FRUIT RESEARCH STUDENTSHIP

Press, Volume C, Issue 29599, 23 August 1961, Page 14

FRUIT RESEARCH STUDENTSHIP

Forecasting Final Size Of Crops Mr D. I. Jackson, of the Fruit Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, will leave tomorrow to take up a studentship offered by the stonefruit growers of Adelaide. He will be in Australia for two or three years. His main work would be investigations into the method of forecasting the final size of stone-fruit crops by measuring them early in the season, Mr Jackson said yesterday. He explained that after the pollination of flowers, the fruit swelled to a certain size and then remained almost stationary for about a week while the stone or pip hardened. The fruit then began to swell rapidly. During the period the fruit was almost stationary measurements taken could be used to determine the size of the final crop, Mr Jackson said. Successful work along these lines had been done in the United States, and some work, mainly on apple and pear crops, had been done in New Zealand.

In the last two years, Mr Jackson, a graduate of Canterbury Agricultural College, Lincoln, has been doing field work in research orchards. He is visiting the D.S.I.R. establishment in Christchurch at present.