Fruit Culture as an aid to Farming.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2528, 22 September 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

Fruit Culture as an aid to Farming.

A lecture on the above subject was delivered in the Public Hall, Cambridge, by Mr G. B. Alderton, and, considering the importance of the subject to the community, was only moderately attended. Mr James Hally, Mayor, occupied the chair. The lecturer said that fruit culture was a subject of great importance, in which the people were beginning to take an interest. He alluded to the work now being done by Messrs Chaffey Brothers, and the system by which large areas of land were acquired, irrigated, formed into fruit colonies, and laid out as homesteads where city men who desired rural homes could find all they desired ready to their hands, the whole of the work of preparation being done by the promoters of the scheme, and the purchaser being able to tike the land at any time, paying for it by a series of deferred payments. By these means large tracts of land were speedily settled, where if the work had been left to the farmer in the usual way, the settlement would have been of slow growth. He also explained tint in Victoria these settlements were irrigated by an_ expensive process of pumping, while in California the water was laid on from high levels. In Cilifoniia the fruit industry had taken the lead of all others, the value of the product amounting to £27,000,000 sterling in 1878, which amount, at first sight so enormous, only meant an average of 10a per head for th<i population of tho United States. Peaches wen found the most valuable, and apples next. Recently in the Auckland Herald and Weekly News correspondence had been published from a gentleman twenty-two years resident in the colony, who had been travelling through California. This writer spoke of fruit as being " king," having superseded grain. This had been a great advantage to California, as localities that formerly would not keep a goat would now support a fa-nily to ten acres. The fruit lands in Avoca Valley were now of ■ immense valne, more valuable than the Coomstock mine. No new millionares had been suddenly created by this, but thousands had been put on the road to permanent] prosperity. Now, they might consider this very nice reading, but as something which did not affect themselves, but he was of opinion that, to a great extent.'what they can do in California can be done hera, as there was a great similarity in many thing 3 between that country and Waikato. Land there, that in IS7O, was not-considered worth a cent, is now valued at £200 per acre, and he was quite convinced that some of the land in Waikato now, looked on as poor, would turn out well as fruit lands, We saw the pinus insignis growing luxuriantly wherever planted in Waikato, that tree is a native of California, where it is known as the Monterey pine. It grows here far more luxuriantly than in its native home, which affords proof that what they do there can be done here. Poor soils are better adapted for fruitgrowing than for ordinary farming purposes, he presumed because the roots of the tree could find nourishment deep down in the ground. In Now South Wales the Rocky Hall orangery was established in what appeared to be pure sand. Dr. Hector was so struck with the poverty of the soil, that he made an analysis of it, which proved it to be nearly pure sand, as it contained 9G per cent of silica. The proprietor of this orangery could not account for the reason of his orange trees doing so well, all he knew was that he planted oranges, which did well, so he put in more. Professor FTiHgard, who was in charge of the na-ri-cultural college of Chicago University. bad previously occupied a similar position

in Mississippi, where in the poor lands the roots of fruit trees went ten or twelve feet down, doing well wherever there was sufficient moisture. He was unacquainted with the rainfall in Waikato, but thought that such a place as Malamuta could do as much in fruit culture as California, except some few fruits of the citrus tribe, and the fig. They hnd evidi uco of what coulrl bo dono in their district in Mr. Sharp's orchard, particularly in plums. Mr Sharp could give them particulars, and from his, tho lecturer's conversation with him, ho had a successful return. Gooseberries also were worthy of attention. Ho had been told that when gooseberries were sold at less thnn 2d a quart they wore not worth picking, and further, there was not a. sufficient market for them. But let them try gooseberry wine, which was more profitable than cider. In New York ho visited a firm who made New York champagne from gooseberries wilh the addition of carbonic acid gas imported in iron cylinders from Germany. He could barely discern any difference between that " and Mtimm's champagne, it wn H * 0 rfiuht. This wine was sold at 2Ss per dozen quarts, and retailed at tho wntcrinsr places at Cd per glass. L«t the Wnikato fnrmr-rs utilise their gooseberries this way, make the wine catch their natural -as, and bottle it. He did not know the process. He con d not help thinking what a, place could be made of Ma.tarm.ta if tho Chr.fW Bros saw ,t. If thoy tnok jt would advertise it and write it up until crowds of peopio wntlM come _ officials from the Indian service and people from ihe South who found their own climate too severe would come here and settle. Ho hoped some day to hoar that some of .the larrre companies hud taken up such a scheme, and hai settled the land in this way, as with the oonntry divided in large estates they coulrl not look forward to much prosperity. In California much of the success of the country was attributed to tho system of small holdings (applause). To give them a crude idea of irrigation they must remember thnfc a tree has two kinds of roots, the lnvfjo roots which act ns buttresses, and the small roots or rootlets which absorb thn fruit food from the soil, where the ingredients are dissolved nnd fitted for the tree to absorb them bv the action of water. Dry soils promoted the ffrowth nf funrrnp. In Victoria the Chaffpy Bros, hnd to erect expensivn pnmpin<r machinery, which had to be kept constantly sroing. Hern the water was not so deep under the soil, and could be easily raised bv wind-mills, and it was estimated that a 10-fr. wheel would irrigate ten acres of land, at an annual cost of £10. In working «oils it was very important, in dry and porous ground, to thoroughly cultivate and work iS Everv weed takes its share of the moisture, and workinrr keeps the moisture in the soil. If the soil is looked at t'lrouirh a microscope tho moi«ture can be seen in it in lonar threads, and constant working bottles up this water, so to speak. One leaf of an appln trpo contains onn hundred thousand pores. Where there is no water there is no jrrowth, and consequently fundus ; the chipf thinsr want.pd in fruit culture is moisture. The lecturer read a clipping from a pn.pnr. stating the minute way in which the land was sub-divided in France and Gprmany : the ereit wealth of those states lay in that fact, and if a scheme for tho settlement of our lands could be carried out, and fruit onltare will do it, tho depression would roll away. As to a market, people may say that in California there is a-big market, hut hero it was not to be supposed r.hat a lanrcr proportion of thn riponln would start the industry than in California; and it was found that the larger thn supply the greater was the demand. Fruit can he orrown as cheaplv and "von cheaper than potatoes, and should bo obtainable at a low price, when it would be more freely used. Fruit should al«o be sent to market in an attractive form, and arowers should endpavour to gain a reputation for their brands, as, when once a brand got favourably known, there was a demand for fruit bearins , it, which would be bought by tho case, and not hy the pound. As to profit, thn report he had quoted from instanced £700 worth of cherries from one acre. No doubt this wa9 exceptional, but such things are known sometimes in California. There was no district in the world more suitable for cherries than Waikato. but it was said it was no use jrrowinir them, as the white eyes ate them up. This might be tho east? if they had only one or two trees, but if thoy had acres of cherry trees, even if they did not return £700, hut only £100 pnr acre, it wonld pay them to polish off the white-eyes, instead of letting the white-eyes polish off the cherries. Let farmer? think of this: £700 for an acre of cherries ! How mnoh wheat would thev hare to grow for tho same profit ? And look at the expense of growing wheat, whereas in fruit culture you stick tho trees in and wait. People say you have to wait a long time, but there is no nesd to lose the use of the around while tho treea are growing. In California they cultivate between the trees and get a revenue, and it is the proper way to do unless a man has unlimited capital, nnd can afford to let the fruit have all tho benefit of the land. Fruit culture ennnot be learned in a day, there is so much to learn, but by putting in a few fruit trees at a time, a man becomes a practical fruit farmer. In the North. Messrs Har.ehinson Bros., who were practical farmers, used to laugh at the lecturer for his enthusiasm on the subject of fruit-growing, but on visiting them recently, thov pointed out plum trees that had yielded two hundred weisrht each of fruit, which had sold for Gd a pound. Thoy did not laiitrh now ; their ideas wera changed, and they wpre goins , to plant ten acres with that plum next year. Up North they went in for fruit more than it Wsikato, and one old gentleman at Mancrapai, who had eight acres of poor land on the £rum ranges, cleared £200 a year. His brand was known in thn Auckland market, and fruit bearing it sold well. So much was thought of fruit culture in America that farmers in tho Eastern States were rushing away to Southern California, giving ten times as much for land as they sold their farms for ; the land near Los Angeles fetching ten times as much as the corn lands of lowa. " The price of a farm in tho East," says a writer, "won't patch a hole in a corner lot in California." He did not want, to discourage wheatgrowers, but urged them to so in for fruit, because it would pay. The market was fworld wide, and in Sydney there were sold chemically prepared papers at one halfpenny per dozen, in which fruit can be wrapped and preserved for transportation to any part of the world. In planting an orchard they should find out what fruit was best for the district ; their local nurseryman would best know this. One of the best fruits to grow was the prune, which if not sold fresh could easily be made imperishable. The method of preserving plums was read by the lecturer, who stated that trees four years old would yield from four to eight tons per acre, which at Id per pound would mean over £37 for the lowest yield. In drying the prunes lost half their weight. He thought that for a long time there had been too great a run on apples, as, owing to the corllin moth and other drawbacks, he looked on them as the least profitable fruit to grow. If an early return was wanted let them go it) for berries, the blackberry for instance; not the English but tho American varieties, which when properly cultivated was as luscious a fruit as the strawberry, and bronqht a high price. He had imported every variety, and grown them with less trouble than strawberries, aod the yield averaged 2000 quarts to the acre, and had reached 4000. They were not much trouble to cultivate, but care had to be taken that they did not take charge of the land. If fruit-growers found the fresh fruit was unsaleable they could evaporate It. This was a business that wanted learning ; there was no use working the small evaporators which wero apt to cook the fruit. If fruit growers combined and formed a society, they could get a targe evaporator to diy tha

fruit of the district. Tho best ho knew of was tho " Acmo," a steam evaporator costing over £100, by which an amateur could dry fruit if he followed the directions sent with the inuuhino which works mechanically. In California they made jelly find cirlor from Uio cores of tho apples, also vinegar ; nothing was wauled, hut here a lot'is wasted. Re».irding grnpes, tho lecturpr wur uncertain as to whiit could he done with them in Waikatn, but thought aR tlie climate was drier here than in tho north they might succeed. In tho north through the great moisture of the climate, tho grapes suffered from mildew. If they could grow tho vine successfully, prosperity was assured, as the return was any where from 600 to 5000 gallons of wine to tho aero, and even 500 gallons at ono shilling per gallon, ntid it never fetches less than three shillings, would In Kaipara, largo Riims had been nuuc out of gr.iprs. Ho would advise people to try them. Now was tho time ; the cuttings cost little or nothing, etick them in and try them. In California they were content if their graphs fetched ono half-penny per pound, while at twopence a pound there was a fortune in them. His desire was to draw the attention of farmers to the fact that fruit culture was profitable. What was wanted in this country was the settlement of tho bind, and he hoped to hear at Home future time of a society being formed in this district for fnrt culture as a means to attain that 11 '. (Applause).—ln answer to a ques! ti from Mr F. J. Brooks, tho leuturer gave further details of the process of drying primes.—Mr James Forrest asked what was the method of irrigation after the wind-mills for the pumps were erected. Tho lecturer said it was simply a question of ditching.—Mr Thomas Wells endorsed tho remarks of the lecturer re irrigation, and thoroughly agreed with him as to the cause of fungus, which ho stated was never found where the ground was moist.—Mr Forrest said ho had found fungus in heavy soils as well as in light, and had treated, it successfully with sulphur.—The lecturer said that be did not know how the sulphur was to be applied successfully for fungus. He knew that to kill mildew in vines the sulphur treatment was no use unless an average temperature of from GO to 70 dogroea was kept up for fivo or six days, and in the north he had known fern di« out in dry soil from fungus.—Mr Russell prosed a hearty vote of thanks to the lecturer for hi* able and interesting address. He regretted that tho class for whose benefit it was intended were present in such small numbers, but he believed that farmers as a rule preferred reading the report in the newspapers to going to hear for themselves. Mr T. Hiuks seconded the motion, and said that on one point he did not agree with the lecturer, viz., the value of apples. Ho contended that nothing else paid so well; they would keep, you could make them into jolly good cider, aod in a solid or a liquid state could enjoy them all the year round. —The lecturer briefly acknowleged tho compliment, and tho customary vote of thanks to tho chair terminated the proceedings.