticking to their com- ! pany, would, hear 1 that a penny or two- ! pence., per case more was obtainablo in j i "Wellington than the company was offer-.-ing,..and,would ship direct. I will illus:.''trate what I mean precisely by the loss j—through-lack of co-operation. On a cer- • ..tain day growers for miles round will each receive a wire from the Wellington ; auctioneers:—'Market bare, advise you

send.' That afternoon:you will see jieri. haps forty carts, each, with a dozen .or eb cases of apples, streaming down to i the .wharf—forty oarts,' forty horses, and i ■ forty men to drive. them—with tho result k that instead of 200 cases being sent there f are /between, 500 anci 1000 cases : "forwarded, which means a big drop in ths !■ price at once. If thore wero good organisation and 00-operation, the growers U-•wouldnever fall -in, as they do, time •"'aftertime.. The eagerness to,obtain any ' immediate gain outruns their discretion.

A Poor Season. "We are advisod that the season in all "" ether parts of New Zealand—Otago, • Hawke s Bay, Auckland, and the Waira- ; rapa—is , a poor one, and at the present ' time there are buyers in Nelson from those parts trying to buy up the coming season's crop. The reasons for this j: •■•'poor -outlook are said to be the gales, late frosts, and pests. In Nelson tl& . outlook is • not so Very ! much botter. . In previous years we have : lost a lot of fruit when the .apples are : as big as marbles owing, we aro told, to ' inadequate pollenation or fertilisation " (whioh produces weak buds), but this ' year there is a mysterious new diseaso, : Which is causing tho apples to fall when • they are as large as walnuts. Ono man ; with half an acre of trees, who a month ! p.go reckoned to have a real good crop, • told, me that he would not lie able to >■. pick' half a case. The position is an • alarming one. We have had Messrs.' f Kirk, Eeakes, and deliver- ; ing lectures on pomology, but they could ■ not account for the new disease. i v . "Brown Rot." j, "Brown rot is'rampant in Nelson—in : the green fruit, too—a thing never known 'before. Nobody knows a cure for it. It I is in the giant prunes, and there will he ; none this season, and I'm told it is in all the other fruit. The peach trees ; are being cut out, acres and acres of '' them. I went through one peach orchard the other day, and thero was not enough foliage, on the trees to fill a hat—they were absolutely bare- There 1 will be n« pfeach crop from Nelson this year—that's a fact! Black spot is : always with us, but this vear it is ; worse than ever. Every orchard has it. : The spraying pumps have been going for •the last two months, but the spot is still there doing its work. "I don't want to decry the industry, : heaven knows, but when people talk about the high prices they should know ! what the orchardist has to contend with. And so much could be done to benefit the ' grower and tho public, if proper organisation and co-operation could be brought , about, as in America. At present wo Jiave enough ppraving pumps in Nelson to do the wholn of the orchards in Now Zealand, but the trouble is that every man has lo paddle his own canoe, and the aggregate result is waste and its handmaid, loss, all along the line."