Agricultural Advancement.

Opunake Times, 3 July 1894, Page 3

Agricultural Advancement.

(E. A. Daly, in the Queenslander.)

A selector who has a small farm on the coast, and who, to use his own words, “is aisier wid the shovel than wid the pin,” brought me a memorandum which he bad received from the Department of Agriculture, and asked me to fill in his report about some seed he had obtained, the name of which was (so he said). “ lob lobs.” I quote verabatim his replies to the questions which the department requires to be answered by any one who obtains seed Jrom itf as I feel sure that the replies will riot only be beneficial and instructive to .agriculturists but intertsting to the general public—and perhaps Mr Wragge might also learn sd me thing new about the abnormal kind of weather this part of the districts sometimes suffers from. * 1. Date seed was received?—Well, tell ’em, for sure I mind it well, ’twor jist afore the big flood last year, so ’twar.

2. When planted ? —They wor planted immediately I got ’em. 3. And how ?—Fust I soaked ’em in some liquid manure, and thin put ’em out in the sun to dhry, but the fowls got at ’em—the divil take thim fowls ; you can’t lave nothin’ out av yer hand that they won’t ate. One of ’em swallered four knittin’ needles the other day, an’ I had to kifl her to get ’em again for the old woman. But that wasn’t the worst of ut, for whin I drove the fowls away from that dish 0’ lob jobs' thim Government chaps sent me from Brisbane, thin the ould bally cow kem an’ had a mouthful or two —ayeh ! but she’s the thafe of the wurrld entirely; she sthole won leg off me new pants and ate it won day while I wor half way into a holler log after a dingo pup. But, anyhow, the seeds come up fine by-and-bye around the fowl house and the cowyard far better than they did in the cultivation paddock, where I planted what wor left in the dish wid me own two hands.

4. Nature of land, forest or scrub ? —Faix, thin, it’s both, an’ plinty av that same, fur ’tis so thick that soroetimes/6e dog can't find room to bark

of laud preparatory to planting ?—Falx, I finced ut in wid a fince that a chicken couldn’t crawl through, but I hadn’t time to do more afore I planted thim there lob lobs.-

6. State whether during growthwet, dry, or windy?—’Twor awful weather. Fust it blew that hard the wind rushing in through the bunghole of an empty cask blew both inds out, an’/and also blew a big gum dog I had there into sawdust. Then it began to rain, and rained so hard that in ten minutes it filled that cask brim full, though both inds wor blown to glory long afore by that bit of a squall I tould you of. My word! it can blow- sometimes down at Limbathat’s the name of the farm. 7. Date harvested ?—Divil a harvest I ever I had of thim lob lobs afther all me trouble, so I don’t know what sort of atin’ they’d be. / 8. State area sown, and yield.— .They wor schattered all over the farm by the fowls, an’ the cow, an’ mesself, but.as it can’t sthand the weather we git down at Limba there wor no crap at all, at all. 9. Is this crop suitable or unsuitable to the district ?—Sure it don’t do at ail, tell ’em, nor nothin’ else ever I planted there, fur the matter of that, bar a flagstaff, an’ 1 bad to put four stays on that to hould it there ; an’ ye can’t do that to thim lob lobs, an’ onless ye euld there’s no good thryiu’ to grow ’em at my place. 10. Was the land previously cultivated ?■—No, onless the blacks might ha’- got a crop of boomerangs off it. Remarks.—Well, tell ’em the only thing remarkable about the lob lobs wor that they wor a remarkable failure wid me last year—on account of the bad weather, I suppose. Thim things is too soft for this Counthry; only flagstaffs and ferns can sthand the Cyclopes we get wanst a week regular.