CULTIVATION OF TOBACCO.

New Zealander, Volume XVIII, Issue 1721, 6 September 1862, Page 5

CULTIVATION OF TOBACCO.

To the Editor of the New-Zkalander,

Sin, —As September is the proper month for sowing tobacco seed, and a number of persons are making enquiries as to its mode of cultivation, perhaps a lew practical remarks on the subject may not be uninteresting to a number of your readers. To commence on a small scale, say, quarter of an acre, procure four strung boxes about two feet square and twelve inches deep; have them filled to within an inch of the top with light rich sandy loam, and make the surface perfectly level and smooth; theu take a little seed between "the finger aud thumb and sprinkle it evenly over the surface; be careful not to sow too great a quantity in a box, the seeds are so small that about an eighth" part of an ounce will grow a suficient quantity of plants for an acre. After sowingtheseed sift some fine earth over the top until the seed is coTeTed to the depth of nearly a quarter of an inch ; place the boxes in a warm, sheltered situation, and water them over with a tine rosed watering-pot; the watering must be continued at intervals to keep the soil moist in the boxes; if the plants appear too close set in the boxes they must be thinned to about an inch apart; when the leaves of the young plants have attained the size of a half-crown they are ready for transplanting; the land intended for the plantation should be rich, deep worked, and well pulverised ; the plants should be three feet apart, the planting should be performed in the morning or evening; water the plants well before removing them from the boxes; with a sharp-pointed trowel proceed to take up the plants, singly, into a shallow box or tin dish, leaving a little soil on the roots of each, the line being set and tho ground marked at the given distance; with the trowel make holes large enough to receive the plants, and set them in carefully so as not to remove the soil that was taken jf with the roots; use the trowel to smooth and leverche surface round the stem of each plant; this done, the plants must be well watered an I shaded with a piece of shingle or bark resting on pieces of clods placed round the plants; in about four days roots will be sufficiency established to remove the shades; those plants that have missed can be filled up from those that remain in the boxes; the principal labour now is to keep the surface well stirred among the plants, and also to keep them free from slugs and caterpillars; a little hot lime dusted round the plants in the evening will settle the slugs ; caterpillars must be handpicked ; the proper time for topping the plants is indicated by the blossom making its appearance; remove all decayed and ragged leaves from the bottom of the stem, and with the finger and thumb nail pinch the top ot each plant, leaving onlv from seven to nine of the best leaves on each plant which are intended for the crop. Particular attention must now be paid to the pinching; all sprouts that appear must be removed, as the future quality of the manufactured article depends grently on the full development of the leaves; the variety best adapted for manu&tituring purposes is the Virginian (Nicotiana tab I may state that, last year, I cultivated afaotttfs&ity plants of the above named variety; the result convinced me that the soil and climate ot this Province are both suitable for the successful growth of tobacco. The foregoing directions arc applicable to any extent of a tobacco plantation, with this difference, that on a larger scale the seeds are sown in beds of well prepared soil. If any of your readers are acquainted with the procsss of manufacturing tobacco, perhaps they will be kind enough to favour us wijh directions through the columns of your journal. Andrew Mclvwin. Matakana, August 29th, 1862. To the Editor of the New-Zkalaxder. Sm,-We, the undersigned, having observed in your columns ot the 23rd from your own correspondent in Coromandel, in which the meetings held by the miners have been misrepresented. At the meeting held on Thursday various cases were heard, when the following proposition was put to the meeting and carried by a lar-e mrjority:—" That in the opinion of this meeting Mr. Turner is an unfit and improper person to represent a Gold Commissioner on this gold-field." A counter motion having been proposed and seconded, the meeting agreed with the minority to appoint six of those present as a committee to draw up a petition expressive of the dissatisfactory working of the Gold Field's Regulations (if any) "of Coromandel, and to offer suggestions for their reform. The meeting of Saturday having been called for the purpose of receiving the report of the Committee, which was then laid on the table, unanimously agreed too, and has since been numerously signed, and is now forwarded to the proper quarter. Your correspondent states that the meeting hoped that Mr. Turner should be made a J.P.; he'also states that the aggrieved parties publicly apologised to Mr. Turner, which are altogether falsehoods. We hope von will guard your own correspondent for the future from writing such false statements in any public journal, as it is liable to mislead the public. Yours, &c, T. Gemmill, Robert Campion, James Ingles. Coromandel, 27 th August, 1802. To the Editor of the Wellington Independent. [Per favor of the New-Zealander.] Sin, —The hon. member for Napier, Mr. Colenso, in the House of It presentati»e», on the Bth August, brought forward a motion regarding the "supervision of the serial called the Maori Messenger," which was seconded by the hon. member 'or Taranaki, Mr. J. C. Richmond." whose speech on the occasion, as published in the local newspapers, is very far from being creditable, either to his intellect or to bis heart. It may not be out of place to remark here, ih it the "serial" is under the " supervision" of His Excellency's advisers, and that three out of the foui articles, mote particularly complained of by Mr. Colenso, were supplied by the Ministry, and ordered by them to be published in the Messenger, which I shall notice in a subsequent letter on Mr. Colenso'a criticisms ; in the meantime, I shall refer chiefly to Mr. Richmond's strictures.

Uy a reference to Mr. Richmond'* speech, as recorded in tlie Southern Cross of the 25th August, ■upporting the motion for the suoer»Mion of the Maori Messenger, it will be seen that the hon. gentleman had so far forgotten his petition «s to have laid iiside the dignitj ot his high otiice to attack my character ; and being "a great master of ambiguity," of which he accuses me, his dark insinuations are cunningly adjusted " in good set terms," apparently to escape legal consequences. Here are some of his dark sayings :—" It had been rumoured that the person in charge of the paper (the Maori Messenger) wa» a p-.-rson who stood in a very peculiar and equivocal attitude towards the Government and the Natives of late; a p> rson who is a great master of ambiguity, several of whose letters of a doubtfully loyal character, addre-sed to Natives during the late war, were to be seen filed in the Native Office." The "letters of a doubtfully loyal character," of which the lion, member lor Taranaki insinuates in the House ot Representatives that 1 am the writer, are said to have been " filed in the Native Office." I am daily in the Native Office, and I have seen only one letter which lias been printed, and no man dared to affirm that it was disloyal, no, not even the Duke of Newcistle, to whom it was sen:, in oider, that if possible, his Grace in England might ferret some disloyalty out of the Maori sayings and sing which the letter contains. It is well known that Mr. J. C. Richmond, at the time in question had full access to the records of the Native office, and could have easily dragged forth from their hiding place the " doubtfully loyal" communications he ambiguously refers to; but he preferred that the V letters" should still remain in their alleged place, ol'concealment, with t|te fujl oonyietiori that as sonn.

as they were seen, if such a sight were possible, the "mystery" would be dispelled, and with it, his dark insinuations, and defamatory charges. That no such disloyal letters ever existed, is, perhaps, too well known to Mr. Richmond, and being fearful, before the honorable House, of committing himself; he is obliged to call in the aid of a qualifying " if,'' or a vague " rumour" to shelter himself from the indignation of the hon. members, witnessing his cruel onsets on my character, who otherwise would have called him to order.

Again, Mr. Richmond insinuates that I am indebted to the Government periodical for the dissemination " through the whole country of misconceptions of the most dangerous kind." Mr. Richmond is remarkably fond of generally indirect and vague statements. To particularize would not be convenient. He pretends to be unaware of what is universally known, that I have long had a printing establishment, and that the very excellent press purchased by the Maori has long been under my solo control; and that I now can, and could at any time, have employed the press in " stereotyping, and scattering through the whole country misconceptions of the most dangerous kind;" but I have not done so; I have, on the contrary, " scattered through the country" during tho last three years, what was far more dreaded by the lion. Mr. Richmond, incontrovertible facts, and the most momentous truths.

The next count in the hon. gentleman's charges against me is the receipt on my part of what he is pleased to call " hush money." Mr. Richmond is no doubt measuring me by his own small sou), fancying that I, like him, perhaps, may be bought with moncv. Did ho not know when he ventured to defame mo in the House of Representatives, that my well-known antecedents nnmistakcably refute his calumnious charges? If I had valued money, I should not have voluntarily relinquished my yearly salary as I did when I resigned my office to the Government, which oflice it urged me afterwards to resume. The Government itself has treated iCr. Richmond's series of defamatory charges, and tho charges of those who follow in his wake, as a nullity, by requesting me to resume my official duties. No better refutation can be adduced against arguments of" this master of ambiguity," nor can a more complete vindication of my character be exhibited before the public, than my re-appointment to oflice in the serrico of the Now Zealand Government, C 0. Davis. Auckland, September 2, 18G2.