162 



H0CK1NGS' GARDEN MANUAL, 



namely, the manner in which the plant casts its seed, 

 Some sorts ripen few seeds at a time, and shed them 

 directly, by which much of the crop is lost ; others are 

 so difficult to shed, that the seed is injured in thrash- 

 ing. To obtain the greatest combination of good 

 qualities, Dr. Bancroft, after numerous experiments, 

 by hybridising the plant, succeeded in raising a variety 

 which he considered to be worth preserving, and, with 

 that object, the writer grows a few plants of it. 



As the tree would grow and produce heavy crops on 

 sandy wastes, otherwise sterile and valueless, and there 

 is a ready market for the oil, it offers some inducement 

 to utilise such positions in this manner. The return 

 would be about <£10 per acre. 



ARTIFICIAL GRASSES. 



With the occupation of the Agricultural Reserves^ 

 it is to be hoped a more perfect system of farming will 

 gradually be introduced. Hitherto, it has been com- 

 mon to find men, after a few desultory attempts, relin- 

 quishing cultivation, because they made more profit 

 from their few heads of cattle (feeding upon unsold 

 Crown lands) than they did from the cultivation of the 

 soil ; but the sort of farming we want, and which 

 would yield the best return to the farmer, would in- 

 clude the growth of fodder for the cattle, that they 

 might supply manure to increase the crops. Is is the 

 opinion of the writer that every farm should have a 

 certain number of cattle, sheep, and pigs, the manure 

 from which would double, and in many cases treble, 

 the produce of the fields. No farm can be carried on 

 successfully for any lengthened period without manure. 

 The same crops year after year impoverish the soil, 



