THE APPLE INDUSTRY.

Evening Star, Issue 19275, 14 June 1926, Page 6

THE APPLE INDUSTRY.

Applk export should become an important industry in this dominion. Extensive markets overseas are available, and when the trade at this end is put on a thoroughly efficient footing, as the result of experiment and research, they should absorb large quantities of our fruit. In the past growers planted in most cases without any real knowledge of the varieties most suitable for the market, either at home or abroad. Experience has brought light on the matter, and the movement now is in the direction of planting orchards with a limited number of varieties that will meet the popular taste and retain their firmness and flavor in cool store and on transit. To effect a substantial change will involve time, enterprise, and capital whole established orchards are concerned, as it means the discarding of matured trees that are not among the most profitable and replacing them with better sorts. It is not surprising that fruitgrowers should show wide differences in their stocks, seeing that there is such a big choice. There are over 1,600 known varieties, mostly developments from the wild crab apple of the hedges in Britain. Only a comparatively small proportion of these are available in commerce in New Zealand, but there are enough to cause an undue multiplication in kinds. This is shown by the fact that at a conference of the Otago Fruitgrowers’ Association held a few days ago, when this question was discussed, schedules were considered containing over 200 varieties. A report was prepared which will be forwarded for the consideration of the Dominion Varieties Conference at Wellington next month. The question is one of urgency, and it is to be hoped that there will be no delay in

compiling and issuing a list that will prove an effective and reliable guide. Experienced orebardist.s will know where they stand on this question, and they can take measures accordingly, hut it is highly desirable that the best information should bo available to those who contemplate planting new areas with apples One serious fault is that certain apples go under different names in different localities, and another is that some kinds are so much alike that only experts can toll the difference. Sii Henry Jones, of Hobart, an authority on the fruit trade, states that New Zealand has almost unlimited opportunities for expansion if it can be assured of a profitable market. He naturally raises the questions of trade within the Empire and preference, but apart from these issues much can be done by the exporters and growers themselves to create a demand for their goods in the Homo markets. Careful selection and standardisation of varieties, efficient grading and packing, and care in transit, as well as judicious marketing and distribution, are factors that will no doubt receive serious consideration from the forthcoming conference To increase the demand for New Zealand apples overseas it will ho necessary that they shall enjoy a good reputation, and to obtain and maintain this it will he essential to land at tho other end choice fruit in the best possible condition.