A NEW INDUSTRY IN AUCKLAND.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume I, Issue 41, 14 October 1867, Page 3

A NEW INDUSTRY IN AUCKLAND.

It will be in the recollection of onr readers that we noticed, last autumn, the fact that Mr C. T. Wren, of the Mount Hobson Nursery, Kemuera, had gathered the first crop of American broom corn giown to any considerable extent in the Colony. The broom material, after the seed was saved, was sold to Messrs. Smith and Mandeno, of the Auckland Tub nnd.Uucket Factory, Mount Eden, who Manufactured it into brooms, which met with a ready sale. Indeed, the demand has been so considerable as to lead to the presumption that a greater breadth will be sown in the coming season. It will be seen, by an advertisement in another place, that Mr Wren is prepared to supply the seed of his last year’s crop at one shilling per pound, and, if taken in quantile, at a proportionate reduction. We recommend our fellow-settlers to try this crop. There is a very considerable import of American brooms; but we may avoid this expenditure, and grow the raw material, and manufacture sufficient for colonial use, and for export to the Australian Colonies, where there is a large and regular market. We find that one of the Wanganui settlers, recently returned from North America, has introduced the broom corn, and it is likely to be cultivated in that district. But Southern settlers need not send out of the Colony for seed inasmuch as they may procure it at once, of the best quality, from our esteemed fellow-colonist, Mr Wren. If New Zealand is ever to become a truly prosperous countrv, it is by promoting enterprise of this kind, which enables us to supply our own wants, and take advantage of adjacent markets, to the exclusion of foreign produce, at the same tune giving employment to a large number of hands.

Mr Wren estimates that lie has been amply paid by last year’s crop, assuming- even that the seed is altogether used as I'oed. He Las tested the fattening qualities of the millet or broom corn seed, and finds, in the case of a horse which got it as a substitute for maize that he is in better condition than ordinary at this season. A pig, fed almost exclusively on the seed, fattens rapidly, and, after slaughtering, produces very excellent pork. Poultry eat it greedily. These facts ought to encourage the cultivation of the American broom corn. There will always be a demand for the broom material, and the surplus seed is a useful and economic cattle feed, whilst the straw may be used for litter.-—“ Hew Zealsud Herald.”