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HORTICULTURE DIVISION REPORT OF W. K. DALLAS, DIRECTOR Under the prevailing war conditions the Division has maintained as far as possible the more important of its activities, especially those connected with the production of fruit and vegetables for the Armed Forces and civilians. The passing of the Commercial Gardens Registration Act, 1943, has increased the work of the instructional staff, due to the necessity to have the registration of gardens checked. Their duties have been added to also by the inspection of vegetables grown under contract for the Internal Marketing Division and in visits to market gardens to secure data for the compilation of monthly statistics of production. The field staff has been engaged in making crop surveys of apples, pears, and citrus fruits, inspection at assembly points, and later the examination of fruit in cool storage and at the auction-rooms. A considerable amount of time was occupied in preparation of statements of the cost of producing various classes of fruit and vegetables. This work was necessitated by the policy of stabilization and the fixing of ceiling and contract prices. The Second-hand Fruit-case Control Order was gazetted on the 20th May, 1943. It has for its object the conservation of fruit-case timber, and comes under the administration of this Division. The Rotenone Insecticide Control Order was gazetted on the 23rd December, 1943, and it comes under the administration of this Division. It has for its object the conservation of available supply of rotenone insecticide for market-gardeners. The selection, of bud-wood of stone-fruits for the nursery newly established at Levin by the New Zealand Fruitgrowers' Federation, Ltd., has been given attention, and many thousands of buds, mainly apricots, have been packed and despatched to the nursery. The preliminary work associated with selection was attended to by Bud Selection Committees in the various districts working in co-operation with officers of the Plant Diseases Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. Other matters which received attention comprised, inter alia, those relating to rehabilitation, stabilization, importation and exportation of vegetable seeds, " Dig for Victory " vegetable-production scheme for home gardeners, investigations into applications for rationed goods used in orchards, market gardens, nurseries, and apiaries, and co-operation with the Fields Division of the Department in connection with its Services' vegetable-production projects. Climatic Conditions The climatic conditions during the year under review, on the whole, have not been so favourable as during the previous year. Not only the fruit industry but all horticultural activities were adversely affected. These abnormal conditions were characterized by periods of excessive moisture and drought, and both had a detrimental effect on production. An unusually wet winter and spring, practically Dominion-wide, left the soil in a cold and sodden condition. This resulted in late cultivation in orchards, and delay in the preparation of the ground for garden crops. Then followed a period of dry weather with high temperatures, and these drought conditions continued until the end of January, and in some cases until February. Rains were then experienced which, while they were of great benefit to all crops, have had the effect of depreciating the storage quality of apples and pears. Diseases of Horticultural Crops The control of plant diseases by orchardists, market-gardeners, and nurserymen has been attended to generally in a satisfactory manner —better than was expected in view of the wartime circumstances, such as shortage of labour and the temporary shortage of lead arsenate. Black-spot. —Owing to the wet spring inducing a heavy spore discharge and the interruption to spraying through broken weather, black-spot infection was general in the Nelson, Canterbury, and Otago districts, while in the North, where more efficient spraying was carried out, it was possible to keep the disease well in check. Codling-moth. —In the southern districts codling-moth control has been good where the approved programme of spraying was followed. Reports from the North, however, indicate that high summer temperatures brought about a heavy infection, and considerable quantities of infected fruit had to be discarded during picking and grading operations. Citrus Canker. —The citrus trees in suspected canker-infected areas have continued to receive careful inspection. While no citrus canker was found in commercial orchards during the year, a slight infection was located in a domestic orchard in the Waiuku area. Immediate action was taken, and there has been no further outbreak of infection. Fireblight.—After a fairly general attack in some areas last season, the amount of fireblight infection this year has been relatively insignificant. The work done in cleaning out cankers has had a good effect, and the disease has not been nearly so troublesome, and confined to only isolated cases. Brown-rot. —In the Central Otago district the past season has been the worst on record of brownrot infection of stone-fruits. All varieties of stone-fruits have been equally severely affected. The disease developed in the early spring, taking heavy toll of the blossoms. The main infection occurred from the middle of February onwards, and there were few orchards which did not suffer a serious loss of fruit. Fortunately, in the Alexandra district the bulk of the apricot crop had been harvested. The periods of infection coincided very closely with the weather conditions prevailing, in every instance the higher infection being correlated with moist, warm atmospheric conditions. Heavy rains near the maturity period not only increased infection, but was also the cause of much cracking of fruit and a considerable amount of wet-rot infection. Better measures for the control of this disease are being studied in co-operation with the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. Spotted wilt and other virus troubles of tomatoes have again been prevalent, but their incidence was probably less than last year.
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