INDUCEMENTS TO FRUIT GROWING.

Patea Mail, 7 December 1881, Page 4

INDUCEMENTS TO FRUIT GROWING.

In reply to queries about fruit growing, li Agricola” writes to the Auckland Herald as follows :—Any person going in for fruitgrowing, in either a large or small way would do well to remember the importance of having for an orchard a sheltered situation, suitable soil, and good access to market. These are three very essential matters, and a fourth is to plant only tx-ees that are wellknown as excellent bearers of superior fruit. Speaking generally, fruit-growing pays and will pay for a considerable time to come. How does the industry stand now 1 It appears that in the year 1878 the amount of green fruit imported into New Zealand was as follows : —103,(300 packages valued at £49,000, to which when we add £10,360 foxfreight and expenses, shows a total of £59,860 spent by importers of this merchandise throughout the colony during the year. For 1879, the following figures were published by the Government, in the returns of the imports and exports of the colony : For bottled, and preserved fruits, £3605 ; jams and jellies, £49.490 ; dried fruits, £8757 ; green fruits, L 67,445, making a total of L 129,297, a very large amount, it must be admitted, to go out of the country in a single year for fruit. And there is ho doubt that could fruit have been obtained at a cheaper rate all the year round, a much larger quantity would have been consumed. So far as lam aware there has been no decrease in the importations of fruit to this colony ; and as the population is gradually increasing, the demand for fruit will be still greater in the future. As a rule, settlers who have laid out orchards are not about to devote all their attention to fruit culture, to the exclusion of every other thing. For it is believed that a diversified system of operations is better and more remunerative than giving the whole time to simply one thing—whether that be dairy farming, egg-farming, bee-farming, or fruit-gio w ing, so that if one department is a comparative failure another may be a success. This, indeed, is the only chance for the small farmer. If he wants to keep his head above water, he must have more than one egg in his basket.