CHARACTER OF EW ZEALAND SOIL FROM ITS VEGETATION.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXV, Issue 3751, 27 July 1869, Page 7

CHARACTER OF EW ZEALAND SOIL FROM ITS VEGETATION.

The best test of the character of the soil is its indigenous vegetation — thin is a very important part of the aettler's fii*t duties, and is what will affect all his after ci louial life. W* have pleasure therefore in giviug the experience of an intelligent settler from a looni pap^r. We havu here hluta as to the comparative strength, quality, and value of trees, for it has been attar tamed that our native trees are equal, some of them even superior, to any timbers oc the Australian oolonies. The ironbark of Australia vras fouad after repeat*- d experiments to be the stiffest and strongest of colonial timbers, and the Aus* traliun cedars proved the beat for house work. la New Zealand there is no wood corresponding to the Australian cedar, but some of the Auoklaud woods admit of a polish, and form variegated cabinet-work of such beamy fcthut they will vie with similar articlea in any part ot the globe. They are splendid furniture woods, and furniture of cabiuet ahd household manufacture is to be met with in Auckland of unsurpassed .workmanship and elegance, male by Auckland artisans. Jhs puriri is said to thrive in the tame quarter as the dammara or kauri — it is sometimes called iron-wood or New Zealand teak. Mairi belong* more particularly to Southland, and 1 eara some analogy to English box, beiag heavy and ; hard. Rimu is a Jarge pme, takes fine polish, and s harder then kauri. Imitations of ebony mLhc be made of rimu. The totara grows in smalL forests of the South, and the rata or iioa-constrictor of colonial trees, at first unable to support itself, winde around atouter trees, kills them in its embraces, and becomes a large tree, having a tough timber easily worked. Tbe pitch pine, tanekaha, and the mai or black pine, have their vies, and the bark of rimu i* certainly valuable for taoniug. These wood* are believed to be indicative of the soils they grow on. Kauri and puriii mdd oate jpeor land. Bimu promines better, grow ng abundattly about New Plymouth. White pine (uahikafcea) tores a xuoiat situation and low gnami-y ground*. Mai, karaka, and rimu prefur d«y noil* and undula ing country. Few of theße grow by hetnaelves ia forest*, except tho kauri, but are found intermixed iv great variety, many loaded with climbers, or almost choked with underwood and paraftitioal plant*. If New Zealand claims 120 specimens of indigenous trees and shrub-i, a considerable portion- is entitle ■to the di«tinction of timber woods. Many of the shrub« are pretty, but as yet proper attention beems not to have been devoted whereby with care and culture the better qualities inighb be improved. >oaie of the ferns are elegant, as also the New Zealand fuchsia, sonutimes thirty feet high. With fl twers and fruits nature behaved not bountifully. Tno poroporo is nothing to Bpeak of as a fruit, nor fem-r eta as esculeuts ; kiekie might be eatea by liubfiiau Bailor* on Bhort allowance of rations, iv iti pomoua, flora, and fauna, New Zealand i* very poor,and the fish in its aeaa and bays, creeks or rivets, are all inferior, far inferior ia qiulity to the fish on the coasts or ia the riveis of Great Britain or Ireland. The phoirnium tennxis rea'ly tho most valuable native Bhrubby product. In Victoria the enterprising in that colony are growing it and manufacturing it, and advertise for i.ff-sets to plant for culture. No crop could be grown with lens trouble, Wheu once planted out in rows, wide enough between to bo horseshoed, the main labour is over, aud the first plants will last many yeais. Perhaps a dye could b« extracted from iiinau, and a powerful asstringent in addition, but chemistry has scarcely shown its learned and experimental face on these ehtret. It tie high time its practitioners took up their residence here. Some of the barks are said to have as much as tea per cent, of taaniu. If so, they ought to be highly esteemed for niauy purposes, and prepared in a scientific manuer. Tbe discovery that oil of Australian gum trees is the best solvent ever found for kauri gum ought to make that purest of gums more valuable than ever. Formerly the process was expensive : mastic gum was used, which cost in England 16s. per lb. The blue gum oil converts kauii gum at 3d. per lb. into a translucent varnish for maps, paintings, ko. t and if this varnish stands the test of time it will supersede mastic!. Many persons fancy that new land has only to be turned up and planted right off, and it is only by carefully considering the character of its vegetation past or present, or its chemical constituents, that this fallacy can be oombated. lb may be that certain alluvial or mixed bush lands, rich in decayed vegetable mattsr, can be so cultivated successfully, but one peculiarity with scarcely an exception is common to the opan lands of the*colouy : we allude to tho necessity of fallowing or not cropping the land until the second year after breaking it up. Foria«tanc*, if brokeu up in May, June, or through the winter, it should not b9 sown with wheat until the following May or June, or with potatoes or other spring crop until the next spring. This process is called by th» settlers "sweetening" — a term which implies some existing latent quality in the soil itself deleterious to vegetation, suohfor example as the fotnution of carbonic acid gas in a high degiee, caused by the presence of iron in the soil — and the natural and simple remedy for this ia the course pursued, turning up the soil to th« oction of the sup aud the oxygen contaiued in the atuaospere. Quicklime ha^ the same and a -till moreinstftntftneous effect -hence the results which follow tho application of alkali to the soil, such os soda, soap-suds, and the potash contained in the remains of many kinds of wood when burned. The«e, by acting on the acidity of th« soil, release the vaii. us salts requiied for tho food of p auts from a fix'd to a soluble Btate, the only form in which th^y c*n he taken up »»nd absorbed. Another and a practical solution to this phenomenon is the theory tint from the time when the present open lands were covered with forests a succession of crops, whether fern, flax, or manuka, or other sciub, have been raised upon the ground, reaped by the action of fire, and canned in the form of ashes into the natural water channels by the washing of the rains. Thus an uninterrupted system of exhaustive cropping has been curried on, with only the partial return to the soil of the roots of each c^urße as .they have decayed ia tbe ground. Another general rule we would allude to is that the j southern or shaded aspect of every main ridge ap- ' pears to possess a soil superior to that on the opposite side — thin rule we have tieen told is observable in other countries besides New Z 'aland, though of course mure remarkable here, wh^re the country is in a state of nature, than in one where the variations of quality have been equalised by the cultivation of centuries.— May's Guide to Farming.

ALoKa Absent Husband's Return.— An Indiana paperaives the f >llowing account of the reunion of a hußbaud ami wife after 26 years' separation :— ' ' Tv 1842, John Klliott It-fb his home and his wife, who had borae him 11 children, in Putraaa county, this State, suddenly and in a passion at some «iight misU' demanding that had occurred between them. He gave his family no intimation of his departure previous to leaving, and they never heard of him again until aft<-r the e'apf-e of 26 years. The wife belie»ed her husband dead, and after two yearo' wailing she gave him up at lost to her for ever, and married ft respectable citizen of the county, named Ballon, and resided happily enough with him near Uloverdule, ever since, until last week. It was there that the firsts tidings of her supposed deceased husband were received by her. It was in this wise that these tidings reached her : — A letter came to her through the hand of a person who was a stranger. This letter set forth that if she would visit a little town several miles distance from Cloverdale she would meet an old and very* dear friend, and urged her not to omit making the visit- at a certain time. The letter impressed her strangely, andsheconoludod to visit the town named at the designated time, and did so, What was her surprise, on entering the houso where the meeting was appointed, to meet her first husband. Twenty-eU years had passed, and time had left its impress upon the man, yet she recognised him it onoe. The past «ras talked over, the sudden disappearance, long absence, and oontlnutd ftilence of the husband explained, and then and there it was agreed that t»ey would spend the remnant: of their lives together. The woman returned to her home in Oloverdale. She explained to her second husband all that had happened, and told him that »he felt it her duty to go witn her flrat husband, from whioh she had been bo long separated. Her second husband, Bailou, was loth to consent, but the woman was unchangeable in her determination, and he was compelled to acquiesce. Their worldly effeots were divided, and on Monday last the old lady left Cloverdaie to lvjoin her huaband in the little village where the meeting took place, and on Thursday B he left for Kentucky. When the husband left home he wandered off to Kentucky, where he remainfti until the Catffonuan gol-i discoveries crdate'f such an excitemeut in 1849. He was seized with the g«l>l fever and left for the rich placerß on the Pacific coast. There he worked and saved his naming* until he had accumulate I some 40,000 dollars. With this he returned to Kentucky. purchased and stocked a farm inl/nooln county, and hat been living on _ife ever siuee 1859, Having accumulated considerable wealth, he is now prepared to comfortably oare for her whom lie «o cruelty deserted 26 y«w «g<v *nd to give » • good start in the world' to the children she bore him— four of