NELSON NEWS

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21726, 7 March 1936, Page 23

NELSON NEWS

'tf vt.K ■ - . TOBACCO, HOPS, AND J‘. FRUIT' CROPS ! i PICKING NOW GENERAL IN MOST DISTRICTS ■; :.V -v-—p S (SPKCIAL TO Til PBXBS.) NELSON, March 6. Although the fruit crop, generally, is fairly heavy, the first month of the export season has been particularly quiet, because of the later season ’than usual, interruptions having been caused by broken weather, the lighter crop 'of Cox’s Orange, and the slowness of the Jonathan variety in assuming the ' necessary amount of colour for export 3 purposes. Many growers have been disappointed with their crops , of Cox’s ♦Orange, and the export of Dunn’s Favourite has been reduced by late infec- , tion of black spot which has developed with February’s unseasonable T weather. It is anticipated that the present week will see the last of the Cox’s Orange variety being inspected and forwarded for export, and that more of a rush period will begin with . all parts of the district handling Jonathans next week. Some growers compare the present

season with that of 1929, when the fruit was late in developing to export requirements, resulting in a shorter harvesting period, which made it necessary for the crop to be

taken off in quick time, thus creating conditions which taxed tne capacity of many of the sheds in handling the fruit.

The size of apples is about the average this year, but in most parts of the district pears are not of the usual

size, this being attributed by one expert to the low soil temperatures during the summer. Most of the hop crops are heavy, the gardens having suffered little by wet weather. However, during February’s rains the vines became heavily laden wtih water and called. on the post and wire systems to carry many tons of. additional weight. Several growers in. the Riwaka area had the misfortune to’have their posts or wires broken, which let the hops fall to the ground. The hop picking season is now in its second week, and people from all parts of the Dominion have came tothe district to assist in the harvesting of the crop. , The harvesting of the tobacco crop has;.been in progress since early in February, but there is still a . large quantity yet to be picked and dried. The full effects of the hailstorm during'the first few days of February are now more apparent. In the plantations affected • many of the leaves, bruised while quite small, are marked with black patches which become more noticeable after they * are- dried. Injured Man Recovering

J. S. Hildyard, of Lee Valley, Brightwater, who was injured earlier in the week when the motor-car he ' was starting ran backwards over a bank in Lee Valley, is making good progress towards recovery. Hildyard .suffered fractured ribs and collarbone, and \ a fractured wrist. ■ ■! ■ , , Bowls .

, In the final for'the championship

of the Nelson Bowling Club, W. Heaps beat C. H. Marsh after a closely-con-tested' game.. At tb« ?nd of< the’ twen-tieth’-head Heaps was’/two up, and. on the, final head he lay three.