THE DISASTROUS FROST

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7265, 22 October 1910, Page 2

THE DISASTROUS FROST

SERIOUSNESS OF THE POSITION. FEOil ODE OWN CORRESPONDENT. HASTINGS, October 21. Mr T. Horton, ttio well-known nurscrvmau, declares that the damage to tho' Hawke's Pay find craps by tfe recent frost is greater than was at first calculated, it will mean every penny of jteIXKJ to himself. He will have to plough in over two acres where young trees, walnuts. Oriental plants, etc., were cut down, and put tho land in potatoes. Net only were the trees on this area destroyed, but a great deal of his other stock lias been damaged. Trees which should be worth a shilling to cighteenpence will not be worth more than sixpence, and it will lake another season to make them of any value. While tho loss in the nurseries is verygreat. ati.l there are big lines of stock ni.Hamaaed. It is the fruitgrower depending entirely on his crop who will auilor most, as iiis loss will be absolute. Mr Horton denies the statement that apple trees have escaped, He says when the flower is opened the embryo apple is blackened to the core. Practically no fruit has escaped, he declares, on the Hastings flat except in a few isolated cases. ME T. W. KIRK'S OPINION. Ait a dinner at. which Air T. Horton, of Hastings, entertained the delegates to the Fruitgrowers' Conlerence, Mr T. W. Kirk, Director of the Fruit Division of the Department of Agriculture,, mentioned, in speaking of the f rost, that he had examined a number of orchards. Prom ..his own observations,.: together With tha;,roporte,: from .growers he had interviewed, and by examination of specimens .brought to him from various parts of the district, he calculated that the damage to orchards, vineyards, vegetable gardens, and nurseries would 1 not bo far short of .£30,000. It y-as, how-' ever, impossible to arrive at an accurate estimate foir a few- days, yet he hoped that it not be as serious as was now anticipated, ’ Some idea of the severe mature of the frost, may be gained from the fact that even tho .tops of fruit hedges wero nipped. Potatoes and tomatoes have been badly blackened., .The frost was most erratic. '.Eight in the ‘centre of 'Hastings two ? cherry orchards have entirely escaped, and there is the peculiar fact that while the young vines at Arataki experimental vineyard!.. amd orchard, situated on the' foothills;' have been almost destroyed. ; the peach trees but a little distance away entirely escaped. Fruitgrowers declare; that nothing like the frost nf Tuesday morning has ever been experienced, but old settlers recall one of equal severity in 1886 in the first week in . November, when . the yonng shoots on i willow -ferecs :were .blackened.. THE GOVERN OE’S SYMPATHY.

Speaking at the stewards' luncheon, on tho .showgrounds. Lord Islington said: "I :;would,like . : -ta' : express what must Tje. : uppermost 'in the minds of o.re"y rt ne my extreme sympathy for those gentlemen connected with that branch of agricultural activity, the fruit industry. They have undoubtedly' suffered a very fievere check to their business in the very unfortunate and pitiless natural visitation of Tuesday last."