a
great wine country, producing an article which may vie with the
ordinary produce of European wine countries, and which is vastly
superior to the majority of the trash which is sold in England under
the name of wine. Several associations have teen formed for the purpose
of extending the wine manufacture, amongst which the Hunter River
Vineyard Association is the most prominent. "Wines of excellent
character have already reached England, and when social industry shall
have somewhat recovered from the shock sustained by it, in consequence
of the gold discovery, the growth of wine for the European market will
become one of the staples of the colony.
At
present, however, the chief crops grown are wheat, maize, barley, and
potatoes. Garden vegetables of all kinds are produced luxuriantly, and
are very cheap in the towns. Green peas are always in season, winter
and summer. The seed time for wheat is from the beginning of March to
the end of June,— the harvest is from November to January. Reaping is
effected by cutting the ears from the straw sufficiently low to secure
the whole of them ; the straw being considered of no value, as manure
is never used, except for garden and orchard purposes. Maize, grown
chiefly for feeding horses—one of which almost everyone possesses—is
sown in October and November, and reaped in May and June; after which
the land may be sown with wheat, so as to obtain two crops in one year.
Barley is sown in June as well as oats, for the purpose of being cut
green, as a substitute for hay, for which purpose green barley is also
used. Potatoes may be planted at any time of the year, April, May,
June, December, and January, being the best periods. Turnips, onions,
and peas, may also be sown at any time of the year. In the north, sweet
potatoes, yams, arrowroot, cotton, and New Zealand flax, are also
beginning to be cultivated. The cultivation of the latter valuable
article is remarkable. In New Zealand itself, it is the weed of the
country, and it would be difficult to find, from one end of the
islands to the other, a spot—the actual forest itself excepted—which is
