CORRESPONDENCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume III, Issue 106, 15 January 1853, Page 10

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the Lytielton Times, Sir, —Perhaps you will think with methatwhatever can be told to encourage the emigrants to this colony is not out of place, hut will be acceptable as a means to invigorate their hopes. It cannot be denied that our first sowings disappointed our expectations, both in the garden and in the field; no doubt this is owing to a want of sweetness in the land, it havin°" been so long without exposure to the sun, a "fallow being necessary to its bearing any crop of course I mean a luxuriant crop. But are we sure of better after the fallow ? Let any one look at the crops of wheat on Mr. G. Bnttan's farm, or Mr. Bray's. I say nothing of Mr, Deans' as he has been here so long, but I mention those gentlemen as theirs is the second crop, and finer wheat I have never seen in England; in fact, there, a crop such as Mr. Brittau's, is very rare. I understand that srentleman will thrash out an acre in the field in order to ascertain the number of quarters per acre. It has every appearance of yielding from 40 to 50 bushels per acre. No" one in first looking at the soil would consider that it could possibly grow such a crop of wheat—it is so very light. It would be pronounced a barley and root soil, but not calculated for wheat; so

in addition to its being superexcellent for barley and roots, it is also calculated to produce the finest crops of wheat. Both Mr. Bray and Mr. Brittari have second crops of wheat which are infinitely better than the first: no doubt there are other gentlemen whose crops are equally good, but I have not had the pleasure of seeing them. As to the second year's crops in the gardens, they are most luxuriant; instead of the sickly and stunted growth of the first, they are of the finest colour and most abundant.' No doubt sheep and cattle will most early pay here, but there can be no doubt that agriculture will also pay, and especially for some few years. I much regret to see so many gentlemen having their hundred acres, with which they are doing nothing. This is against the colony—for the man who cultivates a single acre, by which he adds to the common-stock, is a much more useful colonist than he who holds 500 acres,but cultivates none of them. It will be found of the first advantage to plough all that can be plouged in the summer, to have the sweetening of the sun and air for autumn ingYour obedient servant, Homo. Christchurch, January 13, 1853.