To the Editor of the New Zealand Spectator.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume I, Issue 33, 24 May 1845, Page 3

To the Editor of the New Zealand Spectator.

Sir, —Permit me, through the medium of your paper, to call attention in the proper quarter, to the number of soldiers belonging to the late arrivals, who are to be met with about the town in a state of intoxication. Such conduct is annoying to the inhabitants, and is calculated to lower the soldiers in the eyes of the natives, who entertain a great contempt for a drunken man, and call him a fool (porangi). lam sure a hint from you will be sufficient to prevent further cause for complaint. I am Sir, your obedient servant, Wellington, May 23, 1845. An Observer.

We insert the followiug letter from a practical farmer, which we have no doubt will interest our agricultural readers. In addition to our correspondent's suggestion, we maymention another remedy which we are informed has been never known j to fail, viz. — to steep the wheat for twenty- four i &ours in a strong brine pickle, similar to that fused in salting beef or pork, stirring the wheat I occasionally, and skimming off the light grains, '] when the wheat is spi'ead out to dry, sift over it ' some powdered lime. — Ed.

PREVENTION OF SMUT IN WHEAT. To the Editor of the New Zealand Spectator. "Wellington, May 13, 1845. Sir, — -As the time for sowing wheat has now arrived, and many inquiries are being made respecting the prevention of smut, probably you will allow me room in your columnsforj the following remarks upon that subject. It is well known that smut is a vegetable matter, a species of fungus, infecting the seed kernels by contagion ; but how it ascends from the root to the new ear, is unknown ; we merely know that it is the case : of the modus operandi we are entirely in the dark. A very few ears of smutty wheat will discolour, and otherwise injure a bag of flour : how essential then is it to provide a remedy for chis pest to the farmer and miller. The remedy I propose (sulphate of copper) is of easy application, and certain in its effects. The following particulars, if followed, will well repay any little trouble they may occasion :—: — 1 lb. of sulphate of copper (or blue vitriol) is sufficient to dress a quarter (eight bushels) of wheat, which should be done as follows : — Reduce the vitriol to powder, and pour a tea-kettle-full of boiling water upon it; when the powder is dissolved, put the liquor into a tub containing one or two bushels of wheat upon which has been poured three or four paili-full of cold water ; this should be well stirred with a stick, and the light grains, as they rise, skimmed off, and thrown away. The wheat may steep in this mixture two or more hours; it must t then be strained, and spread upon a boarded floor to ' dry ; when sufficiently dry, it may be taken for use. As i the grain will absorb a little of the liquor, it may be ad--risable lonly* to "put half Of tile vitriol with the first steeping, the remainder being added afterwards, when probably another pailfull of water may be required. This remedy is now used by many of the best agriculturists of the present day. I gave it a fair trial the last year, by using it with some of the filthiest wheat I ever beheld ; full of smut. The cure was effectual; I had an excellent crop, the grain perfectly clean, and as fine a sample as I ever saw. This can be confirmed by the man who sowed it, the one who reaped it, and the one who pitched it ; the latter observing that "he had never pitched such heavy wheat before." Trusting, ere long, that smut in wheat will be as rare as I am sorry to say it is now common, I am, Sir, your obedient servant, B.