February i, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



687 



The settler, at work on the light bush, first proceeds to 

 cut away the undergrowth with a slasher, for a chain or two 

 in front of liim. Then he follows with the axe, laying every 

 tree prostrate, one after another. He makes his gash at 

 about the height of the waist, leaviug two or three feet of 

 stump standing. This is doubly convenient, fgr it saves the 

 back when cutting, and in after days, when the stump is 

 rotten at the root, it is easier to pull out of the ground. 

 The fallen trees must all lie in one direction, and with their 

 tops down-liill, in order that they may burn well. A certain 

 knack in cutting enables the busliman to fall his tree in any 

 direction he may wish, though he is often bothered by high 

 winds and by creepers like the supple-jack, which bind the 

 trees together. Such is the work of falling bush, which 

 takes up all the dry season. A man mil get through his 

 acre in from four or five days to a fortnight, and, takiuk one 

 part with another, will knock down thirty or fortyacres dur- 

 ing the season. If hired labour is employed, the work goes 

 liy contract at so much an acre, thirty shillings to three 

 pounds being paid, according to the natiure of the piece of 

 bush. The workman agrees to " fall, fire, and log" at the 

 contract price, and expects to have earned his five or six 

 shillings a day when all is done. 



Towards the end of the dry season the fire is applied to 

 the fallen bush, by this time sere enough to burn well. It 

 is started from the bottom of the slopes when the wind is 

 favourable. After the burn i,s over, and the gi-ound cool, the 

 logging begins, a black and disagreeable task. All the logs 

 that lie about, charred and half burnt, have to be got to- 

 gether in great heaps re-burnt if they will fire, or left for 

 another time if not. The ground is then clear for grassiug, 

 which must be done directly the first shower of ram comes. 

 Grass seed is thrown over the surface, two to three bushels 

 per acre being the quantity used. As to the kind, every 

 farmer has his special recipe, .some such mixture as poa 

 pratensis; timothy, and Dutch clover, is as good .as any for 

 most soils. The seed sprouts at once, and in a few weeks 

 the black surface looks green, while in two or three months 

 there is some feed for sheep. In a year or less the turf has 

 formed. The ground must be sown at once after the burn 

 aud before the r,ains have well set in, or else ti-tree and 

 other abominations will spring up and render a clean turf an 

 impossibility without more work. The meadow thus formed 

 is an unsightly looking affair, but it will carry four or five 

 sheep to the acre all the ye<ar round, or cattle in proportion. 

 It is as rough as a stormy sea, and the stums standing thickly 

 on it have a weird look. But these will have rotted in six 

 or eight years, andean then be pulled out, heaped, and burnt. 

 Surface-sown grass on open lands is much more liable to be 

 deteriorated by weeds than that on bush lands. It seems an 

 easy thing to slash and burn acres of fern, as compared with 

 the corresponding work of clearing bush. But the open 

 land will not do iustice to the seed, and only a poor and 

 patchy grass, full of fern and ti-tree and flax will result. 

 Open land must be broken up with the plough, and, from its 

 roughness and the hard matted roots of fern amd ti-tree, 

 this is anything but an easy task. Then the fern keeps on 

 springing, and ploughing and cleaning must be kept up. 

 The turf formed amongjthe stumps on bush land is generally 

 pretty free from weed. Perhaps its best advantage lies in 

 its keeping green during the dry season, and keeping the 

 sheep on it right through the summer, while surface-sown 

 open lands are as dry aud brown as a tm-npike-road. After 

 the eight yeai, when the stumps are got out, the turf may 

 be ploughed in, the old tree-roots having all rotted away. 

 Then after a crop or two of potatoes, the land will be ready 

 for wheat, and will yield thirty to sixty bushels an acre, 

 according to its quahty. The cost of purchasing, clearing, 

 fenciug, and grassing light bush or " scrub" land in the 

 northern districts, may be set down at some six pounds per 

 acre. This gives a gra.ss capable of feeding four or five 

 sheep, as just stated, and which, after eight years or so, is in 

 fit condition for the plough. 



As soon as possible after the grass is sown, the new clear- 

 ings or paddocks must be fenced in. Various kinds of fences 

 are employed, according to the special requirements and the 

 comparative cost in each particular locality. There is the 

 post aud rail, of heavy split kauri or puriri timber, This is 

 the most cUu-able, and the strongest protection against either 

 cattle or pigs, but it is usually the cost liest, owing chiefly 

 to the difiiculties of transit. On new bush lands it is seldom 

 possible to employ to bullock-sled, unless a roail is laid down 



first, so that transport must be effected by the pioneer's own 

 labour, " humping," as the term goes. Post and rail can be 

 better employed on open lauds, where, whatever the mate- 

 ria! used, it must be brought from a distance. Wire can 

 scarcely be made to keep wild pigs out, though it will kuep 

 sheep in. Wattle, and some other kinds, are serviceable 

 enough, but only used where the material is to hand. But 

 the mainstiiy of the pioneer farmer in the bush is the 

 simple rougli take fence. Tlie material is always near, 

 often close to the line of proposed fencing, and it can 

 be handled and humped with comparative ease. * * * 

 Such a fence is pig-proof aud cattle-proof, and should last 

 even or eight years without furtiier care ; if the stakes are 

 of white ti-tree it will be good for some twelve years. It 

 may bo estimated to cost thirty to forty pounds a mils. 



The settler must now proceed, if he have not already 

 done so, to |)ut up a stock yard. For this purpose large 

 and ponderous posts and rails of roughly split kauri or 

 puriri must be used. These have to he very substantial 

 and strong, as they will have to withstand the rushes of 

 mobs of half-wild cattle. Perhips the pioneer may have 

 to go to the heavy bash, and with axe, wedges, hammer, 

 and augers, procure his own material ; but in mcst districts 

 there are men who employ themselves in splitting rails, 

 aud similar work, and who will furnish the required items. 

 The space enclosed will vary in extent according to the 

 size it is proposed to keep the herd at, and will open by 

 slip-pauels into one of the paddocks for convenience in 

 drafting. The:i there will have to be a boarded slie 1, with 

 bails for the milch cows, and also a hog pen. By-and-by, 

 too a sheep pen or two must be made : for as soon as 

 he ha8 any grass ready, the settler will get up his fifty 

 or a hundred Liucolns or Leicesters as the nucleus of his 

 flock. If their increase does not keep pace with the ex- 

 tension of his clearings year by year, he will buy more ; 

 for there i.'j nothing so profitable as sheep to the pioneer. 



The pigs are seldom kept for profit but for home 

 consumption, pork forming the principal item of food. 

 They ruu about the clearing , and are penned up to fatten 

 before killing. The settler must be his own butcher and 

 dry-salter, of course ; in fact he has to rely on himself for 

 every thing needful to be done. He and his chums— and 

 family, if he has one — live chiefly on their own produce, 

 tea, sugar, fl^.ur, salt, and tob,acco being the only necess- 

 aries that the township slore should supply. Mutton will 

 alternate with pork when the sheep become sufficiently 

 numerous; fowls, turkeys, and ducks are also items of 

 the commissariat. On rooni of the house will be turned 

 into a rough-and-ready dairy and butter and cheese shoald 

 be plentiful, as these ought to soon become a weekly 

 marketable commodity. The tidal waters will yield bound- 

 less supplies of fish for the mei'e trouble ot dropping a 

 hook into the water, and the beach has its systers ind 

 cockles. This is the case as far as the tide reaches, pos- 

 sibly sixty n.iles from the sea in some localities. The 

 fresli-water creeks contain only eels and a small fish like 

 whitebait. In the bush there are pheasants, imported, but 

 now numerous; also fat pigeons at certain seasons, and a 

 few other bird.s; that may occasionally be met with and 

 are worth conking. There is also abundance of wild honsy, 

 which will afford meid, or " honey-beer" to those who 

 take the trouble of brewing it. For vegetables the garden 

 mu=t be depended ou. 



The pioneer farmer's sarden is an item of some impor- 

 tance, and he will not grudge the labour he bestows upon it. 

 Potatnes aud kumetri, the native sweet potato, are grown 

 in considerable quantities, as these are a main article of 

 diet. The garden enclosure contains several acres, possibly 

 round the house, hut at any rate where the soil is richest 

 and the stumps fewest. Here are grown various useful 

 vegetables, probably an acre or two of n.aize, some melons 

 and pumpkins. The last is not only for the table, but also 

 for the pigs ; sheep and cattle may have a nibble too in 

 dry weather. Then there is the orchard, which mav be a 

 part of tbc garden or a separate enclosure. Many sorts of 

 fruit are grown, according to the time the settler can afford 

 to bestow in planting them. Apples fruit heavil\ after 

 the third year from planting, but are fatally liable to blight. 

 Figs, pears, plums, cherries, oranges, lemons, loquals, and 

 sundry otheis flourish luxuriantly, and are loaded with fruit. 

 Peaches of several kinds, apricots, and nectarines, are com- 

 mon, the first being used in large quantities for fattening 

 pigs. Even bananas can be grown in the north, but will not 



