WAITARA.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 145082, 6 September 1916, Page 7

WAITARA.

oms ■ OWN -00B2imHHIllBttY. Tho committee of the Municipal Band is showing extraordinary activity this season, and tho band is prospering accordingly. Strenuous efforts aro being made to secure a hundred honorary members., and there is every prospect of their efforts being successful. There is a strong hope of building, by moans of a working beo, a baud room, so that the practices can bo carried out at all times. At present a rental is paid for the use of tile drill shed for a few hours each week, but small as it is it represents interest on £IOO, and it is estimated that a suitable building of their own could bo built for well within that •sum. lb seems that there is a. section sot aside for tho purpose on the river front. It is proposed to ask the New Plymouth Citizens’ Baud _ to give a Sunday afternoon concert in the near future in aid of the funds, and with that and other concerts to raise sulfijiont money to justify getting to work on tho building of the band room. Some time ago 1 watched a marl sowing scuds in his garden, and without making any comment. I would havo hot a iiat that those seeds would never come to vegetables. The peas had gone in at about tho proper depth, the onions were being sown in drills just about the same depth, and other small seeds followed suit. By the t-imo tho drill had been filled the seed was buried hopelessly deep. Later on I inquired how ins garden was coming along, and was told that ho must havo got “crook'’ seed, for not a single seed had conic up except the peas, which wore looking well. Tho condition of the soil is, ol course, an impi.Jnaiit factor; it should not be dust dry? nor too wot, and if small seeds, say, of the size of the turnip seed, are covered with about a quarter to half an inch of soil, there will not often be a failure in germination. Many failures are caused through too deep sowing, especially ol the small scons. Nature spreads the seed on tho surface, ami loaves the rains to do tho slight necessary covering. Tho gardening art improves on that casual method by covering the seed and encouraging germination straight away, but there is a difference between covering and burying; tlio former means success and tho' latter failure. Summer spinach is a delicious vegetable Unit does not appear to take As place as iroquontly as it should do in Die kitchen garden, and yet.ibis district seems admirably suited to it. 1 saw a row last season that had been drastically thinned out, the plants being fultv to inches apart, and the leaves were so’ long that tho ground was completely covered. A littlo nitrate of apda sprinkled round the plants in wet weather when they arc in strong growth will havo a wonderfully beneficial effect. Yesterday the owner of a motorlaunch gave a friendly tow to a fisherman on the river in a flat-bottomed boat. Ho was a substantial fisherman this, in more than ono respect, and as ho sal in tho stern of his boat, gliding along the glassy surface, with the prow of tho boat pointing skyward, ho no doubt thought to himself that it _ was an improvement on pulling tho sticks. The motor driver put on more speed anil the launch shot ahead. A minute or so afterwards, on looking round ho was surprised to sco that the trailer was empty, and in tho distance ho could see his passenger swimming for shoreII appeared that whom ho turned more benzine on, tho sudden and unexpected pnll had thrown tho fisherman over the side, and quite a considerable distance had boon navigated before ho noticed that there was a man overboard.