The Apple Club Newsletter
Spring 2002
Would you believe, this is
already the sixth edition of our newsletter. It seems like only
yesterday that we sent the first one out. Hopefully you will enjoy our
musings this spring.
Sir Isaac Newton and the apple.
By William Stukeley.
On
15 April 1726 I paid a visit to Sir Isaac at his lodgings in Orbels
buildings in Kensington, dined with him, and spent the whole day with
him.
After dinner, the weather being warm, we went into the garden
and drank tea, under the shade of some apple trees, only he and
myself. Amidst other discourse, he told me he was just in the
same situation as when, formerly, the notion of gravitation came into
his mind. It was occasioned by the fall of an apple, as he sat in a
contemplative mood. Why should that apple always descend
perpendicularly to the ground, thought he to himself? Why should it not
go sideways or upwards, but constantly to the earth's centre?
Assuredly, the reason is, that the earth draws it. There must be a
drawing power in matter: and the sum of the drawing power in the matter
of the earth must be in the earth's centre, not in any side of the
earth. Therefore does this apple fall perpendicularly, or towards the
centre. If matter thus draws matter, it must be in proportion of its
quantity. Therefore the apple draws the earth, as well as the earth
draws the apple. That there is a power, like that we here call gravity,
which extends itself through the universe.
And thus by degrees he
began to apply this property of gravitation to the motion of the earth
and of the heavenly bodies, to consider their distances, their
magnitudes and their periodical revolutions; to find out that this
property, conjointly with a progressive motion impressed on them at the
beginning, perfectly solved their circular courses; kept the planets
from falling upon one another, or dropping all together into one
centre; and thus he unfolded the universe. This was the birth of these
amazing discoveries whereby he built philosophy on a solid foundation,
to the astonishment of all of Europe.
Developments at The Apple Farm.
We
were delighted with the recent news that we are to receive grant-aid
under the National Development Plan for the construction of a new
cold-store for apples, and juice-making equipment. Another development
that we are currently working on is to construct a new tennis court for
our campers. This will leave the current yard free for car- parking in
the summertime, which is good news, because in recent years the yard
was too busy for playing tennis in safety.
Argus (Appropriate Roads Group)
The
Argus was a creature of ancient Greek myth. He had a hundred eyes, some
of which were always awake. When he died his eyes were transferred to
the wings of the peacock, where they can still be seen today.
In
recent weeks a community group has been formed in Cahir. It too is
called Argus, and its aim is to have a wide 2-lane roadway built
between Cahir and Clonmel.
As you are probably aware, the existing
Cahir/Clonmel roadway is of a very poor standard. According to the
National Roads Authority back in 1998, this was one of the most urgent
roads needing attention in the whole country, and they included it in
their backlog list (roads to be tackled their immediately).
While
plans were made to improve the road, no actual work was undertaken.
Then in 2001, an announcement was made that a dual carriageway is to be
built between Rathkeevin (near Clonmel) and Cahir. This dual
carriageway Is to link with a motorway running between Cashel and
Mitchelstown.
The Argus group was very sceptical of this development
and decided to check the National Roads Authority figures. It turns out
that currently about 8000 vehicles per day use the Cahir/Clonmel
roadway. This is up from 5500 vehicles per day in 1995. This Is exactly
in line with the NRA's projections, and they further estimate that the
traffic volume in the year 2020 will be about 12,000 vehicles per day
and in the year 2040, 13,000 vehicles per day. The NRA therefore
recommended that a wide 2-lane roadway he built between Rathkeevin and
Cahir. Such a roadway, they indicated, would have plenty capacity for
the next forty years and beyond. (A wide 2-lane roadway is like the new
stretch built between Cahir and Mitchelstown recently).
However, a
cabinet sub-committee (none of whom are road engineers) decided to
overturn this recommendation, and so a dual carriageway is to be built
instead.
The consultants who recommend this dual carriageway are
saying that it Is needed. But why wouldn't they, when they are being
paid 4% of the cost of the roadway. For them, the bigger the roadway
they recommend, the more they get paid.
But do the figures stand up?
The NRA's original figures are supported by current traffic data. A
dual carriageway has a capacity of 45,000 vehicles per day. If it is to
run parallel to the existing roadway (as currently recommended) the
combined Cahir/Clonmel capacity will be 50,000 vehicles per day. Even
in forty years time only 13,000 vehicles per day will use the road.
This is over-capacity which will never be used.
So what will
happen? We believe that this project is pie in the sky. It will not
happen because the country cannot afford it. According to the
consultants a dual carriageway between Rathkeevin and Cahir will cost
€40 million. This is based on 1996 estimates, and the true cost will
probably be double. The cost of a wide 2-lane roadway is exactly half
of a dual carriageway. At least €20 million will be saved by
going with the NRA's recommendation for such a road. I'm sure that you
can think of something that €20 million could be spent on in your area.
The concerns of Argus are as follows:
Money
will be spent planning an unjustified dual carriageway that will never
be completed. The current roadway will remain neglected and dangerous.
That the government is already unable to find money for the roads is
clear; This year the government could not even afford to pay for all
the land being acquired for the Cashel by-pass, not to mention to begin
construction. Total funding for all maintenance, repairs, improvements,
new roads, secondary roads, tertiary roads etc. for South Tipperary
this year is only €14 million. Our council also received the smallest
national allocation for local road improvement schemes; just €104,000
for 2002.
Finally given that the government allocated €100 million
for roads capital expenditure nationally in 2002, and that the cost of
roads development under the National Development Plan will come to €10
billion, it will take one hundred years to complete the road building
plan which the government says will be completed in seven years.
In
this context we believe that it is silly to plan a dual carriageway for
the Rathkeevin to Cahir road. This plan will end up gathering dust, and
in the meantime we will be left with a sub-standard roadway.
Argus
therefore calls for an appropriate roadway (namely a wide 2-lane
roadway) to be built between Rathkeevin and Cahir, either along the
existing alignment, or on a new alignment if necessary. We call for a
meaningful start, to be made to this project, so that people do not
have to put up with the intolerable conditions on one of Ireland's
worst pieces of primary route.
Spring in the fruit garden
Raspberries
Your
old raspberry canes should he removed by now, and the new ones tied to
their supports. Weed around the base of the canes to eliminate any
perennial weeds. These may have underground roots which will need to be
dug-up as much as possible. Removing the weeds will give the new canes
a good chance to get ahead when growth starts in the next little while.
Once your plants begin to grow, apply a little nitrogen, either as
farm- yard-manure or artificial fertiliser.
Strawberries
The
strawberry plants will soon begin into growth. Make sure that they will
be free from weed competition, by hand-weeding from the start. A
little compound fertiliser with nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium is
useful. Remove all the plant debris (old leaves and stems) from last
year as soon as possible. These old leaves harbour diseases which will
be very hard to control if they transfer to the new leaves and flowers
when they appear.
Apples
At the time of writing (March
20th), it is clear that we are having an early spring. Some of our plum
trees are already in full bloom, and this is a full five weeks ahead of
normal. This means an anxious wait for gardeners, who know that the
tender flowers of their fruit-trees need only a few hours frost to kill
the entire blossom, and with it any hope of a crop for the year. Also,
such a slow spring gives ideal conditions for apple scab (a black-spot
disease of leaves and fruit) to infect. A few sprays at this time of
year can be crucial. If you have an organic garden, then spray with
sulphur at ten-day intervals from the start of April until the end of
May (except during flowering). If you use ordinary chemicals, Captan
(available in the garden centre) at two- week intervals from the start
of April to middle of May should keep your trees free from apple scab.
Grass-seeds and peas.
By Willem Traas
In
our first newsletter I wrote about how we began our farm in 1967 and
1968. Now I will continue from there. In 1968 we did not have enough
fruit or customers to earn a living from it. So we had to farm and I
decided to rent land from other people. I remember the farmers and
their fields. When I drive through the county-side I know many fields
and the acreage in them (and the snags). From Kedra, Killiney,
Woodrooffe, Grange, Barne and Irish names of villages and townlands
which are too difficult to spell. The smallest field was four acres and
the biggest one eighty. Grass-seeds, peas, sugar-beet and grain were
grown. One year we had luck with the grass-seeds and I collected the
biggest cheque of my life from Powers Seeds in Waterford. Certainly Joe
Keating will remember harvesting grass-seeds and peas! So too will John
Anthony Hally and Padie Casey.
Now as I write of grass-seeds and
peas, I think of Willie and John from the Priests Road who kept the
birds out of the crops. Willie died a long time ago, and so did many
other people who were alive and well at that time. Apart from renting
land we also did jobs for other farmers. We set sugar- beet for Paddy
Hickey, Willie Hickey, Noel Sheehan, Paddy Devereux, Coleyn
Thompson-Moore, Willie Leahey, Martin Collins, the McClintock family
and Dermot O'Brien. We travelled from Golden to Ballymacarbry. Looking
back it is amazing how hard it was to make some money. Still, we
did make some money, and used it to buy fruit-trees. It was in 1985
that we last rented land. It rained all summer! So from
1985 we are fruit-growers, with a small area of tillage on our own
land.
In 1985 our Camping & Caravan Park also began to be important. The next time I will write about this.
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