TE AWAMUTU.

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2422, 19 January 1888, Page 2

TE AWAMUTU.

Tin-: C.vn::;pn.i..\!i L'i.acpi:.—Once more there is an invasion of the grain crops by tins pest. Many families round the district are cutting their oats before it is ripe to save it from Hie eat»i pillars. In one case they have attacked the wheat; usually they ou.y .-iii;- 'h" leaves of this crop, but in this instant;-: ■ '■. \ ■•' -'.re.:-

ing the heads. A-- t!,-> ..a:., ,'p-n ':- more mischief will be d.me, so that the only way to get any good from the crop is to cut it at once. ft is so long since there has been such a visitation that farmers had bei/un to think they had seen the last of them. They then complained of the small bird nuisance, and a great nnisaii'-e t.hoy wvi\ but it hiw 'ie?u piovi-d that they are not an nnnii.vi uvh. for-'since they were destiny d in such numbers by poisoning the cat.e-pillai plague has shown itself. Much a- we all complained of the sparrows, no dout.it after the example of this year we shall be glad to see them hack again. A few years ago the caterpillars suddenly made their appearance in a paddock of wheat, they soon went through it and out into the next field, which was in maize ; when in the wheat the birds could not get at them properly, hut in the maize they were easily got at. No sooner did they come out of the wdieat field than thousands of sparrows appeared and all day long they could be seen flying down on the maize and back on to the fence again, every time a bird rose from the maize he had a caterpillar with him. In spite of the countless myriads of inseots they got no further into the maize than a few feet, for every one was taken by the birds. Standing off from the crop and looking down it across the track of the caterpillars their work could plainly be seen in the torn and ragged leaves. Were it not for the much abused sparrow's the crop would have been utterly ruined. We cried against those birds at one time, but shall not do so again, for though they are severe on crops and gardens one can forgive them for the good they do in keeping down a worse plague. Granted that the birds do a lot of harm to grain crops just showing through the ground, the caterpillars do ten times as much mischief when the crop is ripening; besides, if the ground is rolled with a heavy roller, the sparrows can do little in the way of pulling up the young sprouts. Disi.'OVKiiY of Silvf.k.—Mr I>. Coghlan showed us a piece of luialgmi about the size of a haricot bean, which was the result of washing one dish of dirt, taken from a hole three feet deep on his land at To Uahu, and some who were present and underst»od such things said it was rich for one dish. Some little time since he had some dirt from the surface essayed, with the following result: Gold, a trace; silver, -1-jwts Hgrs to the ton. Mr Coghlan says the deeper he goes the more silver there is He has invited some people to go on to his place, and dig and wash some dishes of the stuff for themselves. They are not to take any from the hole he has ting, but are to dig in a fresh place.