THE FRUIT INDUSTRY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14325, 22 March 1910, Page 7

THE FRUIT INDUSTRY.

WHANGAREI ORCHARDS. :' ■ • ''' . - §1 V ORANGE AND LEMON I GROWING. /; ' ■ BIG RETURNS OBTAINABLE. f£'BY OUR SrECIAIi COMMISSIONER. Whangarki is one of the finest fruit- .';!,; growing districts in New Zealand, yet dur- >■ ing the last 10 years it has made singu■'i larly little progress in the direction of |p extending its orchards. y; It has every advantage that man can ,:£.. desire for the production of fruit—warm V; deep volcanic soils, rich alluvial flats, easy ;' slopes of clay loam, abundant sunshine! '",'■ ample rainfall, and a beneficent climate, ■ which enables a very wide range of fruits V to be grown, of such a size and colour ■i and flavour as could scarcely be beaten % elsewhere. ]J It is true that there are already established in Whangarei a number of very fine orchards, in fact the town itself might C well be called orchard town, because there AJ are within its municipal boundaries more '& ■ fruit trees probably than in any other - : centre of the Dominion. Still, though "■'}:'. since my visit there, 10 years ago, populaiv tion and trade have nearly trebled in ;V volume, the orchards have scarcely in- : • creased 10 per cent. Neither orchard work '•>>>-' nor the old industries, timber working, ~,""' gumdigging, flax milling, coal mining, are J\' accountable for Whangarei's expansion. { That must bo put down to the growth of -dairying, sheep-farming, general agricul>V . ture, and the cement and lime industries. ! ;| PEACHES AND TEARS. ;*«.'■:-There are quite a number of exception- ,'" ally fine and productive orchards about ,; Whangarei. Some of them are established :) ; ; on land which I should say would easily v<: ' sell for two or three hundred pounds an i'l-x acre for residential purposes. Perhaps this ... very fact accounts for the slow growth ' of the orchard industry. At the same time it . also proves that when men can . successfully hold such land under orchard ~ year after year there must be something ' ~-' in fruitgrowing. t I remembei' being impressed with the exceptional growth of apricot trees under v irrigation at Mildura, but I saw at Wha- |'-.■'•' garei peaches which would give their Aus- ,.' tralian cousins points in size and spread, : -j" and which the ordinary judge would take I i/to be well-grown four or five-year-old ' ■; standards. ,--. It would be difficult to describe in deII tail such orchards as Messrs. Weaver, |:|;: Hoey Bros., Hutchins, Hanlon, Hutchin- ; son, Reyburn, Mitchell, and others pos- . cess.. I can say, however, that fruit- - growers in most other parts of the world would be proud to own them, and fortu- ■'■'■■' nate too. There are really only three | types of orchard —those on the volcanic :'. land, which run mostly to peaches, lemons, oranges; those on the alluvial flats, whicn 111 are devoted chiefly to pears, and those on . the. clay loams, which are usually mixed 1 fruits, but with apples predominating. SPECIALISING IN FRUIT CULTURE. 'ov : fi- I am glad to see the spirit of specailisallll iion springing np among our orchardists — there is usually quite enough scope for a man's energies in one line of fruit, and I he should certainly develop his knowledge |||f better by confining it to one or two classes I of fruit than by spreading it over a score ifjgfbr more. In Whangarei it is noticeable .'that some of the growers are making a specialty, say, of pears or peaches, or cit- ;; ■ rus--fruits. Speaking generally, however, \ it will not do yet in New Zealand for a '%,C'x fruitgrower to depend altogether upon one ;::':.-. variety. It would mean that too much i \|- labour would be required at stated periods and besides in this somewhat uncertain .. climate it is just as well to spread the risks /,X-' in a reasonable manner. ■ CITRUS FRUIT INDUSTRY. , - At one time it was thought that Whangarei would become the great lemon and l>, orange growing centre of the Dominion, and there is no reason why it should not have secured this position, but I am in-- :-. clined to think that there is less develop ,_ .ment among citrus fruits than among stone , or other fruits, and yet citrus orchards : must be profitable. I had a chat with Mr. L. Hanlon, who has 145 St. Michael ' oranges on a block of two and a-half acres. I This means that the trees are a big dis- % tance apart, but as peaches are growing , between the lemons there is no ground wasted. Out of the 145 trees 140 are in bearing, . and last season these 140 trees yielded 400 cases of oranges, of which 380 cases sold at an average price of 7s 9£d per case, after paying auctioneers' fees, cost of cases, freight, but not including working costs, of orchard. Two cases of inferior fruit were sold locally; the total .crop from the two and a-half acres, not '.' - including -any return from the peaches .growing between the oranges, yielding just i. under £150. This is a good enough return to satisfy almost anybody, and there seems to me no reason why our markets should I not be more largely supplied with locally grown citrus fruits than they are at present. Whangarei oranges are usually not gathered until October, when the supplies SftJ;;ff6m other sources are not great, and when the advent of warmer weather and the 'scarcity of other fruits makes oranges particularly acceptable. .' 1 \.- ROOM FOR LEMONS. . << -If.there is room for locally-grown orange \in.the. New Zealand markets there is also , Tobm for locally-grown lemons. The also room for locally-grown lemons. The fault in the past has been that our growers have 'put their lemons on to the market in a green condition, and during the cold months, when there is not much demand for'this class of fruit. It is a simple . enough matter, however, to cure and keen .lemons two or three months, and they certainly sell better when cured than - when green, and they are undoubtedly -, much more widely used when summer drinks are in request than in the cold win- ,*** weather. It, is questionable whether Whangarei can command any monopoly oyer the lemon supply, because this fruit I thrives admirably on the light gum 'and ..warns near Auckland, but in the matter | of oranges the place has no serious rival, ||fsK>;that it seems a pity that growers have not gone more extensively into the busip|j«?s.,;: -' •• • t\ " • THE APPLE TRADE. '.That the clay, loams of the Whangarei district will grow apples to perfection is . *mply proved. I saw a good number of i w*s each carrying' a crop of from 10 to |M*2 bushels, and when they will do this it Wakes one wonder why we have not built "P an export trade in this fruit like Tasmania, and why apples are still a scarce and dear commodity. ';;■•;■, - ■ lllltt^a paper read before the Whangarei |p|Aamberii;of Commerce, Mr. L. Hani in S-Ft d;that,: there were fully 10,000 res - ■ «ieap fruitgrowing land in the immediis« vicinity of the Whangarei ' borougn, -out good and cheap fruitgrowing soil is «ot confined, to that part of the' Auckland Peninsula; one can find* it around the Wai- .'.:' to ataand Manukau Harbours, and along ' jnc Kaipara railway. One can find it 3 '; Northwards, as far- as Mangonui, and '■••22? ard ' paiehes, M far ' 5 Stewart I a < ' •