FIREBLIGHT MENACE

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 101, 24 January 1927, Page 14

FIREBLIGHT MENACE

DR. TILLYARD WARNS ORCHARDISTS HAWTHORN HEDGES MUST GO Dominion Special. Nelson, January 22. Regarding the southward spread of Greblight in the South Island, Dr. Till- , yard, of the Cawthron Institute, stated that, probably within a year from to-dav, if not already, the disease ; would be in Wellington and its suburbs, and its extension to Nelson when '■ that happens might be only a matter of a tew months. It would be extraor-, dinarv good fortune—far more than I any of us deserved—if its arrival could ■ be slaved off for only two more years from now. “I feel it my duty to re-: peat the warning given to Nelson fruitgrowers five years ago: You cannot have successful orchards and hawthorn hedges,” continued Dr. Tillyard. “You; will have to choose one or the other. : If you decide to keep your hedges,' then you must also recognise that pear-, growing will have to be given up as uttcrlv unprofitable, while apple-grow-ing will have to undego a further severe handicap, which may easily destroy any possible margin of" profit remain-: ing in the industry to-day.” After defining the terms of the Fireblight Act, Dr. Tillyard stated that all hawthorn hedges within the legally declared commercial fruit-growing area ought to be trimmed or cut back during the ensuing winter, in such a way that no single sprig of blossom was allowed to appear on them in the spring. By this method alone could they hope to avoid the spring blossom infection by means of which the disease usually got its first hold on a district. Farmers and hop-growers, who were the owners of valuable hawthorn hedges, had also to be considered in this very difficult problem. Dr. Tillyard concluded: “The solution would appear to be for all who are vitally interested to get together during the coming winter, and try to find some basis of agreement for -the Nelson district. It should be possible to find a solution which would impose a minimum of hardship on individuals, and, at the same time, give a maximum :n’’ontit of sec’"'itv tn the threatened industry, but there is little time to waste. "in the case'of Hawke’s Bay, where fireblight has appeared in commercial orchards for the first time this year, it is highly probable that the infection has been in the hawthorn hedges at least a full year, or possiblv. two years earlier. ’I he disease will almost certainlv begin in hawthorn in the Nelson district, not in apples and pears, and if the disease can be discovered and diagnosed before it attacks the orchards, half the victouy will have been gained.”