HINTS ON AGRICULTURE.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 46, 21 January 1843, Page 184

HINTS ON AGRICULTURE.

'■ Potatoes. — Of vegetable substances that change ; their qualities for better or worse, when trans- , planted from colder to warmer, or from warmer to i colder countries, none are more conspicuous than i the potato. The English potato, which produces ' mealy edible roots in the somewhat similar latii tudes of Tasmania and New Zealand, and even in the elevated hill grounds of some parts of New [ South Wales, becomes generally so tough and '. waxy in the less elevated lands of the latter, as to [ be in a few generations nearly unfit for use. The ' way in which new varieties of potatoes are obtained is the same as that for obtaining new varieties of apples, pears, grapes, &c, namely, by sowing of the seed, each of which produces a different variety, so that a good edible variety, suit1 able to the climate, is eventually obtained. I have 1 seen as fine edible potatoes grown in Chili, Peru, and Java, as any epicure could desire ; the former i in a similar latitude to the southern portion of New South Wales, and the two former in tropical latitudes; but these were the products of seed ■ sown in those climates, selecting, of course, the . best edible variety for future propagation. Should, . therefore, no Australian be disposed to raise a [ variety suitable to the climate, by means of seedsowing, Chili or Peru have only to be applied to | for a supply, as the Chilian potatoes would, no doubt, suit well the colder Australian localities, 1 and the Peruvian the warmer. — Cunningham's Hints to Australian Emigrants. The First Principles of Agriculture. — ' The first principles of agriculture, which are shown by the best practice, are few. They may 1 be stated to be these : make and keep the land \ perfectly dry and clean, or free from weeds — * make and keep the soil which is too adhesive or ; too loose, of such a friable nature as will make it , receive, retain, and transmit moisture, and thus . fit it to produce the most luxuriant state of vege- . tation — restore to the soil, as a manure, in a state of decay, the greater part, if not the whole [ of the produce after it has been consumed by sheep or other stock. Never manure any land r till every weed is exterminated, for weeds grow [ most luxuriantly in the soil to which they are ' natural ; if any of them are left they will outgrow ' the plant you intend to cultivate, and take up "the 1 greatest quantity of the manure laid on the land. '' — Morton's Nature and Property of Soilt. ! Saving S«kd. — Our old friend, Hillier, the ' cottager at Combe, has expressed a with to call ' the attention of our agricultural readers to the • results of his experiments and observations resi pecting the description of seeds most proper for t raising grain and other field and garden produce He asserts that he has, by experiment, clearly es-

tablished the fact, that plants intended, for seed should always be cut down before they . are fully ripe, in fact, as soon as the seed has attained its full size and plumpness. The difference; \n a crop of grain raised from seed so taken, Hillier asserJ%. will be from (Hie to two sacks per acre more tnfjfc-' from seed allowed fo become hard and dry in thw standing plant. — Salisbury Journal.