FIFTY YEARS AGO

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23227, 22 December 1938, Page 8

FIFTY YEARS AGO

ORCHARDS AND GARDENS Auckland was particularly well off in the matter of good orchards and vegetable gardens half-a-century ago. Tbs following is an extract from the New Zealand Herald of December 22, 1888: . - "Auckland is now noted among the towns of the colony for the production of first-class crops of potatoes, onions ami other vegetables, and has also gained some prominence as a fruit-growing district, the advantages of the soil and climate it possesses being all that could be desired. The fruit plantation of Jlr. Roberts, of Grey Street, Onehunga. covers an area of five acres of rich % canic soil, and is said to be one of til o finest orchards in New Zealand. 1 here are no fewer than 100 varieties of aPP? trees, and the fruit trees number oUW in all, comprising the best varieties o . apples, pears, lemons, oranges, peaches, plums, chestnuts and walnuts, in addition to which there is a quantity of tlifl smaller growths of fruit such as gooseberries. The excellence of the sou around Auckland due, no doubt, to e town's numerous volcanic lulls, tne warm climate and the frequent gen rains, together with the fact that as far as possible only the very bes ■ varieties of trees are being p'antec. augurs well for the future of Auck.an as a L ! ruit and vegetable producing town." •