James Hutton Kidd

James Hutton Kidd (born September 12, 1877 in Hexham , Northumberland , † October 24, 1945 ) was a New Zealand fruit grower . He became known for breeding the apple varieties Kidds Orange Red , Freyberg and above all Gala .

life and work

Kidd was born in England to the tailor James Hutton Kidd and his wife Harriett Alice Lee. The family moved to Christchurch , New Zealand, when Kidd was a child . In New Zealand, Kidd completed an agricultural education before deciding to go into fruit growing.

In the outskirts of Wanganui he ran his first orchard together with his brother Wilfried. According to tradition, due to poor health, he decided in 1906 to relocate his operations to Greytown in the South Wairarapa District near Wellington. Kidd worked here on a 20 acre (approx. 9000 m² ) site.

Kidd was interested in scientific research on fruit growing from an early age. He experimented with different cultivation methods, supported research against apple diseases and campaigned for the establishment of a department for plant diseases at the New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.

But Kidd achieved special importance as a breeder. He tried to cross American strains, which he valued for their looks, with more aromatic British strains under controlled conditions. He achieved his first success in 1912 with a cross between Cox Orange and Delicious . He named the apple Delco . After planting the apple on his own property for a few decades and selling it from there, he sold the rights in the 1930s to the dealers Duncan and Davies, who sold it worldwide as Kidds Orange Red .

Until his death in 1945, Kidd made further attempts at crossbreeding for many years, experimenting in particular with Golden Delicious . After his death, 200 trees, each two years old, came to the Institute for Breeding Research at the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in New Zealand, which Kidd had obtained from his cultivations, which the apples raised from them at the Appleby Research Orchard near Nelson examined. While many of the resulting apples were too rusty for commercial trade , the two varieties Telstar and Freyberg became popular varieties .

Gala apples originally bred by James Hutton Kidd

The D8 variety showed the greatest commercial potential and was sent to North Havelock for further trials . There it prevailed against 900 other apple varieties from around the world in a test. The variety bred by Kidd came on the market as a gala , is today distributed worldwide, and in particular the most popular commodity. Gala itself served as the parent variety for various commercially successful apples that have been on the market since 2000.

Kidd had been married to Laura (Lola) Gilbert since 1916. He was involved in local politics as well as in various associations such as the New Zealand Farmers Union. In 1970, the New Zealand Fruitgrowers Association institutionalized the Kidd Memorial Award Scheme to support further breeding research. In Greytown itself, Stella Bull Park is reminiscent of Kidd. A number of old fruit varieties have been planted in the park, including Kidd's Orange Red. Kidd's apple orchard still exists today (as of 2013).

Remarks

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Gareth Winter: James Hutton Kidd , Dictionary of New Zealand Biography
2. ↑ Ian J. Warrington: New Zealand Horticulture - Success of an Export-led Industry ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 108 kB) in: The Compact Fruit Tree, Volume 33, Number 3, July 2000, p. 68
3. ^ Piers Fuller: Historic lemon tree resurrected , October 17, 2012
4. ↑ [Pinehaven's New Home], Wairarapa Lifestyle Spring 2013

Web links

• Gareth Winter: James Hutton Kidd , Dictionary of New Zealand Biography