Horticultural Clippings.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 409, 9 October 1889, Page 3

Horticultural Clippings.

The Fruit-growing Area op Great Britain has in 1888 been for the first time ascertained with anything approaching to accuracy. The orchard acreage has long [ been known; butgooseberries, strawberries, currants, and raspberries have been regarded as unworthy of separate c^ssifi cation. We now know, however, that 32,776 acres in England, 532 acres in Wales, and 3417 acres in Scotland are cultivated in this manner. The English home counties are the great centres of the cultivation of strawberries ; Hampshire and Kent being the chief regions. Kent also grows a great quantity ot i-aspberries, which flourish very well on the high, chalky lands. Gooseberries and currants are more widely cultivated than the other minor fruits. The Scottish acreage is good, considering the climate ; and, while we fear that there was a curious fallacy lurking somewhere in the mind of a friend who guessed the centre of this cultivation as Dundee, we must ourselves own to surprise at 1343 acres of fruit land being found in the vicinity of Glasgow. Are the Glaswegians especially fond of strawberries ? Near Edinburgh only 178 acres of fruit land are to be found ; and yet the Midlothian climate is di'ier. Codlin Moth Legislation. — A deputation of Canterbury fruitgrowers inter viewed Mr W. P. Reeves, "M.H.R., and Mr Taylor, M.H.R., recently with the object of obtaining further legislation for protection of colonial fruit against the codlin moth. The deputation suggested levying a small tax on fruit trees, the prohibition of the importation of fruit from districts within the colony where the moth exists, the division of the colony into fruit districts, the administration of the Act to be left to local bodies. The members promised to do what they could to give effect to their suggestions. Mr Reeves thought the Act would be administered with greater economy, uniformity, and strictness by the General Government than by local bodies. It was also suggested that sheep inspectors might also act as orchard inspectors.