Hudson’s original 1950 paper, entitled “Horticulture In New Zealand”, is available here.
In 1945, a discharged British army major and bomb disposal expert by the name of John Pilkington (J.P.) Hudson arrived in Wellington, New Zealand, to take up a position with the then Department of Agriculture. Today, we call this government department the Ministry for Primary Industries.
J.P. Hudson spent three years in New Zealand. He returned to the United Kingdom in 1948. One of his specific tasks at the New Zealand Department of Agriculture was to work on the transportability of Actinidia chinensis fruit, then known to a limited audience as the Chinese gooseberry. Today, this fruit is known world-wide as kiwifruit.
In 1950, J.P. Hudson wrote an article with the deceptively simple title “Horticulture in New Zealand”. I found the article whilst searching for suitable references for an entirely different project, namely Fresh Facts 2025, New Zealand’s annual fresh fruit & vegetable Industry pocket data almanac.
I read J.P. Hudson’s article with rapidly growing interest, as I soon realized that I was holding the virtual equivalent of an old-fashioned time capsule in my hand, giving me a rare opportunity to gain deep insights into how Horticulture in New Zealand presented itself, a few years before my birth, to a then industry expert.
Hudson wrote his paper in a conversational style, pointing out that he was providing “personal impressions gained after spending three years on the staff of the New Zealand Department of Agriculture during which time there was ample opportunity of seeing a great variety of holdings, meeting many growers and getting to know practically everyone in the Dominion who was concerned in any way with horticultural education.” (Hudson, J.P. p.41).
Hudson’s paper was structured into four main sections, these being the Environment (1), Commercial Horticulture (2), Home Gardening (3), and Horticultural Education (4). Three of these main sections contains several subsections, ranging from Climate and Countryside (1), Fruitgrowing, Market Gardening, Nursery & Glasshouse Work, Cut Flowers, Tobacco and Size of Holdings (2) to School Gardening, Home Gardeners, Professional Horticulturists, and Training for Advisory Service (4).
I have followed Hudson’s structure in my analysis of his paper presented here but have not necessarily commented in-depth on every aspect of the points he has made.
All text in this document displayed in Italics and quotation marks represents direct quotes from Hudson’s paper, shown with just the relevant page number(s).
I have added my own observations to the various sections as I am discussing Hudson’s paper. I am also providing some closing comments, looking at Horticulture in New Zealand from a strategic perspective and through a future focused lens.
My reflections on Hudson’s paper, entitled “Horticulture In New Zealand – 75 Years On”, can be downloaded here.
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