Naturalist.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 392, 12 November 1903, Page 7

Naturalist.

ACCLIMATISATION.

ffjRHE Btudyof acclimatisation leads us 't% to the conclusion that it has been £«&» one of the most powerful agents in th« 3 development of the two Continents whose discovery was put off so many generations. Had it not been possible to acclimatise the more serviceable acitnals, grains, and fruits of the Old "World, the stories of America and Australasia would read far less favourably than they do. The myriads of sheep which are now pastured in New Z jaland, and which enable the iahabitants of that coloay to supply their Mother Country with vast quantities of both focd and clothing, are striking as existence of ths value of acclimatisation as oan be found. When New Zjaland was discovered, its most important msmmal was a rat, and had it not bsen possible to induce larger animals to lire there the progress of tbia colony could not have touched the extraordinary point which it has attained. What would the price of a loaf be today had it not been discovered that wheat can .be grown successfully in countries where the low. value of land enables farmers to cultivate and ship it to our shores at as low a price as that at which it c*n be produced here. The immense quantity of American wheat which reaches our ports every year has all sprung from seed which was sent across the Atlantic from England. In less important instances acclimatisation has proved extremely successful. The camel, for instance, which since the earliest days of the world's history hae enabled man to traverse deserts in Asia w& Africa, which but for its aid must have been insurmountable barriers to him, has done good service on the arid sands of Australia, Since ths day when a consignment of these useful beasts was sent from India to Port Augusta by Sir Thomas Elder, they have over and over again proved their value in expeditions which had to traverse vast waterless tracts, where the only form of nourishment obtainable was scanty scrub, from which no other animal could have obtained enough nutriment to support life. Again, Now Z3alahders have to thank acilitnatisation for honey which is so excellent and plentiful in their country. In ' Oceana,' Mr Frouda says : *We found, for one thing, the New Zealand honey especially excellent, taken from the nests of the wild beea which are now in millions all over the colony. They are the offspring of two or three hives which were kept, when I was at Oxford, in the rooms of Cotton, oi Christ Church, between whom and his bees there was such strong attachment that a bodyguard of them used to attend him to lecture and chapel. Cotton went to New Zealand with Bishop Selwyn, and took his boes with him, and they have multiplied in this marvellous manner.'

That the mora recaatly civilised por. tion3 of the earth's surface have not been the oniy recipients of the benefits of acclimatisation, is shown by the extent to which the potato, originally an American plant, is cultivated and appreciated in this and other European countries. The successful way in which the turkey, another native of America, has been domesticated among us, is a further proof that"the advantages of cordimatlsation are not altogether on cna side. The results of transporting the products of one lasd to another have cot, however, proved to be invariably beneficial. In support of this statement, the plague of rabbits in Australia, and of Bparrows in the United States, may bo advanced ; though details with regard to both have bean so often given that we will not repeat them. It may not be so generally well known that sparrows are' proving as troublesome in Australasia as in the States.