FRUIT TESTING ACRE.

Waipa Post, Volume VI, Issue 262, 7 November 1913, Page 2

FRUIT TESTING ACRE.

WE understand that the Agricultural Department has communicated with the Te Awamutu Chamber of Commerce with a view to the establishment of a Co-operative Fruit Testing Acre, the object being to determine upon the varieties of trees most suitable to the district, and which under local conditions, will give the greatest return to the grower. A Fruit Testing Acre is established in suitable localities where the Department arranges with expert orchardists for its establishment. The Department on the one hand provides all trees and fertilisers required, its District Orchard Instructor will co-operate with the grower and will himself do the pruning, On the other hand the orchardist provides one acre of ground, and does the 'work of cultivating and spraying. The fruit at all time is the property of the orchardist, and at the expiration of seven years the orchard—which has been grown under expert supervision —becomes his property. We understand that if the Chamber succeeds in obtaining an acre of land upon these terms, the Department will lake immediate steps Jot' the establishment of the test plot.