ENG-1968 — Page 110

PRIMARY PRODUCTION

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white cabbage, flowering cabbage, lettuce, Chinese kale, radish and leaf mustard which grow all the year round. A considerable quantity of string bean, water spinach, cucumber and many species of Chinese gourd are produced in summer and excellent quality tomato, cauliflower, cabbage, carrot, celery and water cress in winter. The main types of flowers are chrysanthemum and gladiolus which grow all year round; dahlia, snapdragon, aster, carnation and rose in winter, and ginger lily and lotus flower, in summer. The peach blossom is specially grown for the Chinese New Year. This intensive production on both fertile and comparatively infertile land is made possible by heavy dressings of manure. The traditional use of nightsoil is being replaced_or supplemented by pig and poultry manure, peanut cake, duck feathers, bone meal and compost. The use of artificial fertilizers is increasing, usually in addition to organic manures. The widespread use of insecticides is an important feature of farming, as is the increasing use of selected crop varieties.

Since 1954 the area of land under two-crop paddy has fallen from 20,190 acres to 12,490 acres. A further 1,980 acres are used for one-crop paddy in brackish water. The first crop is sown into the nurseries in early March, transplanted in April and harvested in June and July. Seed for the second crop is sown in June for planting out the seedlings by the end of July and the crop is harvested during October and early November.

Some 2,900 acres of drier lands are under field crops such as sweet potatoes, peanut, millet, soy bean and sugar-cane, which are cultivated mainly for local consumption. Fruit production, which includes lychee, longan, wampei, local lemon, orange, tangerine, Japanese apricot, guava, papaya, and pineapple, covers about 1,600 acres. There is a small but useful export trade in some fruit and field crops to overseas Chinese.

The value of crop production was: Vegetables $80 million, Flowers $3.5 million, Rice $13 million, Field Crops $5 million and Fruit $4.8 million.

VEGETABLE MARKETING ORGANIZATION

Vegetables produced in the New Territories for the urban areas are sold through a marketing scheme which was set up in 1946 on the lines of the successful fish marketing scheme. The Vegetable