688 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[February i, 1883, 



ripen every year. The olive may be seen, but as yet 

 only as a curiOBity,; the grape yields well, but diffii-ulties 

 attend its culture. At Mangawai there is a successful 

 vineyard, wlierc wine of the hock and clai-et types is now 

 made and -. Id. Byand-liy the vineyard will surely be a 

 common feature, atid New Zealand wines vie. with thoNO of 

 Australia. Ihere are very few individuals in the colony as 

 yet who understand grape cuUure, hut there are similar soils 

 and cliniat- to the best wine producing districts ofSoiithi-rn 

 Kurope. The worst foes of the grape are the phea^^ants and 

 the cricket-, but both of those may be overcome ii proper 

 measures be taken. Pheasants can be shot, but crickets are 

 a sore trial to the fanner when they appe.ir on hi^ clearings. 

 They swarm in hosts and eat grass and grain, the fruit on 

 the trees and the bark on the roots. Tliis last may, how- 

 ever, be readily stopped by lime and sulpliur and the like. 

 As there is no evil without its ccrrespondiuff good, so the 

 farmer is able to keep the crickets from doing him much 

 appreciable damage; while, at the same time, he turns them 

 into a source of profit. It is found that turkeys and ducks 

 will feed on thetii ravenously, and will thrive and fatten 

 splendidly on the food. These birds are therefore kept in 

 numbers by many settlers. Tobaccn.growing and manu- 

 facture will also become an important industry in the north. 

 There is already one plantation, at Papakura, which is 

 remunerative : bnt scarcity ot cheap labour is the main diffi- 

 culty, as it also is with hop-growing, seri-culture, and other 

 equally well-proiuising pursuits. Olive-cnlture has yet to 

 be started There ia an islet in the Kaipara, I think in the 

 Wairoa rivei, covered with olive trees that someone planti-d 

 as an experiment and left, and which suffice to show what 

 might be done in this direction. Settlers were lately in- 

 teresting themselves in beetroot sugar, whicli some were 

 thinking ot serious moving in. But, in spite of the fact that 

 Government has ottered a handsome bonus, I think beetroot- 

 growing and sngar-makiug would hardly pay in the north, 

 in view ot competition with the cane sugars of Queensland, 

 Fiji, and elsewhere. 



It will bt gathered that there is a great deal of work to he 

 got through "n a pioueer farm, and it should be under- 

 stood that there are seldom more than half-a-dozeu hands 

 to do it. Many settlers, indeed, arc obliged to limit 

 themselves at first from want of capital, and their 

 progress is much retarded. But as the years go, on the 

 the area of gras< extends, and a larger income permits 

 labour 10 be employed, and so increase it still more. 

 When the slieep, becoming more numerous every year, are 

 ou the clearings, there is an easy source of inooine, demad- 

 ing 11 lie more than the week or two's work atshearing time. 

 The cattle are a main dependence, but take up much lime. 

 The pioneer will try to keep up a dairy after he has aiiittle 

 grass to feed his milch cows, but unless there is a wife, 

 or one hand can devote himself entirely to it, other work 

 will be hindered. Butter and cheese pay fairly, but beef 

 pays better. The herd running in the bush keeps on in- 

 creasing anuually and every year the number of four-year- 

 old steers iu greater. Still, the herd demands some work, 

 and one man's time is fully taken up iu looking after it. 

 It is considered necessary to bring up every beast at least as 

 often as oucein six weeks, and to yard it for a night ; other- 

 wise it ^vill get wild and wander too far away. * * * 

 The four-year-olds are not very large according to Eng- 

 lish ideas, the " fat steer" of the bush averaging some 

 fifteen hundred. But he will fetch a pound per hundred 

 and more in Auckland, and has cost nothing to rear 

 bcyon I the looking up with the rest. Once a year there 

 18 a grand muster of the herd on th ■ fenced clearings, 

 and the beasts for market are drafted out. To effect 

 this, the ne'ghbours, white and Maori, must be asked to 

 a "bee" to assist. Ca tie drafting is exciting work, the 

 beasts becoming very wild with the driving abou', and 

 dog.s or men are sometimes hurt. Spending the fat stesrs 

 to market is generally done by water. A cutter is char- 

 tered for the purpose, and the beasts are yarded on the 

 beach. Then each is separately roped by the horns, driven 

 into the water, and swum alongside the vessel, when he 

 is got on board by means of a sling and tackle. 

 . The herd is a valuable help to the pioneer-farmer iu 

 his early days ; hut by-and-bj- he will eive it up altogether, 

 or will retain it in a smaller way within Ids fences. Ae 

 he gets more and more grass, he will iirohably stock it 

 with slieep, these affording the maximum of profit to the 

 minimum of work. Then he will have more time to attend 



to the beautifying ofhis place, building a more pretenti- 

 ous residence, planting out ornamental and useful trees, 

 making paths and reads, setting hedges round the pad- 

 docks of thorn, Vermont damson, acacia, Osage orange, or 

 other likely stuff, and finding generally aviriety of details 

 to attend to. It ^\'ill have been seen th it the work a 

 pioneer farmer has before him is of the hardest ,ind ster- 

 nest, and is all-engro.ssing. The refinements of civilisation 

 are banished in great measure ; there is no time to culti- 

 vate them. But food is good, various, and plentiful, and 

 the cUmate is most enjoyable The settler is doing 

 .SO' etbing more than ifhe were a tenant-farmer in Enu-lan 1 ; 

 for he is making capital, as well as earning a livelihood. 

 Every year his income will be larger, and his land become 

 more valuable and I'emuoerative as his improvements on 

 it are effected. Whether he starts wi;h much capital or 

 with less, he has a lon'4 hard fight before him, for the 

 first ten or twelve years at any rate. But the rewanl ia 

 sure, and is worth working for. After that time his 

 clearings will begin to fall in as ready for the plough, 

 and the acreage of the plough lands will increase yearly. 

 Then labour and machinery will insure maguiticent returns, 

 and the days of rude pioneering cease. 



SUGAR IN THE UNITED STATES. 

 In a report by Mr. A^ictor Drummond, Secretary to Her 

 Majesty's Legation at Washington, recently received by 

 the Government of India, some very interesting and use- 

 ful information is given regarding the present state of 

 sugar-production auel its future prospects in the United 

 States. The extended cultivation of sugar, and the necessity 

 that exists for its production in large quantities, is being 

 very strongly recommended to those interested iu the trade 

 by General LeDuc, the Director of the Agricultur.al Bureau 

 at Washington. Sugar holds the first importance among 

 the imported products of other nations, for which the United 

 States are now paying anuually nearly 100,000,0f30 dollars, 

 and it is, therefore, urged, says Mr. Drummond, that with 

 proper encouragement and support its cultivation and pro- 

 duction at home would serve to save to the country that 

 which is now lost to it by its deficiency in this respect. 

 In the state of Louisiana, which is the chief source of 

 the domestic supply of sugar, the production appears to 

 have fallen off considerably between the years 1861-62 and 

 1876-77, the productiou in the latter amounting to only 

 1<10,672,570 lbs., against 528,321,500 lbs. produced in the 

 former, or nearly 63 per cent less than it was iu 1S61- 

 62. L^p to the present time it appears that only a very 

 insignificant part of the whole body of cane-bearing lands 

 in Louisiana have at all been under cultivation ; the agricult- 

 ural methods and the mechanical apphances in ti.se, and 

 the system of production followed having also to some 

 extent operated against the successful development of the 

 industry. In Louisiana there are immense tracts of un- 

 occupied and abandoned sugar-lands w-hich are purchasable 

 at low rates; and with an improved system of labor, a 

 division ami cultivatiou ot smaller tracts by individual 

 owners, and a more scientific handling of the cane, the 

 Director of Agriculture in Washington thinks that a steady 

 development of the industry may reasonably be expected. 

 Again on the Lower Mississipi Blr. Drummond tells us 

 that there are hundreds of thousands of acres of the best 

 sugar-producing lands which are inundated through the 

 broken levees, and which have only been abandoned on 

 account of the overflow. Repeated endeavours have been 

 made by individuals, corporations, counties and states to 

 restrain the mighty river, but they have been fruitless ; 

 and it is considered by the American Agricultural Bureau 

 that the time has conic when it becomes a national duty 

 to effect such measures as will serve to re-establi.sh these 

 levees in such a maiiui-r as shall permanently secure the 

 industries that will immediately re-occupy these lands. It 

 is calculated that the producing power of the state of 

 Louisiana might, if thi; measures advocated be adopted, 

 be increased 300 per cent. Sugar-lands, capable of a pro- 

 duction of 2,000 to 4,000 lbs., with a proportionate quantity 

 of molasses, can be purchased for fifteen to twenty dollars 

 an acre in the State. The sugar cultivators and manufac- 

 turers recommend the appointment of chemists to study 

 the operation of manufacture on the ground, to analyze 

 the soils, provide means for converting the trash-cane 



