APPLE DAY IN NELSON.
A GREAT SUCCESS. Apple day in the city, an institution which has been talked about amongst fruitgrowers for some time, was tried for the first time on Saturday, says the “Nelson Mail.” ‘The idea received a fillip from the storm at the beginning of last week, which brought /down large quantities of apples. j|Browers were faced with a problenr of disposing of the windfalls. To have sent them away to market would doubtless have resulted in a glut, with prices which would have failed to pay expenses, besides lowering the value of first class stuff that might have been shipped. An Apple Day in the city furnished a likely way of disposing of the fruit, provided it was sold at a cheap rate. Several growers decided to give* the suggestion a trial, and at a meeting on Wednesday night it was arranged that approximately 1,000 cases be sent into town on Saturday, to be sold at 2/- for cooking and 2/6 for desert The time for getting the apples ready was short, and growers were unable to gather and pack the number of cases they had piromised. It is estimated that about 600 cases were brought in, and practically the whole of these were disposed of at the Church Steps. The public simply rushed the sellers, and were so insistent that they had to be supplied straight away. The result was that there was no fruit left to fulfil the hundreds of orders that had been received.
There was a scene of great activity at the Church Steps, with growers unloading their cases, and the public scrambling for fruit. Orders are on hand for between 500 and 600 cases, and these will be delivered this week.
It was made quite clear that the fruit brought in was not first class, but fruit that had been brought down by the storm. Much of this had got inore 1 or less dirty on the ground, and the task of wiping every apple could not possibly nave been undertaken. However, there was little ground for complaint as to the dirtiness of the fruit generally. A specimen here and (here was not as clean as it might have been, but purchasers are asked to remember the circumstances under.which the fruit was gathered and to make a due allowance for this.
As far as can*be gathered growers who participated in Saturday’s experiment'qare more than satisfied with the result . With the cases sold from the Step, those ordered, and the large number of people who throughout Saturday afternoon wished to procure apples, it is estimated that something like 1,500 bushels could have been disposed of.
APPLE DAY IN NELSON.
Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume VIII, Issue 95, 5 April 1918, Page 2