FRUIT GROWING AND POULTRY.

Waipa Post, Volume XXI, Issue 1242, 13 May 1922, Page 6

FRUIT GROWING AND POULTRY.

A GOVERNMENT SCHEME. A scheme of unusual interest is being promoted by the Government in the Mangonui county in connection with the industries of poultry and fruit growing. There is room in the settlement for 400 families, giving them 4t) acres each. It is intended that poultry should be the main task, with perhaps fruit and a few cows to help. The land lies well to the sun, tjie situation is healthy, and there is plenty of fresh water. The soil is a porous sandy black, and is generally considered poor, but it grows certain fruits remarkably well, also pumpkins, maize and lemons, and with lime, good lucerne. There is never any frost or excessive heat. There are huge deposits of s'hell-sand, which analyse 60 per cent of lime, on the beaches adjoining, which could be used for improving the land and would cost only the cartage; also large quantities of shell-grit suitable for the fowls. Mr Dunlop' Smith, of Owanui, has experimented with a small piece of ground, and obtained startling results. Mr Merrett, secretary of the 'New Zealand Poultry Association, writing in the Poultry Journal, says he was particularly delighted with the prospects for poultry during the coming year, as feed promised to be fully 40 per cent less in cost than last year, while there was every indication that the egg market would he stabilised. Recently he had been interviewed by a representative of an American business house asking for a shipment of 200.000 dozen eggs to be sent next season.