LOSS OF CROPS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20012, 10 August 1939, Page 7

LOSS OF CROPS

DAMAGE BY FROSTS TAURANGA GROVES Losses amounting to some thousands of pounds are faced by Tauranga citrus fruit growers as n result of a succession of unusually severe frosts. Wilting trees and damaged fruit are a common spectacle among groves in the Gate Pa district, where losses range from GO to 100 per cent, while over the whole Bay of Plenty area it is estimated that the output will be reduced by 20 per cent. Following hard on a difficult season in which growers contended with a glutted lemon market, the frost damage could scarcely have occurred at a more inopportune lime. Frost succeeded frost for a period of about a fortnight, the worst effects occurring on July 27, when the recording was 11 degrees. Little could be done by growers to check the losses. Authorities stated this week that it was now apparent that leaves on the citrus trees in the Gate Pa district were wilting, much of the fruit was brown, and a large proportion of the apparently healthy fruit proved to be dry when cut. There are some cases where losses are estimated at the full 100 per cent, while other surveys write oft about 00 per cent of expected crops as being unmarketable. It is considered that 20 pet cent of the fruit normally supplied to the Tauranga depot will be lost during the next si* months.