FRUIT.

Te Aroha News, Volume 1, Issue 47, 26 April 1884, Page 7

FRUIT.

Fimir-GROWNG is attracting groat attention in ICn^l.uul. Grain is suffering from a ruinous competition with other countries, and meat is tlueatenaa by the freezing process. The full in grain and niealjjcuts the fi round fnnu under the great estates hy depriving them oC ths advantage they held in 'these special products. Fruit, poultry, oe&s, and similar products of small farming are imported in immense quantities, and it is argued that to them the agriculturist must turn. They are crops in which the labour or" the grmver himself forms a large-* el( j iiunt ol! co-^t, and they are | essentially crops hy which small holders may live and thrive* In 1882 the v.ilue of law fruit imported wa5. £'2,218,9 13, apart from the &reat importation of! jams, fruitpulp, dried fruit**, and other preparations which are sent from all parts of Europ) and America A gre.it experiment is being made hy Lord iSudeley to produce fruit on a large scale on his estate atToddington where he has planted 500 acres and intends at once to plant 200 aeies more. The land is only of moderate quality* Lt was deeply bteain-plotighed-and well manured and standard trees of apple*, pc r . cherries, plnm^, and dam.soiM were pdL i.i iut't. apart.' Of appletrees 3000 of tho best sorts are p'ante.l ; oi" pear tices 812 ( and of plum trees 32,ooo oL 44 di(f iVnt kinds* as well as 9000 damsons, Only 522 cherry-trees aro yet put in as it ib not quite certain tisey wiil flourish at To '<lin<>ton. Goosebarrieß, curni'iN, and btm wherries nrr»s(»t bvtwe i n tl>o standards, and in some cases raspberry canes are put between tlij and

currant bushes. Of pposeherry hushes there are 130,000, of black cn.nint'22B,ooo. There are also 50 acres of black and red enrrants, rapphi rries find strawberries by therm el ye*, and iOO acres of strawberries with 60 acres of raspberry canes. Beltsot' poplars, Scotch firs and other quick-grow-ing- trees have been placed round the plantatiou for shelter, and beds of osierH have boon formed on Hie banks of the ] -bourne to mak* 1 I.h i I'm it ba i lvoU; on the estate. The barn and the farm buildi ng iia\e been turned inl.t a jam faolofv, and let for ten year-. t'> Mi B^aeh, a j un uianui'iii turei\ who his arranged to take all the I'niitat lixed rates. He will either stea-n it dowiu, pulp an.l keep it for winter j im-i, or sell it ficsh as he may find best. The h'n-t fiirit trees were planted at Toddington in J 880, and the estimate) yield for 1884, is 100 (on-. Lord Sndeley's experiment is beinu w.itehed in England with great interest, and his I'iuit farm is the largest, in on 1 ring fence, in the world, une result of his oxperi -nee is to dispel the delusion that removing trees from poor to rich land is the wisest course. lie baa found (h it the lieher the soil in which the )<>ung trees a iv nuiturcd the stronger they In-come, and the belter they bear tran.-planting whether the soil to which they ar j removed b,- neher or pooler than the nuisery in which they h.tvobeen raised. What Lord Sudeiey is doing- in England is being" aNodono on the Ap,>lo Company's farm of 300 acres- in Auckland. Wa wish the experiment in both cases 11 io i'nllest success, but it is clear that fmit requires so much constant personal care and labour that the small giower with a family to lielp him will bj at no disadvantage. All tint he want* i>> the piiiiciplo of co-opera-tion wh'ch will pl.int a j.nu factoiy nu,\t him on the same pi. in that cheese and dairy factories Hie being 1 planted all over the country. We li.ive also m nd the immense adv intag-c of bo ing" able _to | produce orang-cs, lemons, grapes and fig-s I in some paits oJ' the province as woll as apples 1 plums, pears and Ikm lies in others. Nor is the tomato to be mentioned without lespect. In New York Oiie i'.mner grows j .mmully 50 act es of tomatoes alon?. lie «e!ls them at I'2± ]>er hushel cr-ite, and obtains ,in average of 150 busliels to the acre. For se\ end years his returns have averaged £00 per acre. Iv Florida, with its wanner climate, the tomato a\erages 400 bushels per .ittv, but the absence of a l.ii-iic home market tlie lo^'er price which theTless fiesh fruit orings in N-*w York, and the cost of expoit, ivdn«-e the n.jt retnrn to much about that of the larnur in New York. We may add that the value of the apple crop in the United States has increased in the hut 20 years from £1,320,000 to over £10,000,000 while the peach crop is valued at the enormous su nof £11,500,000. In these figures, ap-u-t from the great variety of smaller fruits and borne-., there lies the g-erin of- a great revolution in modern farming- in England. The low price of wheat is beginning- also to toll in New Zoaland, and th? best antidote is evidently in the same direction that they are taking in England. The modes of keeping* fruit are now so various that jam-making in the old style is becoming- one of the least extensive. " Evaporation," is superseding it to a great dog-roe. Iron stoves md machines for this process arc manufactured as low as £15, and one of them will perfectly dry ,is much frui; as a family can peel and slice in a day. The same process is used for tonritoes and for all kinds of salad and delicate vegetables such as onions, peas, asparagus ami Lima beans. They are known in the trade as " dehydrated," ..md when plac.-d in water resume their original fieshness with the great ad vintage that the acid and starch in the fruits have undergone a chemical change which converts them into grape sugar, and rendering only half the usual quantity of ordinary sugar necessary in their subsequent use of land.

A piper in a Northumbrian town was once asked if he could play 'Within a Mile o' Edinboro, Toom. 1 ' Within a mile !' he oxcluim-»<l ; " W«-y, nmun, I cud play within ten ymh «>'t.' « 1 Can marry any u'ii'l thjt I please, he said, with a self s.ilMijd expression of pounteminee. ' N-> dou'>t,' she responded, smi ethically. 'But wh it niil do you p'cisc ?' They don't spoak now.