LEMON GROWING

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 12822, 17 August 1939, Page 6

LEMON GROWING

LOSSES IX HAWKE’S BAY The recent unfavourable weather resulted in Hawke’s Bay fruitgrowers suffering substantial losses, said the senior orchard instructor (Mr. G. H. Mclndoe) in an interview with the Hawke’s Bay Daily Mail. Quantities of lemons from local orchards sent to curing- houses in Wellington were rejected last week and returned to him for inspection. All the fruit showed traces of severe frost injury. Although the damage was not confined to any particular locality, orchards in the Havelock North district where frosts are not generally ,experienced, suffered the heaviest.

Mr. Mclndoe said that it was interesting to note that although trees on a property at Pakowhai escaped practically unscathed, an adjoiningorchard suffered as heavily as any other in the district. It was explained that; the immunity of the first orchard was brought about by air currents from a nearby stream running through the property and counteracting the effects of the frosts. The loss is a two-fold one. Not only has fruit ready for picking suffered severe injury, but the crop maturing near Christmas will be poor as a result of the damage the trees have received.