ROOT-KNOT IN TREES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16326, 5 September 1916, Page 4

ROOT-KNOT IN TREES.

PROHIBITION OF IMPORT.

STRICT ADHERENCE URGED.

[lit TELEQRAPH.-nTO CORRESPONDENT.! CHBISTCHDRCH. Monday. At a meeting of the Canterbury Fruitgrowers' Association a number of fruit trees affected by root-knot, or hairy root, were displayed. The specimens themselves were hideous objects, and looked like clubs or knobkerries, so knotted and enlarged was the root stem just beneath what should be the earth level. It was stated that the specimens had been picked out of a large consignment of trees at the Christchurcb railway station. Part of the consignment was destined for the Nelson district. The stocks of those shown were mostly Northern Spy. the member:! inspected the trees most carefully, and all came to the conclusion that the orchard invaded by the pest was doomed. Mr. Longton stated that the trees were picked out from consignments from Australia. Some time ago the Government issued definite instructions that no consignments in which there were infected trees should be permitted to enter the Dominion. Then a consignment was allowed to enter for a grower in the South. The trees were planted, and a year or so later were sold, and it was found that they were infested with rootknot. This year there had been far heavier importations into the Dominion, which wero found to be absolutely infested with the pest. According to its own regulations the Department should have prevented their landing, but it had not, contenting itself with picking the trees over. This he considered absolutely useless. As a director of the Fruitgrowers' Federation he had entered a strong protest against the Department allowing these trees to enter the Dominion and be a source of danger to all the orchards. The trees would do well for a year or more, but after the fifth year they would have to be taken out and the orchard replanted. He did not know what was the use of Departmental regulations if they were to be waived at the will of the Department. The safety and success of tlje fruitgrowing industry was practically threatened by the Department foregoing its own regulations. Mr. C. E. Taylor strongly objected to the unrestricted import 'of trees such as those before them. He moved :—"That this meeting impress upon the Department of Agriculture the necessity of adhering to the regulations." Putting the regulations on one side, he said, was simply to expose the fruitgrowing industry to a formidable evil. He believed that the laxity displayed was due to the demands of a large body of speculators in fruit lands. The speculators, he alleged, did not care how the orchard was planted, provided they could sell to an outsider.

The motion was carried unanimously.