NELSON TOBACCO.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5258, 30 March 1928, Page 3

NELSON TOBACCO.

“VIRGINIA” OF NEW ZEALAND;

NO LIMIT TO DEMAND,

The Hong, hot, , dry summer, which has been experienced in Nelson, am: which threatens to become a drought, hag h ot l jeen aUi unmixed wl, for has proved to be a wonderful season for apples, and a still more wonderful season for tobacco —Nelson’s newest ami moat promising crop.

It ihais been found that, so far as the growth of the leaf is concerned, Nelson has the. best climate im New Zealand, and possibly the one most free from sudden changes of temperaiture and weather. Everyone who has visited Nelson during the last month "lias been struck with the appetarance •of the tobacco crops, in the district, bn the development of which high hopes are being b.uilt. So far no lalrge areas have been put under crop; indeed, in few cases® are there more than two acres of tobacco grown on any one holding, the reason .being the difficulty that comes at the present time, of the year, when the leaf has to be picked and packed. A man and his wife;, and perhaps ;a son or daughter 1 , can only manage to pick through about two acres, cutting it up "into sections, and picking oyer one sect'on each day. Cropping a larger area, they" would not be able to do tlie work, and it is stated that it would not pay to" employ labour.' on comparatively small holdings. So it means either the. one, two, or threeacre patch, or to go in for the crop in a very big way, when labour could be employed to proper advantage during the picking season.

It is said that there is no limit to the demand for tobacco leaf, and that thq tobacco companies doing business in New Zealand are prepared to take any quant'ty produced, and undertake the curing of it. Whether this is so or not is not quite clear’, but it maybe remembered that some) fifteen years ago a, good deal of tobacco was grown on the flat between Hastings and Napier, and was cured at Port Ahuriri, but somehow oh; othe,n the tobacco itself did not suit the locajl palate, owing; it was said, to lack of knowledge; of the curing process. At all qvents, Nelson is believed to be the natural Virginia of New Zealand.