GARDENING.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 300, 19 September 1888, Page 2

GARDENING.

Farmers are proverbially bad gardeners, and of none is the saying more true than of New Zealand farmers. It is often the case that the most unkept and untidy part of a farm is that immediately round the very homestead. There is no neatly kept lawn,* and there are no> ornamental' shrubs or trees, but only a few dingy r ragged blue gums and straggling currant and gooseberry trees, with a plentiful crop of docks growing among them. Nothing gives a worse impression of a property to a stranger, or a greater appearance of slovenliness and even poverty on the part of the proprietor than the sight of mud,, pools of of water, weeds and broken fences round . about a farmhouse, Apart from appenrance | there is comfort, convenience, and ovem, : profit to be derived from a -well-kept garden Where there is a large family, or where there are several men kept o-n a place, a> supply of vegetables in saving flour and" ni^t amply repays the expense an di trouble of their growth. It is not difficult to keep even a tolerably large garden in order, and the work required is not very great if everything is taken in time, but a little neglect sends everythm^wrong. The omission of balf-an-houris wo^'k with the Dutch hoe at the proper time aMpws a crop of weeds to grow up which mk& afterwards require days of digging and rowing' The Chinese market gardeners in the to^os have proved that there is no difficulty in? 1 this climate in having a plentiful supply of vegetables all the year round, and there is no reason why the country settlers should not have the same. Farmers should make their profit in many ways— a pound here and a pound there. It is not safe for them to have all their eggs in one,, or even two baskets. Their main articles of produce, grain and stock, fluctuate very much in price, and they should pay proper attention to the growth of minor thing?. All the fruits of a temperate climate can be grown to perfection, and it seems almost disgraceful that such fruit as apples should stil} be imported. There need be hardly any expense in starting an apple orchard. Tho planting of forest trees has also been much neglected. It is welKknown how some of the proprietors in the Highlands of Scotland have turned what was almost worthless health land into a source of great profit. The woods of the Duke of Athol near Dunkeld, in Perthshire are an example of this. One of the Duke's ancestors made large plantations, chiefly of oak and larch, from the yearly thinning of which a large revenue has for long been obtained. What has there been done on a large scale our settlers might do on a smaller one. Both oak and larch thrive well and grow fast in this colony, and will always be of value. The Government has attempted, but without much success to encourage the planting of trees. No inducement in its power to hold out could, one would think,, be so strong as the prospect of profit not only from the sale of timber but from the value added to propeity by plantations.