VALUABLE INDUSTRY

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 105, 28 January 1931, Page 10

VALUABLE INDUSTRY

N.Z. Fruitgrowing

GOOD CROP THIS YEAR

“I am glad to be able to say that present indications point to this season’s fruit crop being a good average one in the main commercial fruit-growing centres,” said the Hon. J. G. Cobbe. Minister of Defence, speaking at the opening of the horticultural conference yesterwas satisfactory to note, said the Minister, that the institute co-operated with the horticultural division of the Department of Agriculture, especially so in connection with the important fruit experiments now being carried out in the Nelson district. Advice and assistance were also being given to those engaged in the growing of citrus fruits in the Bay of Islands and Tauranga districts. The Department of Agriculture had reported that 708 nurseries were registered during the last official year, and, taken ns a whole, the trees, plants, etc., raised for sale were well up to standard and clean and free from disease. That was most creditable to the nurserymen of the Dominion. . . , . , The total area in commercial orchards in the Dominion stood at approximately 27 000 acres; orchard registrations totalled 6075, comprising 3048 taxable and 3027 non-taxable orchards; there were 1.330,891 cases of fruit shipped overseas during the 1930 export season, the bulk of which was exported under Government guarantee. That was a splendid achievement for a comparatively new industry.