MONEY IN APPLES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 286, 27 August 1908, Page 3

MONEY IN APPLES.

£300 PER ACRE PROFIT. The, enormous profits; obtainable", from fruit culture by trained men have frequently .been referred to. in those columns. . But the following. instance probably establishes a record in profit from , apple-culture. It' .is thus reported by the Sydney "Telegraph's" Melbourne correspondent:— "An article published by an English journal, dealing with . the success achieved by Tasinanian apple-growers, has induced ;Mr... J. 'G. Turner, chief inspector of fruit \in' Victoria,, to. make inquiries with a view of ascqftaiuing : the .profits realised by Victorian growers"V.. The., statement ..was mado... that the profits obtained. ;,in Tasmania were as high as £175 per acre. "In the courso of his investigations, Mr. Turner ascertained that remarkable results had boen obtained by Mr. J. Cowan, a Bacchus March orchardist. In order to demonstrate _ the benefit derivable from scien-' tific pruning, Mr. J. Cronin, principal of Burnley' School of Horticulture, paid special attention'to the trees' in-Mr. Cowan's farm,' by the judicious use of the knife to•:distribute the fruit-evenly among the branches. ' The orchard ■ was planted ten years ago with apple trees of the Jonathan variety, and the yield last season amounted to 12-bushels-per tree. The fruit was of unusually fine quality, and was sold for export at 6s. per bushel, or no less than.£36o per acre. -Making the liberal allowance'of. £60 for cost "of production, this would leave a profit of £300 per acre. — . "Figures from Timboon, in Cape Otway district, reveal profits of £IGO per acre. One fruit-grower thero gathered from 38 -trees of the Sturmer Pippin variety 310 cases of prime apples, which gave a net profit of'3s. 6d. per case, or £140 per acre. ■ In another instance 365 eases of Five; Crown apples were taken from 60 trees, and returned a profit of £120 to the acre. At Somerville growers realised £150 per acre. ; "In view of theso returns, Mr. Turner is at a loss" to:understand how small is the demand for land on which fruit can be successfully grown, seeing how strong the in-quiry-is for grazing areas, which,- when devoted. to dairying, yield) no more than a small fraction of .the profits' which orchardists are making. The Government, he remarks, has 2,000,000 acres of Crown lands on offer at 10s. per acre, payablo in twenty years, and though this is put down ,as third-class land, he considers that;much of iticould bo devoted to "apple-raising." 1 The same weights per acre, in New Zealand would .fetch in the market more money than the amounts .stated above.