PORT ALBERT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XI, Issue 3996, 2 September 1874, Page 5 (Supplement)

PORT ALBERT.

THK AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION MEETING. GOOD TBMPLAKrSM. —SAXD-DKIFT^. The usual monthly meeting of the Agricultural Association took place on the *>6th instant, at the residence of Mr. A. Neal, when the paper of Dr. Schomburgk on "Grasses and Fodder Plants," printed in the Herald of the 22nd, called forth a long and interesting discussion. The rapid deterioration of our runs was noticed as being as evident as similar results in South Africa and South Australia, and the consequent need of planting artificial grasses. An example was also quoted of the recovery of the rough feed when shut up for a time; some persons thinking with Dr. Schomburgk that it would pay to shut up pieces of uncleared laud for a !l me ' i buueh of Columbia, it was thought, generally required too much care and attention to make its extensive growth at all practicable with settlers here. But , JP«"rie grass, introduced into these Colonies, I believe, by Dr. Schomburgk, received a very high character as a fodder plant, some persons expressing great regret it coukl not be used .much as a jjasture grass. The fact is cattle are too fond of it to give it the ghost of a chance to grow, unless there be moro feed than cattle, an unknown cireumstancc in these parts. I have seen cattle break into a small cultivation, walk over a patch of red clover six inches high to get to a plot of prairie grass. To cut as green food it surpasses oats or clover. It can be cut three or four times a year, and does not want re-sowing, but only manuring as the land becomes exhaused, and so it is not likely to be set aside for the bunch crass which requires hand planting, it seems, though it can hardly get it in its native country. On Friday, 2Stli instant, an open lodge meeting of the Good Templars was held here at 3 o clock p.m. Songs, recitations, and addresses occupied the afternoon until tea time, and after tea a lodge meeting was held. If allowable, I should like to say a word about the sand-drift of the AVaikato and other parts of the coast, noticed in your issue of the loth. In Holland and also in Belgium (Flanders) large tracts of at one time barren, sandy plains have been reclaimed, and turned into the highly fertile pastures and cultivations of those districts by planting the sand reed (arundo arenaria). This not only arrests the drift of the sand, but in process of time converts the sand into a rich, free soil. Cannot the same be done here'! It might perhaps also grow in and fertilize the pumice-stone wastes about Lake Taupo. —[Correspondent, August 28.]