NEW POTATO SEASON.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 2, Issue 150, 2 December 1913, Page 1

NEW POTATO SEASON.

Where The Earliest are Grown. Product of Pukekohe Hill. When the seasons change, the first fruits are the most eagerly sought. Lamb and green peas—and new potatoes! Long before the green peas arrive (indeed, when the delectable vegetable is stili only in flower) the market for early potatoes has been opened, and by the time that lamb is commonly displayed in the butcheries, the earliest potatoes have been dug and eaten,, and the market values of the tuber* have fallen to such a point that "new potatoes" may form part of the bill-cf-fare in the humblest home. "THE VERY FIIiST." The very earliest potatoes that

are dug in New Zealand are grown in the Pukekohe district, chiefly on the famous Pukekohe Hill. During the past two or three years, however, other parts of the district, notably Bombay, have laid claim to the possession of ground of "extra early" virtues. And the claim has been confirmed by the shipments. Pukekohe Hill offers perhaps the finest agricultural panorama in .New Zealand; certainlv no other nimilar area of land produces so much , to the acre. "Two crops of potatoes and a crop of carrots within thirteen months" was an item which made

Sir Rider Haggard blEnk his eyes in astonishment when on hi 9 recent visit to New Zealand. Perhaps, being a romancer himself, Sir Rider suspected the other fellow. It is the sunny eastern side of tie Hill — the "frostless"' eide in ordinary seasons— where the growth goes on throughout the winter. And it is from there that the "big people" of Wellington and Dunedin—the peopls who can afford to pay the price—get their mid-September pota-

oes. PLANTING AND DIGGING. Early in April the plcughs get oing and the ground at that time is sually in good condition lor workng. Six or eight inches deep the urrows are turned, the ground avihg beeu relieved ol its previous rop. The better the ground is yorked; of course, the better the rop. That "tillage is manuring" pplies to the early potatoes as to very othsr branch of agriculture, iut in the case of Pukekohe Hill the nanure must not be spared. For brty years now eome of these mall 'farms have been cropped, 'otatoea, carrots, onions, leeks, urnips, cabbage, and so on in rotaion, with spells for a year or so n pasture.' It is land that cakes, iut in April it i a generally "fit." So very special attention is needed, ind ahead of the plough the seed 19 Irocped from 12 inches to 16 inches ipart. Into' the furrows, and well icattered, also goes the manure, two paita ot bonedust to one of superphosphates—a ton or more to the sere. By the second week in April, say, the planting is done, and, five months later, if all goes well, say in the second week in September, the | yield is taken. It is estimated that a full five months is required to produce a potato of sufficient maturity for the table. Even then the skins are as fine as tissue-paper, and the potatoes, carefully packed in cases are dispatched to the cities for sale. People in Pukekohe are not customers for early potatoes at the price. To them, also, there is not much novelty in it, lor really there are odd plants of tubers Deing dug all the year round. A RISKY CROP. When the risks of the cr«jp are taken into consideration, it will readily be understood why the farmers do not risk all their season's eggs in the early potato qasket. This year has been particularly disastrous. In .the first place, a frost, blown up the valley from the south-east, struck patches where frost was never known before. This was at a critical period, and the haulms were severely stricken. A short time later a hail-storm smashed the tender fields, thousands of the ice chunks being two inches long and of fantastic cutting shape. Then, to cap the calamities, the blight came. It says a good deal for the hardihood and healthiness of the seed-stock employed on Pukekohe Hill that the plants survived at all. They even recovered, soma of them, but the development of the tubers had been so badly arrested that the resultant crop has been very scanty. The hardiest potato available is required and the Gamekeeper is chiefly used. Northern Star comes next.

the second earlies. It is, of course, only the "extra eailiea" that are planted in April, and many farmers regard the out-of-season setting as being comparatively unprofitable, taking the average market as a auide. In addition to the risks from frosts, the pround is occupied by the crop for five months. This period is considered as partly wasted. And so the plan of cropping for "second earlits wins popularity. The writer saw a magnificent sample grown by Mr W. Parkinson, of Puni. some four miles from Pukekobe, which were dug on October 6th in excellent maturity, after a period of only 16 weeks in the ground. For the crop he was offered £2O net cash per ton in Pukekohe. The manure used for thii particular crop was about the usual mixture —lOcwt. of bone, scwf. of superphosphates, and lewt. of potash to the acre. Puni district cannot produce the April-September article, but at the price named, with an infinitely heavier crop, and with much less frost risk, they say that the mid-June planting and first-»eek-in-October digging pays better than the extra-early cropping of Pukekohe Hill—cropping which has brought the locality into so much prominence. Bombay, Buckland, Mauku and Waiuku can all contribute lame supplies of "second earlies," of very highest quality, dug during October. AREA AND YIELDS. _

Although the September ard early October potatoes are sent all over New Zealand in small quantities, the area actually sown for mid-Septem-bcr digging is infinitesimal compared with the acreaga under crop in this important potato-growing district. For example, in the area from which the produce drains through Pukekohe railway station there are perhaps 2000 acres under potatoes this season; on the Hill there were not more than twelve acres sown to catch the high-priced early market. And because of the froßt, the hail ana the blight to which

reference has already been made, the yield will not be more than one ton tu the acre —twelve tans in all! golden values. If good fortune favours those who bid for golden values—those with the later ciops look envious. In October they were saying that the game was not worth the candle. Last season the highest price received for forty years was reaped by the veteran grower, Mr R. Bilkey, who secured 4Jd per lb for his first consignments. This represents £39 13s 4d per ton. And that season Mr Bilkey's yield was 2i tons per acre, or at the rate of £99 3s 4d to the acre! The year before last was a very favourable teason, and the same grower got 5 tons to the acre, the opening price being 3id per In—£32 139 4d to the lon, or at the rate of £163 6s 8d to the acre! Golden values indeed. But to plant potatoes in April to dig in midSeptember is about the biggest gamble in farm practice. Still there ia a fascination in the game, and so those who have those rare bits of "extra early" land like to make a bid for the biggest prices in the opening market for new potatoes. This year, with only a ton to the acre, the highest price obtained was 3Jd per lb in Wellington. But next April, before the month is half gone, the ploughs will have coveied the seed from which the following September-October harvest is expected.