CANNING INDUSTRY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23228, 23 December 1938, Page 13

CANNING INDUSTRY

HASTINGS ENTERPRISE USE OF PEAS AND BEANS CROPS FROM SILTED LAND [by TELEGRAPH OWN correspondent] HASTINGS, Thursday Some hundreds of men, women, hoys and girls busily picking poas in a 70aere field alongside Poplar Grove, Pakowhai, have provided an unusual sight' for passers-by during the past few days. Children just released from school for the annual holidays are more than delighted to earn lOd for each full petrol tin picked. Moreover, the work is not particularly arduous and is undoubtedly healthful. The peas, which were grown by Mr. A. Hull, for a Hastings canning factory, w<?re planted in land which was silted over during the April flood from a depth of a few inches to as much as 2ft. 6in., and they have yielded a phenomenal crop. An average of 15 tons of peas is now being picked each day. As thg peas are picked they are hurried off to the canning factory, where, after being shelled by an ingenious machine, they are canned immediately. The time between picking and canning is often only a few hours.

An interesting experiment to determine whether two crops of peas can be grown in a single season is now being made by thp canning cbncern. Six acres of a 30-acre field of peas which lias already been harvested and canned has been ploughed and planted again in peas.

The quantity of asparagus canned by the Hastings factory this season is fully 50 per cent greater than last year. Altogether about 95 acres in the vicinity of Hastings is now given over to the growing of asparagus for canning, and of tfiat area about 90 acres has been planted since thf> canning industry began. The whole of the asparagus canned in Hawke's Bay is sold in New Zealand.

In a few weeks' time the canning concern will undertake its first pack of Frpnch beans. These beans are of a special canning variety, the seed for which was imported from California by Mr. J. Wattie, managing-director of the concern. The seed was sufficient to plant 15 acres," and the beans will be rpady for canning in the first week of January.