Abstract:
Waimea County is a unit of nearly one million acres in the hinterland of Tasman Bay, Nelson. It has a geographic individuality not generally associated with the administrative unit in New Zealand. Its individuality lies firstly in the dominance of special crops, tobacco, hops, pip fruit, and of less importance stone and small fruits and vegetables, in the agricultural income. In 1943 Rigg estimated that these crops accounted for 66% of the agricultural income. Rigg T. "Agricultural Resources of the Waimea County" An address to the Nelson Philosophical Society July 1943. Nelson 1943, P.4. This would be a conservative estimate today. The 9,000 acres in these crops however comprise less than 1% of the total area of the county. The remaining 33% of the agricultural income is derived from three other economies; mixed livestock and crop farming, dairying, and store sheep facing, fattening of sheep and lambs being associated with these three economies.
Secondly, the county's individuality arises from the relative importance of these crops in comparison with the rest of New Zealand. All of New Zealand's tobacco and hops are grown here, and it is the most important pip fruit district in New Zealand, with some 40% of the pip fruit acreage (see Figs 1 - 3). The landscapes associated with these cropping economies are unlike farming landscapes elsewhere in New Zealand. All of New Zealand's requirements of hops, 40% of the requirements of tobacco and 80% of the export of apples is derived from Waimea County.
