FRUIT RESEARCH

Hokitika Guardian, 4 August 1930, Page 8

FRUIT RESEARCH

orchard at nelson. So far as the problems of the fruitgrower are the same the "Dominion over, the orchard at Nelson acquired by .the Government for fruit research is expected to be of (benefit to Cam terbury orchardists. According to Mr F. W. Cone, a member of the New Zealand Fruitgrowers’ Federation, ijie:station to be set up at Nelson under the control of, the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research would enquire into the problems of the industry .from the time the tree was grafted on to the stock, till the apple or other fruit was placed on the market. Many of the orchardists’ problems were common to ■the industry as a whole, but each particular district had its own, an d these demanded special knowledge, and specialised treatment. In the common problems, which were generally the major ones,' research at the station should be of great value, but •in the practice of spraying and pruning for example, the methods found .most successful in 'Nelson, might not succeed in Canterbury. In fruitgrowing there were many such variations, with .soil and climate, even in different parts of the same district, while the differences were more accentuated .from one .district to another. The station was being established at •Nelson-because ..thajt was the centre of a very important fruitgrowing urea, (but it might well fie. that,.sub-stations, .would ,be set up .in the other a.rqas where fruit \yas gro>vn to with peculiar to (them. The fruit industry hgd more .of these than perhaps any other. For , example, the system of pruning in Papanui -would not, suit the fruit trees at Loburn. By studying local conditions and acting accordingly, growers in Hawke’s Bay had been able to take a thousand bushels -from an acre of .orchard. .Mr Cone himself had taken eight hundred, and it was yields ,of .this size w;hich made growing fruit profitable. If .the .research were directed towards increasing the yield and improving ,the quality, then the money would be well spent. Not the least valuable .part of t}ie work proponed to l>e done was the training of young instructors. One only needed to 'look back even five .or six years to realise how the industry had advanced in that' short period—carried In cool storage, and the use of fertilisers. The ; ravages of insect and fungoid pestf!—problems formerly causing the orchafdist anxiety and often loss—were not now very formidable, but there was still much to be done, and the research station was deigned to do it. “I hope it will not be the same as the experimental orchard once established at Harewood by the Department,” remarked Mr E. Freeman, president of the Canterbury Fruitgrowers’ Association. "Their only achievement was fo show us how to grow fruit at 12s 6d a case and sell it at 45.”