THE PLAGUE OF FROST

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7264, 21 October 1910, Page 7

THE PLAGUE OF FROST

THE POSITION ItEVIEWED.. sEiaous setback to frcitCIROWEES. fjiOM OL'll OWM COIIK.KSPONOKNT. HASTINGS, Octobur 20. Tlu- fret, visitation of 'I uisd'.y. di-i-laics a well-known imtlioi-it.v. is Ih-niu.-t serious li:ix»I"-"i«S '■'nee ihe. «-.tablishmcnl nl' commercial iruitgrnwms in the Hawk'-'.- H;.v provim-e. While «.n the foothills many orchai (Is have ( scaped, mill in other 'cases only peaches have Ik-en nfi'ecUd, orchards, on the Hastings Plain have liton complete! v devastated, in fvj far as all wtuni- fruit and the earis difficult li> estimate the acttuii monetary los* tliii-t. lias occurred, but ]<ii.uy who have had opportunities of arrivins nt u rough estimate, declare- that £±)MM will not cover f'he extent of the damage. This estimate, it. must not bo k.rgoUt-u, does not take into consideration the let*, cau.sod by the di-organisation of the moilcrii system of orchard management and marketing control, which promised to place the fruit industry ot the district on ii pp-rniunentlv stable bacis. Some ide« of the eomp!eU-ne.-s of the destruction may be gained when -it is ) stated that not a single case of peaches off the, 150-aere orchard of the Kaipo Company will be gathered, and this orchard wan. carrvini; a pa li icuhl t'ly fine ..nop. Tho actual exponditure already incurred to bring this crop to the stage it had reached before the frost was well over four figures, merely for laljour since tho UutL crop was gathered. Jivoi-vthin.g was'in readiness for tho marketing of a record crop. Over 100,000 cases had been ordered, and now- but a me.i'e fraction of fctii.s number will be required. ;' ' - Tho most serious'aspect of the position is the practical obliteration of orcharding tilt preparations for the 1911-12 crop are put in hand. Tho lews to the many who now make a living- in■-the'orchards—-cultivating, spraying, picking and packing—will be considerable-. It will inflict on theso workpeople considerable hr./ilship, as there aire no other.'small' industries in the district to which they can turn. Tho. causes of tho frost working such havoc, says the authority in. cjuosition, weto, the intense dryness of',, the - air (owiiijr to the drought condition expericnceil in Iltuvke's Hav lor two months' past), the intense heat of the sun the following morning, and the great range of 'teurperaturo thus experienced. The failure of " smudging,'" which was continuously kept up during Holiday night and tho earJv part of Tuesday morning, was lino principally to the 'wind not .allowing a dense mantle of smoke to hang over the orchards, and also to the. small'amount of moisture.present in- tho smoke produced. Haul tho smoke been heavily charged with moisture it would havo fallen liko n. blanket on the trees, but as it was it was lifted and carried away.