THE COLONIST PIBLISHED TUESDAYS, THURSDAYS, AND SATURDAYS. NELSON, TUESDAY, MAY 20, 1879. OUR TABLE.

Colonist, Volume XXII, Issue 2551, 20 May 1879, Page 3

THE COLONIST PIBLISHED TUESDAYS, THURSDAYS, AND SATURDAYS. NELSON, TUESDAY, MAY 20, 1879. OUR TABLE.

Th_ Colonial Museum and Labobatory are shown, in the thirteenth annual report by Dr. Hector, to have been pursuing the ■ame course of useful work without flourish or pretence, that has previously been their characteristic. During the last half of the year a novel feature was introduced into the Museum management, it having "been opened to the public for two hours on Sunday afternoons," and that this was a source of gratification to many is proved by there being an attendance of from 300 to 800 persons, and the entire number ot names entered in the visitors' book for the year being 15,000, it will be seen that a large proportion consists of those availing themselves of the added hours. The Natural History collections are about to be turned to fresh account by the new wood engravings in preparation for the catalogue being used also for the illustration of elementary text- . bookß for schools. Nearly tea • thousand jpeeimens have been added to the collections daring the year, more than three fourths of them being obtained during the geological gurvey of the Colony. More accommodation ii urgently called for, and not without cause, as a large herbarium of foreign plants, presented by the Trustees of the British Museum, and numbering 28,000 species, is ■till unpacked, and must remain inaccessible to students till proper cabinets are provided. The desirability of re-organising the Meteorological department is pointed out, the course proposed being to reduce the present number of stations and substitute a few thoroughly equipped, a large number being also established where only rainfall, direction of wind, and temperature would be observed, the same expenditure being expected to give more valuable results. The Laboratory has been kept busy, no less than 231 analyses having been made, and a glance at the list will indicate what important advantages have been rendered to the Government and the Eublic; how the waste of capital in mining as been prevented as well as encouragement given where the prospects are healthy. The Colony has good reason to be content with its support of this Institution, which supplies a want that private enterprise could not deal with, and indeed that if so carried out on a costly scale could not be expected to command the general confidence that is now given, where scientific men pursue their enquiries, and publish the results with complete impartiality. Th_ New Zealand Ckuntry Journal for May contains a number of interesting papers, the first being " On the theory and management of our light soils," which the writer showß require " the utmost skill on the part of the husbandman" to maintain at " even a medium standard of fertility." The effect of the inconsiderate cropping of such lands in Canterbury is said to be shown "in the broad tracts of hungry looking country" " which were a few years ago tolerably fertile." -Naked fallows are objected to for light lands, " however suitable for heavy clays," and the mistake of fancying "that any condition of soil is suitable for grass " is emphatically denounced. In a short space more is perhaps suggested than directly taught. Mr J. C. Firth's paper "On Forest Culture," read before the Auckland Institute, will'be read with attention by all to whom his name is familiar as one skilled and successful in the matters whereof be writes. In common with every person whose attention has been turned to this subject, Mr Firth dwells on the national importance of preventing the destruction of forepts, which is certain to convert the country in time " into an arid desert," that is, * unless planting is vigorously carried on. In the United States, the grasshopper, the Colorado beetle, and other insect pests that are rendering "the production of human food more and more precarious," are becoming more formidable as the country is cleared, and birds, " the chief allies of men against the enormous increase of insect life," are deprived of their. breeding places and the requisite shelter. More than ten years ago Mr Firth pointed out to the Waikato settlers that unless they formed plantations they would suffer from droughts, floods, and insects owing to a cause rarely suspected— tbe 'disappearance of fern. Much of the paper has reference chiefly to the kauri | forests, but its lessons are none the less capable of general application. Under the head of the " Farmers! Friends" it will surprise some to find.that hawks and owls are meant, though the. services rendered in the destruction of rabbits, rats, and mice fully entitle them to the name. The more-pork does the work,of the cat to which it, too ottenfalls a prey. "Agricultural Statistics" tell * melancholy story of.the last harvest in Canterbury, and account for., much of the depression now; existing in that district. With-a large increase in the quantity ol land under wheat crop the yield is less, and though the produce of bats is more iu quantity it is much less in money. A calculation is given pt the return per acre of land in the various kinds of grain, and the expenses to be deducted, the result shown being, thai .thdjeal-i.-tor h_s| a ver j small

return for his Kskatid labor, and that in many cases there could not have been a sufficient balance to keep the bouse. On "Smut in wheat and other cereals" some pertinent remarks are made and some valuable bints given. Steeping in a solution of bluestone is a well known remedy, and that which the writer of the paper has found by experiment to be more successful than any other. A letter that appeared recently in rhe North British Agriculturist is reprinted, and some of the figures it contains are calculated to startle even thort New /.ealanders who are fondest of boasting about their adopted country. It seems that already this Colony possesses two thirds as many horses, one half as many cattle, and twice as many sheep as the whole of Scotland, while the extent of land in wheat and sown permanent grasses is three times as much in this new country aa in that so famous for its its agricultural skill and enterprise. The New Zealand Coursing Calendar will be. of interest to all who take part in the sport to which it is devoted, and that the number doing so may rapidly increase, and that they may be actuated by so much zeal as to largely reduce thr.t farmer's enemy, the hare, is sincerely io bo wished. This volujae is called the " first," and if its success equals its merits, the lino will be long and prosperous. Beturns of coursing meetings in JNow Zealand; extended pedigrees of greyhounds, running and at the stud ; and lists of winners are given, with a spirited lithograph of several famous dogs.