THE INSTITUTE.

Wellington Independent, Volume XVI, Issue 1490, 22 January 1861, Page 2

THE INSTITUTE.

The Special jK^g^^tiWJ^dßp^iUS^lii^^-, stitiit>ibn. which y^e • t6*day,?-is-%r^ somewhat lu^p|i^ which, in igh|i jSe; /ijpßisi|w^d mahapwpos gust pa . tl)te anniversary* of ?'7 our colony. , But.^hile ill gup: &ifjsss\& ii is gloomy, ■, in ri a£o.tferi if:^ styles being, hope^;- ;3?hoi of rtho Institute appe.^ G^ted like pradent men, )>^'i^m]|'ina^s£^^9s'-'iii'>;-.-. the face, ana^ tryiagrto 3 rjneotjjjistfj^iOp • v Aiding them, Jplto spiritj4iso,l^ "at th§. .me^ting^; is ;pn<^\^^ng^pßiaiy ? i: pleasant to see Institute as Mr, LyphVagaincoming forward with such' cna|iao^ns^B;|^^imj||/ It js ■al3O ! 'ple ! a3anfc, i K:'.P^,^^^^iife^ Special Oominittee that haa been formed j - while it includes o»eor twb • *'" ly new names, also has m it the nanl^s of more 'than, one or-two who w^jfeji^ have been member^ of [^eT^^fx^j^t^;^--.-. its. ,commenQemeat|n Ss|^^,'wW|^Jlpi| r , j wish theni succesa'in^^^o^tlb^l]^^?^'; undertaken, SflffinS^pthat M-toi wha?€|^^^^iii|o^K«ipe^M^

for him to set about the fonnatiou of a garden. This will be a work of soine labour, for here, as it is necessary that soil should be worked with the spade or hoe, the surface roots must, after the loose wood has been consumed, be rooted out with an adze previously to breaking up the ground. The first acre on which the timber was i fallen will be the best to select fur the garden ; ths loose wood will, having been the first cut, be the driest and in >st easily burnt. Great care-must however be taken that in consuming tWewood on this acre, the fire is not allowed to spr&id to the other nine, which are not to be burnt off to the following April. The burning off, grubbing, and breaking up this acre will not tako a less time than two months. A three railed fence will be easily put up, the wood lying close at hand, and palings can be split afterwards, and a substantial fowl and pig proof fence completed at some less busy time. A soon as broken up, vegetables, where k is the proper season for doing so, may be sown ; one half of the garden, should however be reserved for potatoes, the best time for plant* ing which, as a general crop, is early in Sept. Potatoes, peas, pumpkins, in fact all vegetables, will grow to perfection in forest land, although but newly broken up, where in fern or open land t'ipy would mostly require the ground to be well wor&ed, and to lie for at least twelve months expo <cd t> fie action of the sun and atmosphere after having been turned over. A few good fruit trees of the best sorts, should be planted in June or July, Dot cuttings obtained for nothing from some neighbouring garden, but proper 1 ; worked trees, which are now easily procurable in all parts of the Pro* vince. A gefod tree takes up more room

than a bad one; the latter has to come out at last, and years are thus lost in procuring, not only one of the greatest luffttries iv the bushabundance of good fruit, but a source of profit as yet too much undervalue. Allowing May, June, and July for the garden, we have then until •* the time of burning off arrives in April, a period of some six or seven moaths for the splitting fencing stuff for the first ten, ami for falling the timber on another ten acres to be burnt off and cropped twelve months after the liist. By this means a fresh ten acres will be brought into cultivation every year. In commencing upon the second piece oare roust be taken to leave a belt of timber standing about a chain wide between the first piece cleared and the second, bo tnat the fire from the first lot may not become communicated with the second portion ; for the success of this system of bush cultivation (and it is the only profitable system) will entirely depend upon the rubbish being thoroughly dried before applying the fire. Part of this belt will doubtless be destroyed by the fire, but it will serve the purpose mentioned, and those trees left uninjured may remain both foi shelter and ornament, indeed, wherever it is thought desirable to save one or more treeS, clumps of a quarter to half an acre must be left uncut around them ; ths outer trees will be destroyed, but the inner ones saved. New Zealand trees, unlike those in the other colonies, are killed if scorched by busb fires. The kJst week in March is the best time to

commence burning off. This is done by running a fire through the fallen timber ; if (fry tbe greater part will be consumed. The larger logs are then rolled two or three together, and any part of the smaller branches unconsutned are used to assist incurring them out. As soon as the ashes are cold, wheat at the rate of % bushels to the acre is ajwn broadcist on the ashes, no means being used to cover in the seed. Early in spring, grass seed at the rate of from two or three bushels per acre is sown on the younjf wheat, and all further labour with regard to this portion, of gjround is at an end Some people prefer sowitfg grass at once and no wheat, this is tbe better plan where the settler can afford to lose the wheat crop, a3 sbo ild the wheat be more than ordinarily luxuriant, the young grass would (as we have seen it) very probably be smothered, and in order to /•obtain a second crop the land would have to be broken up with the hoe, an operation which Wv>uld take more time than the whole preparation for the first crop. This is the reason why grass must be sown either on the young wheat in spring or by itself at first. If a crop of gram alone were taken, to produce a second crop the ground must be broken up, and as this oould only lie done by hand, the labour of so doing would occupy the whole of the settlers time, and so preolude all possibility of his giving tbe time to reclaim any further portion of his allotment. If wheat is down it must be done as soon as possible after the ashes have cooled, otherwise, if left till a later season, the weeds would have a fairer chance of obtaining the mastery, and if to meet this inconvenience the burning ofl were left later than tbe begin ning of April there would be too much risk of the summer breaking up before the operation of firing the rubbish could be performed. Thus every year the settler will have a wheat crop of ten acres and an additional ten acres of grass for grazing purposes. At the first offset be will have invested some portion of bis capital in breeding stock (the more the better) which will, till be has better feed for them, do well enough in the bush. Pigs, as he commences to grow food for them, and poultry when he can find time to fence in his garden, he will of course procure. The one great bur to prosperity in bush farming that we hare all along noticed,, is the continuous working of the same piece of ground ; by this system (or rather want of system) the ex tent of ground reclaimed is never increased, and as too often ia tbe cnse, the bush cultivator gives up farming altogether, turning his attention solely to other bush works, becomes dispirited himself and tends to discourage others from what is really, (particularly as we stated above for a settler of limited means,) the most profitable description of soil on which to commence farming. The grand object in New Zealand is to obtain good grass. It can be obtained at less cost and in less time on bush than it can on open land— and as to the matter of the stumps remaining in the ground, it ia mere* ly the look of the thing, they take up but little room.