W. A. BOUCHER.]

7

1.—12.

(2.) Use two knives, the first for pruning until the sound wood is reached, and the second for cutting off a piece of sound wood, or else sterilise the knife before making the final cut. (3.) Apply from Jib. to 1 lb. of sulphate of iron to the roots, lightly worked in. This is the only treatment that has done appreciable good. That the disease is spreading is borne out by a reference to the reports of Messrs. Palmer and Blackmore.

39. Hon. Mr. T. Kelly. ,] A dressing of sulphate of iron to the soil or the tree ?—The soil. 40. Hon. the Chairman.] Auckland is a very large district : are you the sole inspector in that district?— Yes ; that is, for the outdoor work—visiting the orchards. 41. You have a very considerable duty if you go round them all, do you not?— Yes, it keeps me fairly busy. 42. Is one officer capable of going round the district inspecting?— Yes, so far as the industry has progressed at present, but if it expands as it should do it will be necessary to employ other officers. 43. I have been speaking of you as an inspector : what you really do is to go round and give advice, is it not ?—Yes. 44. There is no such thing as inspection proper ?—Not at present. 45. Hon. Mr. Boiven.] Is it customary in the North to put pigs into orchards ? —No, it is not customary. It is done in a few instances. It might be of valuable assistance in reducing expenditure, on account of the pigs gathering up the apples as they fall to the ground, and the trouble and expense of gathering them being saved. 46. You do not think the pigs do any damage to the trees ? —They do no harm if the trees are properly pruned. 47. They do not bark them?— No. 48. What do you spray with ?—Last season I used arsenic and soda. 49. Does that affect the fruit ?—No, not at all, except in keeping it free from the moth. 50. You did not deal with scale at all ?—No. 51. Do you know of any reason from your own experience why the owners of orchards in New Zealand appear to be unable to compete with the imported fruit, such as apples ? Is there any climatic or other reasons ? —I certainly consider that we have an excellent climate and the most favourable conditions for producing fruit. 52. Ought not New Zealand to be an exporting and not an importing country with regard to apples ? —Yes, certainly; and I feel sure that we should work up a very valuable export trade if we had some regulation for checking the ravages of the codlin-moth. 53. How far, in your experience, has the eodlin-moth spread in New Zealand ?—Over a very large part of the North Island. Some districts are at present clean, and it appears to me to be a great pity that they should be allowed to become infested by the transit of infected fruit. As far as the South Island is concerned, I believe—l am not very well acquainted with it—that it is the Nelson District and part of central Otago that have been worst infested. 54. Are any steps being taken to clean them ? —I think some of the growers there have taken up spraying as a remedy. 55. Hon. the Chairman.] Have you been there ?—No, not to Nelson. 56. Hon. Mr. W. Kelly.] You show in the statement of expenses and receipts an amount for spraying ?—Yes. 57. Is that the cost of spraying and providing the material ? —lt is for the material alone. The labour is shown separately. 58. Then, you said that your clean fruit was difficult to sell in the Auckland market in consequence of the quantity of diseased fruit offered ?—Yes ; I found it practically impossible to sell clean fruit there at a reasonable figure. 59. Hon.'the Chairman.] At a paying figure you mean? —Yes; so much so that last season I shipped all the fruit to Wellington. It really seems absurd to have to pass what should be your best market and send the fruit at greater expense to a market far distant. 60. Hon. Mr. W. Kelly.] What did the fruit realise in the Wellington market ?—One variety —the best dessert variety that we have there—realised 7s. 6d. to 12s. a case. 61. Did you sell any at Auckland? —Only the apples that I did not care to send to Wellington. 62. What did they fetch?—A lower price—from Is. 6d. to 2s. 6d. a case. 63. They were partly destroyed, I suppose? Was that why you did not send them to Wellington ?—They were only third-rate fruit. The first and second qualities I sent to the Wellington market, as being the market that would give a reasonable price for the fruit. The third-quality fruit I sent to the Auckland market, like the rest of the growers in the district. 64. Mr. Bollard.] You stated that the rent charged is too high ? —Certainly, £6 an acre is a high rent to charge for ordinary land. 65. This time last year, when before this Committee, you stated that you had the orchard in good order ?—Yes. 66. You also stated that, in consequence of the great expense in bringing a neglected orchard to the condition that you had it in, it would not be fair to show a balance-sheet as a commercial success ?—Yes. 67. Supposing the orchard was your own, and you had it in the same condition that you had it in last year, and you wanted to let it to me, would it pay you to let it at a lower rent than £15 ? —That is rather a difficult question to answer. You can grow equally good fruit on land that is worth only £1 an acre in the Auckland Province. 68. Hon. the Chairman.] What would be the ordinary value of orchard land under proper cultivation ? Would the rent for it be high ? —I certainly would not pay more than £1 10s. an acre at the present time for any land planted with apple-trees. 69. Mr. Bollard.] What do you consider the value of the land ? —I do not consider an apple-