FARM NOTES.

Thames Star, Volume LXV, Issue 18245, 20 July 1931, Page 3

FARM NOTES.

SMALL APPLES UNSALEABLE. A Particular /Public. PIG EXPORT INDUSTRY. SHOULD BE WORTH £10,000,00. According to auctioneers dealing in that class of produce, the public demand for apples is undergoing a change, reports a Christehurch exchange. Small and blemished apples are now practically unsaleable at any price. Growers who have been in the habit of paying only slight attention to packing and grading arc finding that the produce of their orchards is not acceptable to buyers, between cases of carelessly-packed and graded apples, and well-got-up fruit, there" is frequently a difference in price of 3/- a case, although the quality may not vary greatly. Generally speaking Eastern Southland farmers are lamenting the lateness of the season, which has greatly retarded harvest operations. In fact, there are still farmers who have not yet found the opportunity to get their crops into stack, and there are also isolated cases where grain crops are still standing or are being cut. The weather has been the contributing factor, and has caused many interruptions in the work, and it is understood that the quality of the grain threshed will not be far below the standard of previous years. , Money in Pigs, but With proper encouragement and development, the pig export industry should be worth about £lO,000,000 a year to. New Zealand, stated Professor R. E. Alexander, director of the Canterbury Agricultural College. Professor Alexander said that originally the pig industry in Great Britain had been an adjunct to dairying, but now this order of things had been reversed. London paid £4,000,000 or £5,000,000 more for pig products than it did for dairy produce. Great Britain paid over £70,000,000 a year for its pork and bacon, of which about £30,000,000 went to Denmark, and there was no reason at all why this Dominion should not get a substantial share. One of the biggest obstacles to the development of the industry at present was the high killing and freight charges, a question that the New Zealand Meat Producers Board should investigate thoroughly, continued the professor. "I understand," he added, "that the freight and charges to get the pork on to the London market amount to somewhere about a lb. With porkers selling at 5d to 6d a lb in London, as they are now, this does not leave very much return to the producer." The industry was almost at a standstill. Granny Smith Apples. Dominion growers who exported Granny Smith apples should feel gratified with the prices ruling on the London market. Cox's Orange Pippin has commanded the highest prices recently, but Granny Smiths "have not been very far behind, and are well ahead of all other types exported.