Abstract
THE Intelligence Branch of the Imperial Economic Committee has issued a volume dealing with fruit supplies during 1936 (H.M. Stationery Office, pp. 106. 2s. 6d. net or 2s. 9d. post free). 55 per cent of the total import of fruit was of Empire origin. So high a proportion has never before been reached. There are, however, some very potent lessons for the home producer. The present report gives the convincing information that each apple tree yielded an average of 12·7 Ib. of fruit in 1935, and 68·3 Ib. in 1936. The "untimely and unusually severe frost" in May of 1935 is mentioned as the main cause of that season's low yield. It cannot be emphasized too strongly that the effects of frost are now largely within the control of the grower. The pioneer work of Mr. George Harrington, the investigations into general principles by various scientific workers, and the practical experiments by the technical staff of Messrs. Geo. Monro, Ltd., have made the practice of orchard heating a practical proposition without heavy finance. Total imports of raw fruit into the United Kingdom remain fairly steady around an average of nearly 28,000,000 cwt.. and apple imports are not very variable around a mean of about 6,500,000 cwt. Imports of grapes, peaches, lemons, pineapples and plums from Empire sources were higher in 1936 than ever before, and more bananas were imported by Great Britain than in any previous year. Supplies of fruit from South Africa reached a new record. Totals for most fruit imports were, however, lighter than in 1935.
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Fruit Supplies in 1936. Nature 140, 581 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/140581a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/140581a0