NEW FRUIT DISEASE

Waikato Times, Volume 92, Issue 14260, 10 January 1920, Page 5

NEW FRUIT DISEASE

TAURANGA ORCHARDS AFFECTED. APPEARANCE IN WAIKATO. A new disease, described-by the Government Biologist as fungal hyphae, threatens to decimate the orchards of Tauranga if drastic action is not taken. The disease appears in the twigs and young fruit, which wither away immediately they become infected. Specimens have been sent to Wellington, and the orchardists of Tauranga have been advised to cut away the infected portions, but this advice is probably prompted by an inadequate knowledge of tho extent to which the disease has got hold. Thu local inspector, who has tho matter in hand, however, declares that to follow out the Departmental in., structions would mean cutting away 'half the trees. The disease is quite a ncov one and the Department has not yet had time to experiment for its treatment, but unless some successful method is discovered soon, the trees affected are threatened with total destruction. The disease, we are informed by the local inspector ,has now made# its appearance at Cambridge and Kihikihi, but so far no signs of it have been found at Hamilton-