A TE AWAMUTU ORCHARD.

Waikato Times, Volume xxx, Issue 2424, 24 January 1888, Page 3

A TE AWAMUTU ORCHARD.

Mu \V. Johns' Ohciiako at Tf. Raiiu.— I paid a visit ti> Mr Johns's orchard lust week when 1. found him busily engager packing poaches fur market. lieforu entering into ;i description of the orchard — which by the way will not. be very minute as he was too busy to afford much time, but he very kindly save nie all the inl> ruiatiou lie dfmi.l in the limited time at his disposal —it will be as well to describe his mode of packinj such perishable fruit t'or the market. The ho.xos are ,'ift. S)in. long by Din. wide and din. deep; eaeh box isdivided into three compartments ,the box holding from twelve to dozen peaches according to the size of the fruit. At the bottom of each compartment, is placed a layer of the leaves of the fern tree, on the top of this layer is placed a sheet of tissue paper, the peaches are then laid on the paper in a single layer, more fern leaves, then another sheet of paper, and another layer of peaches, on the top of which is placed another lot of leaves and then the lid, so that each box holds two layers of fruit. By this system the fruit is put upon the in a perfect state. All overripe and bruised fruit —be it ever so slight—is rejected. The peaches ripen in the boxes, so that by the time they are opened they are quite tit for use. The orchard, which is eight acres in extent, is divided into three compartments or sections, each of which is bounded on three sides by a double row of shelter trees. Between the latter and the fruit trees trenches four feet deep are dug to prevent the roots getting to to those of the fruit trees. There are 150 poach trees, all of the variety known as " Early Rivers," and all laden heavily, so heavily that a great number of the branches are broken down by the weight of fruit. The crop is as heavy as it used to be in the early days, before the trees were attacked by the blight. Mr Johns had picked and packed up to the time of my visit no less than a thousand dozen, and so heavy is the crop that no one would suppose on looking at the trees that anything like that amount had been picked ; indeed, with the exception of a few small ones, one would think the trees had not been touched. To give an idea of the enormous yield, I may mention one small tree, the topmost branch of which [easily reached, and the stem of which at its thickest place was no mure than two inches in diameter, had two large iron buckets of peaches taken from it, and quite another bucketful still remained on the tree. In planting his orchard at first Mr Johns had no idea of hating so many peach trees, but as other varieties of fruit died out, from blight and other causes, lie filled up the blanks with peach trees. Of course, he has a great number planted out, but not 150. fn those days it must be remembered that 110 one ever expected the trees would recover, or young ones escape the effects of the blight which ruined so many of the trees in the country, but apparently, shelter is what the trees require, for I remember a few cases where the trees were completely sheltered from every wind, and they bore heavily, but the fruit was not of good quality. This however, does not apply in this case, for tho fruit is excellent, and instead of presenting the pale green appearance of fruit grown in too much shade, it has tho beautiful pink bloom which is characteristic of that which gets a proper amount of sunlight. This is due to the tact that tho orchard has a northerly aspect. The care, time, trouble, and expense, involved in properly attending to an orchard of this size are necessarily very great, but the owner is now reaping the reward of his labour, for it would be well within the mark to put his nett returns from peaches alone at €75 for this year. An orchard such as this adds considerably to the value of a farm. To attain this end the planting and selection have to be Carried on upon something moro than rule of thumb principles. Care must bo taken to select tlie varieties most suited to the soil and climatic changes, for tho climate is not so humid as it was twenty years ago, when scores of tons of poaches of the very finest quality went, to waste every year, there being 110 sale lor them. There is little fear of over-stock-iug tho Auckland market with peaches for many years to come, and if such should ever be the case, it would pay well to start canning factories. If it pays to can and export the enormous fruit crops of California, much of which finds its way to New Zealand, it should surely pay to do so hero, when all the conditions necessary to the successful raising of fruit are equally favourable. In going round the poach trees my attention was directed to one very heavily laden. We counted Jifty peaches on one small limb. Wo estimated oO similar limbs for the tree—an estimate which I believe to bo under the mark —and this made 1500 on one tree alone. There were many others similarly loaded. Besides the fruit just mentioned there are many varieties ot apples, plums and pears, all of which appeared, with few exceptions, to be doing well. As regards apples, Mr Johns is not of the same opinion as those who think the most payable kind for export are those which ripen late—say in May and June, as by the time these are put on the English market the early summer apples grown at home are coming in. lie inclines to the opinion that the most profitable for export arc those varieties which ripen ill February and March and not later than April, such, for instance, as Cox's Orange Pippen, Canadian Renette, Boston Russet, American Golden Russet, Stunner Pippin, and whatever other kinds come in at the same time, providing, of course, that they are not the sort which are too delicate to stand the packing. All the varieties just mentioned, with tho Irish Peach, Stone Pippen, Northern Spy, and several others, do very well in tho soil. The latter, though usually a shy bearer, cropped very heavily last year, the branches actually breaking with the weight of fruit, but it is a kind, Mr Johns says, too thin-skinned to stand the handling and packing for export. " Mussel Scale " he has found troublesome, but the chief pest is root blight, for which he has tried everv remedy without success. The former can be got rid of by spraying the trees with a solution of caustic potash Another pest is the small brown beetle" which attacks the leaves of plums and pears but is especially severe upon the apple the skin of which it eats away. The much dreaded codlin moth has not made its appearance here, and as the orchard is far removed from any other it is not likely to come here at any rate for many years. For tho root blight he lias tried many remedies, sulphur, lime and sulphur mixed, and a mixture of these two and wood ashes which he boiled, this had the effect of eating holes in the copper boiler, but the blight seemed to thrive on the solution. Some of the trees are dead and some dying from tho effects of this blight which is by far the worst enemy apple growers have to contond with. The apple orop is not so heavy this year but that is only to be expected as it was so good last year, still thoro is a fair crop, as much as is good for the health of the trees and the quality of the fruit. In tho nursery— which we had not time to go over—are about a thousand young trees of various sorts, which will bo principally used in filling up blanks and supplying new varieties, wiiich Mr Johns, by experienco, finds most suitable to the soil or profitable to grow, for lie is always experimentalising, and instead of planting at haphazard, studies the conditions necessary to ensuro success. The nursery is as clear of weeds as it is possible to be, an occasional going over with his patent hoe keeping iL quite clean. A couple of years ago an American paid a visit to Now /iealand, and noticing how the orchards were sheltered, he recommended cutting down the shelter trees, which he said wore not only a harbour lor noxious insects, but made the apple trees delicate. Ho said that no doubt the crop would not bo so heavy but it would be of much liner flavour, would keep better, and would be quite as heavy as the tree should boar. He said tho people were making nurseries instead of orchards. I have seen several orchards lately which were fully exposed the southerly and westerly winds atid tliQ tvoei. were not only bearing well but were perfectly healthy and free from blight of any kind. In one orchard so situated every tree was barked by the rabbits to a height of eighteen inches but they are bearing as well as if they had never been touched. All this points to tho fact that tho conditions which arc suitably t« tho successful growth of the pouch are not skj favourable to tho apple which isessentially a hardy fruit, and though it may bear well in sheltered positions it is healthier for exposure,