FRUIT TREE PROPOSAL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21617, 9 October 1933, Page 5

FRUIT TREE PROPOSAL

" ILL-ADVISED " SUGGESTION PLANTING IN PUBLIC PLACES Although at various times suggestions have been made that fruit trees might be planted in public places and by roadsides in New Zealand instead of purely flowering trees, orchardists and forestry experts consider that any such action would be ill-advised, chiefly because of the danger of orchard diseases spreading from these trees. It was maintained by orchardists interviewed in Christchurch recently, that fruit trees planted in this way would have to be given just as careful attention from the point of view of spraying to prevent disease as trees in orchards. It was difficult enough to keep diseases of fruit trees in check at present, even with the regulations concerning the control of orchards, they said. Any fruit trees planted in public places would have to be kept under control, and spraying and pruning, even if this last was not so severe as in orchards, would cost money that the authorities concerned would be unwilling to spend Many fruit trees made a good show of blossom, and also of leaf, and in theory it was pleasant to consider the appearance of ripening fruit in the autumn. Unfortunately, it was pointed out, the fruit would probably never be allowed to ripen, for the trees would be plundered by unscrupulous persons. It was not that they would be grudged the fruit they took, but that in their doing so the trees would be badly broken and their appearance spoiled. What happened to fruit trees growing in vacant sections and overhanging the street showed how any trees planted in public places would faro.