Imagine seedless watermelons, potato chips manufactured locally, vegetables and salads to go in attractive packaging, and exotic homegrown fruits such as pears and apples.

All this and more could become reality if Government Agricultural Officer Mr.

Fred Harper has his way.

The newly-appointed man-in-charge at the Marketing Centre in Prospect is a-brim with ideas aimed at introducing new products and marketing techniques to local farmers and consumers, and he just hopes that during his three-year tenure his concepts will come to fruition.

But first, of course, he has to do some field testing -- or what pundits like to call feasibility studies.

In the short time he's been here, Mr. Harper has already had to come to terms with local conditions and a new range of pestilences. But that's okay, for this horticulturist is used to adapting to inhospitable working conditions, and nothing really phases him.

For most of his career, the American worked in the vast desert-like areas of southwestern Arizona, where the flat terrain between the mountains and low rainfall meant having to irrigate the fields with water pumped from the Colorado River into a system of furrows.

Maintaining the correct the saline balance was tricky. Getting it wrong meant blockage of essential nutrients and root damage to crops. Also, he had to contend with sub-frozen temperatures in winter and an assortment of pests and diseases, not to mention individual farmer's problems.

Keeping abreast of new technology developed in other regions and disseminating that information to his area was another part of Mr. Harper's duties as an education specialist. Also, he participated in field-applied research work.

While cotton was the major crop, wheat, corn, alfalfa, vegetables and several types of fruit -- both citrus and deciduous -- all came under Mr. Harper's watchful eye. Dairy feed lots, ranches, horse farms, pecan and pistachio farms were part of his responsibility, too.

"Arizona is the one of the largest states in the US, and in Maricopa County, where I was located, we had well over 500,000 acres being farmed,'' he said.

"There were 35,000 acres of vegetables alone.'' Imagine, then, the culture shock of coming to Bermuda, which sports just 300 acres of farmland on 21 square miles.

"Of course, that is a little misleading, because all of the acreage being farmed is doing double or triple crops during the year, so you are doubling or tripling your acreage,'' he said.

Nonetheless, why on earth would a man who, on a good day, could see Superstition Mountain 40 miles away, and cast his eye over miles upon miles of crops, take a job on a tiny speck of coral limestone in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean? "Well, I retired and this job became available, so I applied for it,'' he said. "I didn't feel I wanted to retire completely yet. This job, which is for three years, will help me make the transition before my wife and I ultimately retire to our home in Florida.'' One of the biggest differences he has noticed here, apart from the soil, is the prevalence of foliar diseases.

"You have a lot more diseases of the above-ground part of the plant because of the higher humidity,'' he said.

Noting that this job is similar in focus to his previous one, Mr. Harper's goals are to work closely with the local farmers on production and marketing problems and alternate farming possibilities.

"I will be providing the growers with information on various crops, and looking to some alternative crops that they haven't been growing,'' he promised. "We are going to look at melons, for example, to see if we can develop more production of some of different types. I'd like to expand this crop and develop a little more diversity.'' Similarly, with local farmers, Mr. Harper will be investigating the possibility of growing different types of greens, including such salad ingredients as arugula (an Italian plant with a pungent, peppery taste fast growing in popularity in the US) and radicchio (red chicory, used in salads).

"We will be looking at some different types of greens and do a market evaluation of pre-packaged salad mixes...whether there will be enough interest on the marketing side to warrant trying to develop this,'' the horticulturist announced. "Presently, we are growing samples, but my difficulty is getting the appropriate plastic containers.

"Part of the Marketing Centre's function is to bring in containers for the growers, and we are working to find the source of the manufacturers for instant salad packaging.'' If successful, it would mean that salad-lovers could stop at the grocery store and pick up a mixed salad to which they would simply add the dressing instead of buying separate ingredients and chopping them.

Handy snack packs of fresh garden produce are another item Mr. Harper has his sights on.

"They're doing a lot of that in the US right now,'' he explained. "Instead of buying whole heads of celery or carrots, for example, shoppers can pick up convenient snack packs instead.'' With regard to the importation of specialty melons, Mr. Harper believes it would be better if they could be grown here, so that's another area he will be investigating, along with expanding the watermelon crops to include seedless varieties.

"There are not only seedless watermelons,'' he said, "but they come in three sizes: ice-box, big, and round.'' Other specialty fruits and vegetables the horticulturist is looking to introduce -- and therefore reduce imports of -- are mangoes, peaches and artichokes.

"Normally, a lot of your varieties flower during January and February, which is the worst season of the year for cooler temperatures and rain,'' he explained. "From my research, varieties which flower later in March and April would be best.

"What we have to determine is their adaptability to heat. Hence my field work on both conventional and unusual food crops. We are looking for better varieties than have been used thus far.'' And there could be good news for potato chip addicts. If experiments work out to cultivate a suitable potato here, a chipping plant may not be far behind.

"If we do set up a chipping plant, the operators will also be looking at other vegetable chipping concepts,'' the Agricultural Officer promised.

Turning to the broad picture of raising crops, Mr. Harper said he was investigating different ways of controlling the white fly -- one of Bermuda's major pest problems -- and multiple-use pesticides.

Cover crops for soils not under cultivation are also being studied. Also, Mr.

Harper intends to study new ways of utilising weather data as a way of improving farm production.

"We want to see if we can do a better job of predicting when growers should have their disease or insect problems and incept a preventive spraying schedule. If we can do a better job of growing crops with the limited amount of moisture that is to the grower's benefit as well as extending the season on a crop,'' he explained.

Dovetailing with this will be improved techniques to assist in storage at the Marketing Centre -- which also comes under Mr. Harper's aegis.

NEW CROPS -- Government Agricultural Officer Fred Harper hopes that chips from locally grown potatoes may be produced.