APPLE CULTURE IN NELSON

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2647, 18 December 1915, Page 15

APPLE CULTURE IN NELSON

MR, HERDMAN'S IMPRESSIONS. Wliilo in Nelson this week, the HOll. A. L. Herdman was given facilities to seo some of tho apple orchards in tho district, and ho lias returned to Well-, ington greatly impressed with what lio saw. "In company with Ttfr. Harley, the Mayor of Nelson, and Mr. Jackson," str.ted the Minister yesterday, "I was taken out to tho Waimea Plains, where in Redward's Valley apple culture is just beginning to develop. There is a fairly largo area of poor-looking country which hitherto produced.little but'gorse and manuka, but which has been converted in ■ a short 'spaco of timo into fine orchards, from which, I was told, in a year or a littlo longor apples will be talcen at a osnsiderablo profit. Most of these trees were planted a, littlo over three years ago, and to-day tlioy bear thick clusters of young apples which in six or seven weeks' timo will be ready for picking .and export. I was informed that it was not uncommon to take from some of tho trees I saw ten cases of apples, each containing 401b. of fruit. In many parts of tho district the profit 011 tho quantity of apples taken from the orchards worked out at £60 an aero, so that a. man with, say, some ten acres in apples, cleared £500 a year, which is a fair income from a uot very arduous, but certainly pleasant, occupation. There is a fairly big demand for apples in Now Zealand, and I was told that thero is a 0 larger demand for them in South America, which country, I understand, could take a million cases a year. To Soiitli American markets go most of tho apples at present grown in the Nelson district, and tlioy fetch very good prices. I had a very interesting conversation with yie_ president of tho Fruit Growers' Association in Nelson (Mr. M'Kee), and the conclusion that I came to after talking matters over with him and with others interested in the industry is tfcat in the, course of a few years large quantities of .apples will be available for ox)>ort, and that if a certain market can be found for what is grown, tho industry will provide profitable occupation for many people in New Zealand. [The future of tliG industry does no\ clepend upon the capacity of the country to produce the fruit—that has been proved—it depends upon a sure market and 1 upon satisfactory shipping facilities. "There appears to-be some doiiht about the practicability of converting disabled soldiers into fruit-growers. A mail miist' wait for four or five years before ho can mako much of a profit out of his orchard, and it was suggested by some who know something abfiitt tho business that tho cultivation of apnla land is not quite a suitable occupation for the married man. However, this is a matter which will receive the attention of Mr. stassey,_ who, as Minister of Lands, administering the Discharged Soldiers' Settlement Act, will deal with tho matter.".