Untitled

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9756, 4 September 1917, Page 6

Central Otago’s fruit lands find a staunch advocate in Mr ii. M,. tonoobridge, one of the largest commercial app.e growers in Tasmania, and the judge at the National Apple anow held in Dunedin this year. In an address recently delivered at FranKhn, Tasmania, Mr Shoobridge warned growers of that country that they were being left behind by New Zealand orchardists. He described his v-sits to the markets of the world, and to the fruit-growing areas of America, the Commonwealth States, and New Zealand, and declared that owing to the good fruit grown in «ew Zealand and the up-to-date metnods adopted it was going to be a roost formidable competitor in the open market. Mr Shoobridge was un mensely surprised by the Otago Central methods of growing apple trees with little laterals, instead of long poles eight or ten feet high, ns in Tasmania, and he was so impressed by the Clyde and Alexandra methods that he is advising the growers of his own Btnxe to adopt the system. The main ad vantages of the small tree are saving in harvesting the fruit and spraying. Mr Shoobridge warned his hearerc: “Tasmania had a good name, and had sent quantity, but they had not always sent quality. She had been looked upon as the premier exporting State, and so she was so far as quantity was concerned, but wo required to learn to grow fruit.”