TO THE EDITOR OF THE TASMANIAN NEWS - 17 Nov 1883
Sir—Last year, owing to the magnificent season, the colonial markets were glutted with fruit, and prices here ruled very low, so low indeed as to leave no margin for profit, as many a fruit grower can testify.
Those perhaps who neglected their orchards, and merely obtained what our Victorian cousins would call a "volunteer crop" - and inferior fruit is nearly always produced by trees which languish uncared for - may have reaped a small profit, but the man who cleaned and manured his ground and carefully attended to his trees, came out a loser.
The fruit merchants were also heavy losers. At the time first-class apples were being sold on the wharves of Hobart (in cases) at 2s. 6d. and 3s. per bushel. Much was written and said about opening up other markets than those of Australia, and New Zealand, wherein our surplus fruit could be disposed of to advantage.
The fruit season will soon be here again, and I write to ask whether any steps are likely to be taken in the matter. Perhaps Mr. Shoobridge could inform us whether it pays to ship fruit to England, for he was reported to have sent a shipment per packet steamboat last April.
The question arises—'Will it pay to ship apples to to England in April? To do this this they must, in many places, be gathered in March and as a rule, such kinds as Sturmer pippin, French crabs and pearmains, are not fit to pick until the month of April. Indeed last season I saw large quantities of fruit on the trees in the end of April.
Will not the early gathering have an injurious effect upon the fruit?
Experience has taught that if you gather apples before they pluck easily they have a tendency to shrivel, and do not keep well. In gathering them before the proper time, there is also the risk of tearing out the stems, to say nothing of breaking off bearing-buds, and it is well known that those apples which have been snatched from the stem, are of no value, except for immediate use.
Would it not be advantageous to all parties interested in the fruit business both growers and merchants, to come to some arrangement by which markets could be opened for the sale of what has now become an important item in our export list? Is no market to be found in India, Ceylon, the Straits Settlements, China, and Japan? The Americans find it pays to send apples to India in barrells - could we not by means of large steamers with refrigerating apparatuses supply our Eastern Empire, not only with fruit, but also jam, butter, cheese, bacon, potatoes, and other articles, which, if obtainable at all in India and Ceylon, are very inferior and very costly?
FRUIT GROWER.WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH OUR APPLES? (1883, November 17). Tasmanian News (Hobart, Tas. : 1883 - 1911), p. 4. Retrieved January 5, 2016, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article162304441