FRUIT-GROWING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 290, 11 May 1914, Page 4

FRUIT-GROWING.

Two blocks of land, comprising over eleven thousand acres, in the North Auckland district, have been purchased ■by the. Nelson Fruit Lands Development Company for subdivision into orchards. Tlie purchase has just been completed by .Mr, W. 11. Buxton, a shareholder in the company. The company began its operations in the Nelson district three years ago, and in that period has planted over 350,000 trees in three hundred orchards. Its scheme of operations is comparable with the system of placing fruit farmers on Crown lands, with the important difference that the owners of sections do not take up their lands until the trees have reached the bearing stage. Similar methods will be followed with the land which has now 'been acquired by the company in the Auckland district. The orchard areas will be planted under the direction of an expert supervisor, by a well organised stall, and when the purchasers of sections enter into occupation they will be required to comply with regulations designed to ensure the proper management of the trees. Mr. Buxton states that the company extended its operations to Auckland because there is no more suitable land available in the Nelson district. Most of the land is miiniproved, and hi addition to planting it with fruit trees the company will provide reading, the sections being loaded with the cost ol both trees and roads. Next winter th< company will plant a hundred thousand trees in Nelson and a similar numbei on its Otamatea property. These new lands will not begin to produce fruit until seven ywrs »ft«r the planting operations begin. When the first area comes into bearing the company will be able to establish 200 or 300 settlers, and each year afterwards 100 more, until tin; whole iblock of the land is occupied. The demand from South America is .so large that that market alone will absorb a 'huge production.