THE APPLE INDUSTRY.

Colonist, Volume LVI, Issue 13420, 18 March 1914, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE APPLE INDUSTRY.

, GapwiijrewFOß export. NMiSdK' ORCHARD AREA

IMPRESSIONS OF A RECENT: '■■■■'^----'visitor. -;: -

{Written for "The Colonist.")

; Revisiting Nelson after an absence of. & fewf years, one but help being impressed with sjgns of growth and vitauty." * Outsiders' often in times past referred'to the city as "Sleepy HdU^w1:'*? Ttie Nelsoinan can well affor^/to-lau|h at: that gibe, becausd th© evidence is"all theother way, andt thoj extraordinary development of the fruit industry gives promise of bigger things than most people not associated with what is going on are able to imagine.

A fact which in itself is striking evidence^ that things are moving is th© estiftateja total planting of fruit trees this season. The total exceeds a thousand 'acres. Official records show that th 6 orchards of/Nelson province, 3117 acres altogether in the year 1909, have more than doubled since then.

The majority of those who have gone "in recently for" apple culture have a far-seeing-outlook. They can picture deep-sea steamera loading, large cargoes of fruit, at Nelson for American and" English ports. * This class of business, wfiich has developed to the modest extent of 40,000 cases per annum, is, I am assured by practical men of business knowledge, seriously hampered! through small supplies. It is a matter of recent knowledge that buyers for""" the South American market o'cmkl »ofc get sufficient first-class, apples in Nelson district at 6s 6d per case, f.0.b., • Wellington, to meet their requirements. Cool storage is now well tested, the returns showing a wide margin, of profit on such varieties as Stunners held for the New Zealand Christmas trade, but .freezing charges are higher than are imposed in Australia, where more extensive facilities are provided, arid the local export activities are suffering similarly through the small exI'tent of business, their handicap in. freight compared with Tasmanian shippers to London amounting to 6d. per case. ARE LAND VALUES JUSTIFIED? When Tasman, Mildura, Ruby Bay, and Redwood's Valley orchards begin, to produce well-test§d varieties of apples on a big scale, the free?in£ and freight problems should settle themj selves. The utmost confidence is felt in the capacity of these poor lands— plus the magnificent, climate—to produce big returns of fruit, otherwise land values could surely not soar as they have done. Yields from the old orchards of Waimea Valley and Motueka have been putting dairy returns quite,into the^shade, though that industry, with, its steady lucrative results, has justified people in paying £60 to £80 per acre for good quality land. The aim of .those orchardistsi who are showing most enterprise in Nelson to-day is to place apple culture on the same firm footing as dairying— and there seems no reason to Believe that they will fail. CO-OPERATIVE EFFORT LACKING. With the dairying example so much to the fore, one is surprised that growors have not taken more to heart the magnificent examples of the success of co-operative methods in that industry. What dairyman spends his precious time in the busy season attending to every detail of the preparation and marketing of his product ? • His cooperative organisation is so well arranged that he can deliver his milk daily, take away the separated milk if he wants it, and secure a monthly cheque coming close to the full value .of his cream, though the product might not reach the Tooley street butter merchant for several months. Cooperativo effort in the way of jam and pulping factories seems to have met with but indifferent success in Nelson province, though I heard many complaints about the way in winch growers lose monoy through gluts of fruit. Box buying and box making seems to be still in its rudimentary stage, and co-operative purchase of important essentials, such as sprays, has not developed to the extent one would expect in a "live" and growing industry. The systematic methods of cultivation on the Tasman /lands were a revelation in. the way of efficiency and economy, and suggest that individual growers might be better served by ■ teams working steadily on the contract system, or under co-operative arrangement, than by pottering along with-their own team and cultivator, or a kuopsack instead of a motor spray.

We have been shown an app'o weigh-, ing 29 ounces, which was urown at Messrs Snodgrase and Milno.r'a "Sunnyvale" orchards on the Moutere hills. The apple, which is of the Gloria Mundi variety, was plucked from a. three-year-old tree, and was one of a number of almost the same size. Tlu> is another proof—should further T>rooi be required—of the suitability of the soil of the Moutere hills for apn'e culture. At a recent show in .England ai* apple weighing 32 ounces was exhibited a? the largest apple that had ever been .grown in England.