OF NEW ZEALAND. 
77 
Society’s Estate at the Waimate is principally 
composed, is of a light friable nature ; but very 
adhesive, clinging pertinaciously to the plough 
and other implements, and rendering their work- 
ing difficult and tedious. The soil is of a reddish 
colour, and of an earthy nature ; in depth, gene- 
rally from six to ten inches. It contains a super- 
abundance of vegetable matter, in an undecom- 
posed state. It is sour, and requires much work- 
ing and exposing to the air, before it is fit for 
wheat, or will bear a good crop. Could it, how- 
ever, as has not hitherto been the case, be ex- 
posed for some length of time to the action of the 
atmosphere, and, in its broken-up state, to the 
showers with which we are so frequently visited, 
the land would soon become in a better working 
form, and the adhesive nature of the clods would 
be changed. It is well known that water expands 
from 40^ upwards, of Fahrenheit, and of course 
that it contracts downwards in the same ratio ; 
and that, when it reaches 40^, it begins again to 
expand, till it arrives at 32®. Water, consequently, 
removes the adhesive nature of the clods, and 
reduces them to powder, either by expanding 
itself through heat above 40®, or through cold 
from 40® to 32®, when it becomes ice, and more 
suddenly expands ; still, however, by its binding 
qualities as ice, keeping the clod together till a 
thaw commences. In our warm summers, there- 
fore, broken-up land, when of a clayey nature, 
will derive much benefit from being exposed ; as. 
