OUR STAPLE INDUSTRIES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 298, 11 May 1911, Page 3

OUR STAPLE INDUSTRIES.

RURAL NEW ZEALAND UNDER REVIEW. ] No. 2!>. [All Rights Reserved.] By R. J. EA.MES. NELSON: A PROVINCE ARRIVING THE VALUE OE AI'PLE LAND. There are several circumstances which make it very diilicult to arrive at the average worth of apple land in Apple Land. To begin with, the land trallieked in does not furnish ( .ii uniform standard of value, and the country ranges in quality from very poor—"So poor," said a settler, "that it won't grow manuka scrub, and when it won't growthat it won't grow anything"—to very rich. Government land, in its native state, has been selling as low as Gs per acre. Quite recently syndicates bought up some 4000 acres of hilly country at a low price and disposed of it at something like £0 to £lO per acre. There are 20, 30 and 50-aere blocks available at from £lO to £ls per acre, and still poorer and rather more remote land, at £u to £0 an acre. Between Stoke and Richmond, which is fairly well planted, land in grass cannot be got under £jo and £OO an acre. At Riwaka, a splendid country, immediately north of Motueka, £oo an acre is asked for clear agrieul tural land suitable for fruit-growing. At Motueka, where wheat, oats, barley and hops are grown (hops, of course", par better thrill- grain in small holdings) the figure funs to £.60 All this land is accounted good fruit-growing country. Apple orchards in bearing are put down at from £BO to £IOO per acre. It has already been shown by one grower that apple crops, at Id per'lb net, would return £BO an acre. But another orchardist put it this way: "I have 130 trees to the acre. If they average five bushels (or cases) per tree and I get 2s fid per case, that means 12s Gd a tree, or £Bl os per acre.'' Concerning the poorer (and cheaper) land, it is said that although the crops are not so prolific the fruit has the virtue of being so solid, that "you can ship it to London and back again without, bruisin 2 it." Taking into consideration the high "prices to which we have alluded it is apparent that the apple has had the same effect on the upward price of land in the Nelson fruit-growing area as, the cow ha.s had iu other parts of New Zealand.

MONEY 1 IN HOPS. .Tire l|op cheques which growers collect, particularly when e,rops-, and prices are good, nuiki' ope envious. Besides, it is pretty work, .hop-growing. The regularly planted vines, whiclM'-eaeh into the air supported stakes, or 0:1 strings and \vires ! ;la.de<i with their delicate bulY-colorcd blooms, are quite artistic. LjisA veijr hops fetched a good price, Is per Ib/and bn'e\lotueka grower, off 12 acres, received £7lO for his harvest. Another, who had an unusually heavy crop,, took £9!)j oil' nine acres'; £504, £300; £330 *nd,..<;250 were other cheques paid out,by Tone firm to growers on small.areas. .;It will thus he seen that in favorable seasons ther?' is money in hops. To express it in round figures, the cash value, to growers on the Wuimca Plains aiid'in'ahd' about- Mouieka is between; I'CO.OQO and, £7().B0l) annuallv. . HOICKING. ." '

"riop-pieking.'/. That is the occupation for the end of February. Father mother, sons, daughters. .'. These hop pickers camp like picMie ,partie> and for; twopence .a bushej 'the .-drong-llavorcd bloom is stripped.'from its stalk and binned. \\Ut\]i /hops-j are "in," plav "is '■out"— except '.for' those .families who make play lund ,a (.substantial cheque) out of the ]olj,i ; One lady, a recorddid,: 70>jDU$h > bjs in 'wight hours, But it is not, everyone who can • make) lis 8d a,day. '"The. women" said one picker,,."a.fe.fastQr'n us,." He added (aK though, bespoke npt in Jhe language of the police effort) - ," .'ffhey ire so lightfingered,". Still„anot|ie,r remarked: "The district wou/d be filing without 'ops." Looked at jfrpm,svqryjjbint of view, hops, as . distributors of ready monev, have been onfe of'flit! tno's't satisfactory of Nelson's, rrtr.ifj ribs^ 1 'They necessitate the cmplofciiiPnt of"labor in c.uttjng. the stakes (manuka j&icjss are used for training the .vine's 1 '; oh,; although the wire trellis system ! 'is'-prjw coming into more extensive '|usc); ! ni triie, making of string, in eultlva|ion,| pickiqg'iind drying. Hoppicking, it .is.said, is regjirded as holidav'mg rather'than 1 as.tedious work, and"a faniily b , f"pß'c%p;i 1 -''picke,rs can make a "nice bit"fit mbfiey.",. n A'bx>ginner mav d 0 20 bushels, (".ft a'practised pi'eker 40 bu s 'li6lk' f ('(is' ; !Bdfln''an eight or ninehours dayi' Whjen'wc? sfieak of practised pickers' i adiilts,'arr! iißt ; nee.essa.rilv meant A giii -i o^ l f3,' , \v(iWc r b'iil'd ; do'lier'2o , to 3j per day, explained her deftness by saying tip was -ran old hand at the game." , Boys. girlss of this type look forward;,pigifrly,. tjO -hop-picking l , when they can earn froni 2.~>s to 3.">s a week •;_ A bushel ; ,pf ,gi:ecn hops dries down to/i little (jvera pound weight of the finished product, so that if hops realise Kid per 11), approximately a fifth of the sum goes to tile! picker. The popularity of, picking r,e.st_s in the fact that the employment can betaken as an outing in which, a- whole : family may participate. During: t)|e. fruit and hop-pick-ing there are so many boy* ami girls engaged that most of the schools in the district are cJospd;, .'•.■.[.■'. • ' I

THE MOTUK-IyY MSTRICT. This is a very well established locality, and it is through' the',port which servo.i the district that .most of the raspberry pulp c(imes. : . This, year's raspberry crop was estimated at {l5O tons weight." which at CiM a ton,, would pan out at .CS-KK). There are not so many raspberries grown as formerly, and in a niimbcr of'case.-, tlie bom; has been displaced by orchard-, and hop-gardens. There are no viable and outward signs of progress in the township itself, but '.the trade through the port is. increasing rap.idlv. In the year HMO there yere shipped .'l.IiTiUSOlb.weight of fresh fruit, liesidc-. canned fruil and pulp in large quantities. There are three canning and pulping factories at work. Krom'7oo to 'MM bales (■> to :!cwt. in I'iich) of hops arc shipped annually. l*'or six months of the year there is a 'heat to Wellington practically every working day,.and these take something like til) tons of fruit each. The hen. too, is very businesslike. She was responsible last, year, after supplying local requirements, for the export of I."i."i.u|ii dozen eggs! One poultry fanner, with a couple of thousand laying hens, crop-- about ,",0 dozen eggs a day. and he recently had about, three thousand dozen in pickle, waiting for higher prices. The sheep contributed 700 bales of wool this season. Without mentioning other item- of export, these figures will sullieiently suggest, (lie nature and density of settlement in the Motueka district.