Tons Of Fruit

Northland Age, Volume 28, Issue 36, 25 April 1928, Page 7

Tons Of Fruit

California’s Orchards “When travelling through the beautiful State of California, I saw more fruit trees than I had previously imagined existed in the whole world,” said Mr M Cohen, of Palmerston North, in an interview with a Manawatu Standard reporter, relative to his recent trip to the United States. “Fancy,” he proceeded, “travelling through a country by express train for hundreds of miles and on each side of you orchards in perfect symmetry, with every inch of ground beautifully tilled ! It makes one wonder what is don e with the resultant crop. You are told that the prune crop alone amounts to 400,000,0001 b., and that, in the month of October last, 40,000,0001 b., were exported to Europe. “The great canning factory at San Jose digested and canned 1500 tons of peaches recently in one day.. I have been in a vineyard of 7000 acres, and in orangeries and lemon groves combined of 4000 acres. In fact, one loses all sense of proportion of anything one had ever previously imagined. And when one realises that there will be no rain in that State for six months on end, one asks how it is possible that the trees survive. The answer is that the sea mists which come every night in the summer give some moisture. One realises the reason of the two epigrams which one constantly hears—that the rivers in California run upside down, and that the river Los Angeles is a quarter of a mile wide and a quarter of an inch deep. The headwaters of these rivers are dammed and every available gallon is brought down from the hills and used for irrigation by underground mains.”

“In this country,” added Mr Cohen, “we were familiar, in dealing with our fruiterers, with the brand known as “Sunkist.” This, he stated, was the product of a corporation of a number of fruitgrowers, the fruit being graded and pooled on lines similar to those which, he understood, prevail in the Nelson province with regard to apples.