2

In the absence of current information as to the area unde:
fruits other than those set out above, no estimate can be made
of the production of apricots, loganberries and cultivated black:
berries, but the value of these is probably of little account in
comparison with the total. No estimate has been made in recent
years of the production of nuts.
Fruit production in the past three years has on the average
been greater than in either 1908 or 1913, but both these latter
years were described as considerably below average. Unlike
other kinds, the cider apple crop appears to have fallen ofl
substantially.
Variation in the Area of Orchard and Small Fruit.—Neither
the total area of orchards nor that of small fruit has changec
very greatly during the past twenty years in this country, thougl
a decrease is shown in both cases.

AREA OF ORCHARD AND SMALL FRUIT IN CERTAIN Y EARS

Orchards

Small fruit :
Strawberries
Raspberries
Currants and gooseberries
Other and mixed

Total small fruit -

1908.

Acres.
248.007

25,397
6,666
25,014
19.873

76.950

19183.

7

1925.

Acres.
243.610

Acres.
238,081

21,672
7,044
26,846
21,295

27,668
6,955
29,854
3.875

76.857 | 68.352

The slow reduction in the area of orchards and small fruit
in the last 17 years shown in the above table, however, is the
result of an appreciable change which has occurred in the distribution
 over the country as a whole. The areas under orchards
and small fruit respectively in different districts in certain years
are shown in the table on the next page.
Clearly the eastern counties are steadily displacing the westerr
as the chief orchard areas of the country. In 1891 the tw¢
westerly groups shown above totalled 115,000 acres of orchards
or 55 per cent. of the whole orchards of the country, while the
two easterly groups aggregated only 32,000 acres, or 15 per cent
Up to 1908 there was a general increase, but greatest in the
eastern groups, which in that year possessed 22 per cent. of the
orchard acreage as compared with the western groups 50 per
cent. But some of the orchards of the west country have beer
grubbed up, and some have ceased to hear and are no longel
returned as orchards, with the result that the two western group*
now have only 39 per cent. of the country's orchard acreage
while the eastern groups have nearly the same proportion. Among
the minor counties also the same tendency is evident : westert