Harvest Time

During the year the ground has been carefully tended, the young plants nurtured and protected, the trees shorn of superfluous growth and sprayed and the packing sheds and kilns refurbished, The vagaries of the weather (especially this last year) have caused concern and then hope. And now, the fruits of all the year's work are being gathered. Throughout the Nelson province the orchards, the hop and tobacco farms, are filled with the harvest workers. Little by little the rosy apples are being plucked from the branches, the hops stripped from the vines and the tobacco leaves snapped off the sturdy stems. In Nelson, it is a time of intense activity.

The harvest this year promises to be a bumper one. Some orchardists are not very happy about the effect of the heavy rain and colder temperatures this year on some varieties of fruit, but the hop and tobacco farmers can smile now, even if they couldn't just before planting time.

At left is a typical picture in a hop garden, the property of Mr Joe Hill, Valmea West. And while little Gregory Mitton sleeps on, his mother, Doreen, gets on with the job (above).

In a veritable jungle of tobacco plants, Don Clarke and Peter Snell examine tobacco leaf under the expert eye of owner Fred Hamilton (Riwaka) and Alan Jury, Rothman's senior field officer.

Not so far away a tobacco picking machine can be seen slowly trundling along between the green rows

Tying tobacco to the sticks is a job for an expert

An innovation on several tobacco farms this year is a new tobacco tying machine. It is claimed they allow three people to do the work normally done by seven. No field machines are necessary, the leaf being picked by hand and taken to the tying machine in bulk.

Tobacco is picked by hand

The tobacco comes off the machine neatly stitched to the sticks

Tobacco is placed on a conveyor belt and a stick placed over it

Cyril Wilkins demonstrates how the machine (actually, a giant sewing machine) lock–stitches the leaf.

Bringing in the harvest on Mr Wilkin' farm

Jack Askew, Riwaka, finds his new hop picking machine a boon

At "Harcourt", Stoke, there was picking aplenty for Lella Dell (Auckland)

Edna Tiplady (Nelson) has been doing her share also

The ultra–modern packing shed at "Harcourt"

From the packing shed to the inspection depot – carriers are busy people

A new system of checking fruit is being used at the Apple and Pear Board's inspection depot this season, odd boxes being emptied completely and checked.

Next stop:– England

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The Nelson Photo News

No 29 : March 30, 1963

Harvest Time