MILLIONS OF APPLES

Southland Times, Issue 22489, 25 January 1935, Page 3

MILLIONS OF APPLES

ROTTING ON THE GROUND. Millions of apples lie rotting in the autumn in the farming ana fruitgrowing areas of Great Britain—because they have no market value. Farmers dare not employ pickers, and the apples lie on the ground where they fall. The wastage of British apples is mainly due to the fact that most greengrocers are selling ever larger quantities of foreign ones. They do so, they say, because the foreign apples are better graded and better packed.

London and provincial greengrocers gave their, views to a Sunday Express representative recently. This is what they said: “English apple growers make the mistake of growing too many varieties. Foreign growers concentrate on perfecting one or 1 two varieties which are eagerly demanded. “Greengrocers must provide the public with what , they want. The fruit growers of this country need awakening to the fact that they must provide us with a steadier output of certain varieties of apples, rather than experiment with new ones.” One Kentish fruit grower quoted the example of the Kentish Pippin, one of the most popular varieties. The growers are letting this die out in many cases to experiment with new ones. . The farmers’ position is stated in

the following remark: “The apples we grow are the finest in the world. If they were cheaper than the foreigners’ the greengrocers would sell them gladly.”