OUR RESOURCES. SUB-TROPICAL NEW ZEALAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 1848, 22 April 1887, Page 11

OUR RESOURCES. SUB-TROPICAL NEW ZEALAND.

Wbittkn for the Witness ur. G-. B. Alderton (Late N Z. Government Commissioner re Fruit Culture). The Fbuit Industry. — E,vaporat»ng Fruit v. Jam— Simply' - ' constucte'd Driers — Advantage of Reducing Bulk of Fruit foe Transit — Bulk of' Canned and Evaporated- Feuit Compared"-- : Extent of the, Industry in America— Table of Shuinkagks—Profit of' Growing the Bukhy Fruits in the Sooth " Island— Various Dimwo Machines Described. ' The English farmer is for ever crying out for. Protection, on the , groundtt that such countries as the United States swamp the Home markets with produce at a price with which he cannot compete. I noticed A PALPABLE EXCEPTION TO THIS RULE when in England. My attention was drawn to the following paragraph in Truth: — M Some extraordinary stories are told about the losses of fruitgrowers, owing to the lowness of prices. According to a Kentish paper, a farmer near Sandwich sold 20 tons of currants through a factor in London; and at the close of the transaction received an account showing a balance of £1 against himself; Another grower in the same district sent 48 sieves of plums to London. His agent advised that there was no market for them in London, and recommended that they should be sent to Manchester, which was done, and a balance of 4d was ultimately remitted to the grower, s This is quite credible, as I see from another' source that in the Manchester market the best plums are fetching only 9dper72ib." The same month I noticed in the American papers the amount of canned and dried fruits shipped from the Atlantic ports and San Francisoo to England amouuted in value to an enor- j mous sum. There is not, unfortunately, a very great difference between the British and colonial farmer in regard, at any rate, to this matter of fruit culture. They grumble and growl and complain that THEY CANNOT SELL ALL TIJE FBUIT IN ITS FBESH STATE,, and that/ consequently, there is great waste and lnsß. The farmer who makes his grass into hay, and sells it as such, controls markets and prices to which his green crop would have been lost. Why then not follow the same process with regard to fruit ? The process - de-hydra-tion, as it is scientifically called ; drying, as it is promiscuously termed ; evaporation, as it should be styled— consists in the removal from the substance- to be- 'preserved of its moisture only, . and is accomplished in various ways. In parts of Australia and California fair results are obtained from exposure to the sun's ray 3, but the general' practice fs, to use machines specially built for the purpose',! which not only ensure certainty of ''result, but keep the fruit clean aud of good colour. Dried in the ordinary way with full exposure, the fruit is so soiled with dust and insects that it is of little value, but A SIMPLE WAY OF DRYING FRUIT JFOR HOME '-' USE fc described as follows in the American Agriculturist: — "If one has a hot-bed frame and sash, be can arrange these to serve as a very useful drier. If he has a sash, he can easily make a frame to fit it. The frame should have a bottom and leg's lft high. Bore several lin or 2in holes at the lower part'j>f the front, aud similar holes at the upper paift of the back of the frame; these should be covered with the wire cloth, or netting, to exclude insects. Arrange several shallow trays for holding the fruit. These may have the bottoms covered with slates, placed half-an.-inch apart, and the fruit laid upon a coarse fabric. (Support these frames by cleats, or otherwise, so that the bottoms will be just above the boles in the front of the frames, in order that the air* may enter and pass up through the fruit and pass out at the upper holes." The following is also a simple drier; — "It consists simply of a board building 16ft by 24ft in one room, with a ceiling about 12ft high, in which are two ventilators. In the centre is a trench 3ft deep. In this is a large box-stove, attached to which is a sheet-iron drum about lOFt long. Racks are built with grooves to receive the regular trays upon which the grapes are brought from the vines, with only apace enough to admit of free circulation of the air, which, with the stove,, is at a necessary temperature to do the work of drying the fruit, which is kept from GOdeg to lOOdeg." It is a popular belief, I think, amongst fruitgrowers that where they cannot sell their fruit fresh, the next best' thing is r ,to convert it in jim; iv fact, one hears on all sides, "Oh, we waut a jam factory." Well, I•• rise "to oppose that proposition. There is NO FROFIT IN MAKING JAM, insofar as the fruitgrower is concerned. The manufacturer may, by the liberal use of pumpkins, turnips, and tpelons for bodying matter come out " slightly ahead," but if the grower tried himself to make a profit out of the business with a pure article, he would, in the majority of ;caseß,'and himself " left." The making of jam or the canning of fruit involves the use of additional capital over and above the cost of the fruit, for there is the'plant to be purchased as well as the tins, sugar, wax, labels, &c. The fruit in its now, manufactured state may remain in hand six, nine', or 12 months ; and instead of the first cost of the fruit only , being "unrealised, there is the additional' sum spent in putting up the goods. But the chief point perhaps in favour of evaporating as against any other mode of preserving fruit, particularly in anew country like this where the means of transit is costly, is in the reduction of the bulk of the fruit to about one-eighth its weight. In districts where the roads are bad and unsuitable to the conveyance of perishable, goods such as fruit, the evaporating process is invaluable. An American writer, reftrriug-to the CANNING AND EVAPORATING OF FRUIT, thu9 succinctly -states the case :—" Let anyone take, for example, one bushel of ordinary peaches and can them,, at the same time let theui evaporate a corresponding quantity of the same fruit, the difference in bulk measurement will be found to be marvellous ; for while >fc will take about a dozen large-sized cans to contain the former, the product of the latter may be contained in a small box about 6in 6quare For a reverse proof, steep the evaporated fruit in clean fresh water for a few hours (i.e., rehyirate) and it will be discovered that an equal number of cans will not contain it." Jam-making in America is almost wholly confined to the household, EVAPORATING, CANNING, AND SEALING (bottling) are the processes mostly in vogue* and the firsf>« named heads the list for place. In New Zea-

Dut.Jbeyond that fruit, few of us have seen any" other ,dried goods. In America, however, pease.beans, tomatoes, and even cabbage are successfully treated, and in the rejuvenating bath of fresh water are quickly restored to pristine freshness, succulency and flavour. Blackberries, raspberries, cherries, red and black' currents, and strawberries are all evaporated and made imperishable for winter use. These fruits are very extensively operated upon in the States, and the industry is as profitable as importaot. Why should not farmers in the South Island go in for this' iudustry ? It -will pay , better than wheat growing. To wit : We will take for instance, blackberries; I am referring to the American varieties — the Law ton and Killateny — they are' very large aud luscious, commanding better prices than strawberries. They' grow equally well in the cold, frosty climate of the Eastern States' as in the milder temperature of California, and I have seen bushes doing as well in Auckland as in America. They would do excellently well in Otago. (The Lawton variety can be obtained from James Mnson, nurseryman, Auckland, at £3 per 1000, but the Killateny is not yet, so far as I am aware, in the colony. John Bock, nurseryman, San Jose, Cal., is the best man to send to in California.) An acre, two years from planting, will yield from 2,000 to 4000 quarts. We will take the average of 3,000 quartz, which will yield 12001b evaporated fruit worth Is «d per lb ... ... £90 0 0 Less cost of picking ... £12 0 0 Less cost evaporatiug ... 110 0 13 10 0 Net return per acre ... £76 10 0 Persons unacquainted with the drying of fruit would, no doubt, think that the shrinkage of blackberries would be greater than shown above, and I append below a table compiled by the best authorities showing the actual loss of weight in the various fruits and vegetables treated by evaporating machines :—: — FBUITS, VEGETABLES, &c.

The peach, apricot, nectarine, pear, plum (prune), and fig are all evaporated in America and might with great advantage be similarly treated here. In tropical climates the pumlow, mango, custard apple, sappadillo, guava, rnangosteen, pomegranite, dorian, paw-paw, tamarind, banaua, &c, are preserved in this way' and sent into countries they otherwise could, not reach. If the people in the North could be induced to dry the peach, nectarine, fig, &c., and those in the South the berry fruits, we should not only have throughout winter a plentiful supply of fruit for home consumption, but there is no reason why the colony should not compete with the land of the "stars and stripes " for the' trade with England. I have not referred to the apple, which is, of course, THE CHIEF OF ALL EVAPORATED FBUITS, for the reason that I consider it the least profitable of all fruits to grow, and the less prominence given to it the sooner planters will drop it. This season in Auckland apples have been selling as low a £4 10s a ton, the cider mills taking them at that price. Next year the price will be still lower, as the Apple Farm Company have some 50,000 trees fruiting. I notice by late Californian papers that the prices ruling there last season for fruit bought by the canneries and packers were not much better for high grade fruits:— l|d was given for apricots ; 20 acres of peaches fetched Id a pound ; grapes, £5 per ton. However, apples here have not yet came down to the American price, namely, 7<l to lOd a bushel of 501b. With the protective tariff of 2d a pound on dried hints, apples would now realise about £8 a ton, if evaporated, viz. : — 8. d. 481b of apples will make 61b if evaporated, at 8d per lb ... ... 4 0 Cost of evaporating, &c. ... ... 5 3 7 There are an endless variety of fruit evaporators made, of all sizes, kinds, and prices. Those that cost the least are the dearest, in that they require the most attention and time, and being made mostly of wood are always liable to burn. Many evaporators have been lost annually from that cause, but recently the machines have been made of sheet-iron with wire trays, In the oldpattern driers (and the same principle obtains now in cheap driers), the chief drawback was this : that the trays nearest the furnace got the bulk of the heat and the fruit in them was liable to scorch. This entailed endless watching and labour, and complicated machines were invented with apparatus that automatically kept the trays moving. The furnace system of heating never appears to have given satisfaction, for the reason 'jhat the heat could not be evenly distributed, and a late machine, called the " Acme," heated by steam seems likely to become the most popular (Bachelor and Wylie, 37 Market street, S. F,, are the agents). This machine cost £100, but as it is easily managed, and reliable, I would recommend it in preference to others of a cheaper character. THE PRICE OF DRIERS. Driers can be bought all the way from 30s upwards, but unless a person were going in for a good one, I should advice the use of something of the kind described above as " simple ways of making driers." The principle of the " Acme " is that steam pipes run under every layer of trays, thus supplying an even temperature throughout, and doing away with the danger of scorching or firing. A steam gunge indicates the temperature, and one only requires to know the time necessary to dry a given fruit to be able to manage the machine. In America, it is a common practice with a farmer owuing a drier to evaporate the fruit of his neighbours on shares, and in some cases the drier is owned in common between four or six orchardists. The machine is of service all the year around to people who understand it uses. With it there need be no waste of f rait or vegetables. The apple with the codlin moth is saved with this machine. It is a machine that every farmer should be acquainted with— it is to the fruitgrower what ensilage as to the farnrer, sod a good deal more.

Apples ... \yricota ... Beef Beets Blackberries Dabbage ... Celery Chicory ... Draabtrries Cherries ... Ctu Currants... Srapes ... Hops Nectarines Dniom ... Peachea "... Pears Pe«se Plums ... Potatoes... Prunes ... Pumpkhi Rhubarb. .. Squash ... Comatoea Fresh. ] lbs. ... 2000 ... 2000 ... 2000 ... 2030 ... 2000 ... kOOO ... 2000 ... 2000 ... 2'iOJ ... 20 0 ... 2000 ... 2000 ... 2000 ... 2000 ... 2 00 ... 2000 ... 2000 ... 2000 ... 2000 ... 2000 ... 2000 ... 2000 ... 2000 ... 2000 ... 2000 ... 2000 Dried lbs. 2(50 300 400 700 230 ISO 180 600 ITO 3 0 300 300 600 600 220 200 220 2t50 200 350 450 OiK) 200 190 200 140