THE FRUIT INDUSTRY.

Colonist, Volume LV, Issue 13724, 15 May 1913, Page 8

THE FRUIT INDUSTRY.

DISPOSING OF FRUIT,

Dealing with the question of disposing of fruit once the grower has it on the trees, Mr Courtier, one of the Government fruit experts, had the following to say to the representative of a southern paper: —"The grower should take great care to pick, jrrnde, and pack properly. Up-to-date rases should be used, the 'dump' or bushel case being my favourite for export applet For exporting pears I like three trays cieated together. The pears lie in single rows, and do not get damaged, and the cost is very little more. The cases cost 6|d. each ; an' average man will pack from 60 to 120 per day, bis wagcv; being 7s. to Bs. per day. "Woodwool and wrapping paper, branding, etc., vill bring the cost of packing to about lOd. per case. The fruit may bo sold privately, by auction in the local market, disposed of outright to agents who export, or exported on his own account by the grower to the order of foreign buyers or as a specvlatinn. Up Ito the present the . trade with . the United Kingdom has not been so brilliant'y successful as I should have liked to see, though I think there are' still big possibilities. More caro must bo taken to grow and sen<] Homo good quality varieties that keep r:p\) t and are landed in first-rate condition. Tho la«t shipment or so were not landed very well, but the last season's fine was, and its failure to realise what it should, and would have done under othor circumstances, was due to the ;;t.'/ikos and labour troubles at Home, and the dislocated state of the market at tho time. There appears to be every orO'Speet of opening np an excellent trade with South America in anpfcs and poars, and I know of some liig orders for apples, running into 20,000 cases or so, at 5s Gd. per cose, that are being placed in tho Dominion. New Zealand had a big area of very suitable country for fruit growing, and the trade is capablo of big expansion, although, of course, there is obviously a limit. If I was going in for starting a commercial orchard. I should feel inclined to got cheaper land, farther out, but near a railway. As rail charges sire now, it tioos not matter whether tho fruit is carried 20 miles or 300; the charge is sixpence a ease. It is cheaper to grow fruit on £20 an acre :and or less, than when you pay £120 por acre."