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Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 11, Issue 858, 16 July 1867, Page 2

Sib, — I wish to lay before your notice the distressed state of Mohaka. We have had no vessel in here for more than four months, and during- that time we have consumed all the flour, tea, sugar, and tobacco, and we have had to resort to the necessity of roasting wheat and smoking tea leaves end torore, when the last can be got. It is a common saying when two meet, " How are you off for tobacco — can you spare a pipe full ?" I wish some vessel would take compassion onus and bring us some supplies, as we are in great need of them. I am &c, One of the distbessed Mohakans. Mohaka, July 12, 1867. PRESERVATION OF FRUIT TREES FROM INSECTS BY CONTIGUITY TO CERTAIN PLANTS. Sib,— As the following information, taken from a N.S.W. newspaper (viz., the "Clarence atfd Eichmond Eiver Examiner" of 30th April), will prove valuable in this province, perhaps you will accord it space in your open column, should it be considered so by you. I append it here* with. Spes. At a recent dinner of the Clarence Pastoral and Horticultural Association in Grafton, the Chairman " inter alia " drew attention to the advisability of following the practice of other countries by growing hemp amongst fruit trees to ensure their preservation from the ravages of insects, and also pointed out how needful it was that at, first new industries should be numerously prosecuted on a very limited scale, as by this means experience would be gained, along with facilities for the after treatment, some species of produce desiderated, and the quantities produced by the many would bring about local competition in purchasing the same. Nothing need be said as to the immense importance to this Northern island of New Zealand of the culture of hemp, a plant exactly suited to its climate, and, moreover, rope works at present fully engaged in Australia, would buy more than could be raised here for some years to come. So a market exists that is to all intents a domestic one. The next is a letter from a recognised authority, showing another plant capable of guarding fruit trees from insects'. " In this case it is the orange that is spoken of, and as anything capable of shielding it from the disease (viz., blight like insects) will do so with other fruit-bearing trees, to say the least it must be worthy the peresal of many here, and is therefore given underneath. The Orange Disease. — The following letter on the orange disease, from the pen of Edxjabdo San Jtjst, the Spanish Consul, at Sydney, was lately read at a meeting of the Acclimatisation Society of New South Wales, and we are informed the experiment has been tried by a settler on the Clarence, Eiver, and found to answer all that is stated in the following remarks : — '/ Sir, — I have the honour to inform you that, on my recent visit to Spain, whilst travelling some districts of Valencia, I perceived that the same disease which exists here in the orange trees was also prevalent in several places in the above district. Although it- was not my intention to makeoi scientific study of said disease, it struck me . that the trees in moist ground were always, sooner decayed than those in dry places, and- was, on inquiry, informed that the disease " did not at all make its appearance " in those trees •which were surrounded 'by Pitas or American agaves, commo;tt)y, called aloes. As this plant is a tex^efplant, its fibres are used for rope-ma^L^j; whilst in Spain it serves also for fenejng in land. Several of the agriculturists, who are now convinced of the aloe" being a very good remedy against the orange tree disease, have commenced planting the aloe on their property where they are growing oranges. Some experiments have also been made to put petroleum oil in the roots of the orange trees, which succeeded in some instances; but as soon as the^other remedy became ' known, the samjpwas at once resorted to as the most efficacious mode to check the disease." '* P.S. — Of course no person will expect by any plan that he can preserve either the health or vitality of most kinds, of fruit trees where they are planted in land baring stagnant water close to the roots of them, months, perhaps, out of every year, and the ground untrenehed at that. Sib, — " Ecce iterum," I daresay some of your readers will remark when they see another effusion on the Provincial Counoil question ; but my remarks upon it shall at least have the merit of brevity^ as I've no idea of harping on this theni||pad nauseam." Simply, then, your correspondents "Stranger" and " See-Saw"— whom some of our tea-party wags have christened " Saw-See "—must think the public an incorrigible set of idiots if they for one moment believe that any other opinion ■was ever held of the members of the Council than that they are a self-opinion-ated lot of muffs. Enough : I want to draw " See-Saw's " attention to a passage from Churchill : — What but rank folly^for thy curse decreed, Could into satire's barren path mislead, When open to thy view, before thee lay Soul-soothing panegyric's flowery way ? There might the Muse have saunter'd at her ease, And, pleasing others, learned herself to please. —There's good advice for him, which I will supplement, with a well-known quotation from Defoe,- pointing out what he may expect who ventures into these thorny ways : — " If I might give a short hint to an impartial writer, it should be to tell him his fate. If he resolves to venture upon the dangerous precipice of telling unbiassed truths, let him proclaim war with mankind " a la mode le pays de Pole," neither to give nor . take quarter. * * * Let him expect martyrdom on both sides, and then he may go on fearless." The truth is unpleasant, and my opinion of it coincides with that of Theodore Hook; some one remarked to him "Truth

lies in ft well." "All right," said he, "Jet's leare it there ; let well alone." As a pendant to " Stranger's" airmsing sermon about nothing, I offer the ibllowing improving conversation, which I overheard in a town in Bedfordshire rejoicing in the euphonious name of JBiggleswade; — " Good morniag, Muster Heath." "Morning, sir, morning; 'ow are yer to-day ?" " Nicely, thank ye ; Ws yerself P" " Pretty middlin'. It's a fine day today. 1 : " Yees ; it is at present. D'ye think it ull hold out though P" " Well, I dunno, I'm sure ; it looks a leetle blackish over the church." I " Yees, it does ; it looks likely for rain, I think." " Yees 5 but I 'ope it wunt rain, cos that wunt stand in werry well for my carrots ; they're all wet round the roots a'ready." "Lor!" " Yees, that they are ; and old 'Opkins, . yer know, he allers 'as a pain in his little toe when there's thunder in the air ; — well, he's 'ad that pain lately, so I think it nil rain." " Well, we.don't warnt no rain down in our close ; it's all flooded a'ready." Lor ! and wharfs yer par a-doing toitP" "Well, he's bin down along of old Bokus to look at it, and Bokus thinks if we leave it to soak in we shall get rid of it." " Ah ! it's a-doing a sight o' harm, this rain ;— there's such a deal of wet along with it." " Yees 5 but I shouldn't wonder if it wur to 'old up fur to-day though," Well, it 'ad ought to it ; but there's a many toads about, and the swallers fly low/ " Yees ; but 'ows the glass this morning?" "Well — there it is, yer see — my glass 'as stuck at set fair ever since my good lady died ; so there aint much dependin' v on it. But there — I should'nt wonder if it rained arter all, cos naybour Leake says there's a change o' moon to-night." ■ " Ah ! well, look ye, Muster Heath, if you hear anything more about it, give us a look in, will yer P" — [Exeunt.] Touchstone.