FRUIT GROWING.

Patea Mail, 7 December 1880, Page 2

FRUIT GROWING.

Cultivation of fruit is an industry in which this district ought to excel. The best orchards we have seen are at Mr Southby’s, Appleton Park, and at Messrs A and J Dickie’s, Wavorley. The trees at both places are well matured, and are now heavy with fruit. Mr Southby’s orchard lies just inside the bush, 5 miles from the sea, and is a valuable addition to a fine estate. Shelter is indispensable on this coast for growing fruit to perfection ; but if only the shelter be sufficient, either in a suitable guliy or inside the bush, enormous crops of all English fruit can be produced here, the size being rather larger than at Home, and the flavor as luscious, while the risky periods of blossoming and ripening arc practically certain in this climate. American or Australian fruits are excelled in quality by the products of this climate. The heat is not so forcing, nor is the fruit so dry. The climate will bring to perfection many kinds of European fruit which cannot be grown with success even in Devonshire or Cornwall, that favored locality for Home fruit. Grapes mature well, and attain a good size and color even close to Patea township, with only a budlia fence to shield off the wind, while they do still better near the bush. Peaches and apples are so heavy a crop in Mr Southby’s orchard that he will be bothered to turn them into cash. An orchard of this size, so well stocked with bearing trees, would be a good living in itself to a market gardener.

The orchard on Messrs Dickie’s estate, close to Waverley, is formed along the sides of an extensive winding gully, which retains the luxurious beauty of native bush, with just enough clearing for fruit trees of many varieties. The mixture of nature and art, of beauty and utility, is bewitching in itself. There arc all the requisites for a charming public garden, and Mr Dickie senior had been quite conscious of the attractions of his garden gully, and had made its cultivation a labor of love, a pleasing hobby. It is difficult to conceive a situation better adapted for fruit-growing, being about five miles from the sea, on the skirt of the bush, and fifteen minutes drive to Waverley railway station (that is to be). Pears attain greater perfection here than we have seen elsewhere, some single specimens weighing a pound each when ripe. The crop promises well at present, and this garden gully is a romantic and valuable addition to a dairy and grazing farm of 120 acres.