t soils;
moreover, it is always needing attention. We have no time to spare for
clipping and laying and all that sort of thing. Labour has to be
severely economized on pioneer farms.

Of course, all the time these things were proceeding, we were
simultaneously busied with other matters. Chiefly were we providing for
our own immediate sustenance. The pigs were bred and well looked after,
fattened, butchered, made into pork, or cured. Poultry was also
carefully regarded, especially the turkeys, which are so valuable in
keeping down crickets, and make such an important addition to the
commissariat. Then there was the garden.

We have several gardens at present, as we follow the custom of enclosing
any particularly choice bit of land, and using it for our next year's
crop of potatoes, kumera, or maize. Some of these enclosures are
afterwards turned into the general grass, or are converted into
orchards, and so on.

The first garden we made was set apart for the purpose directly after
the shanty was finished, and certain of our party were engaged
exclusively upon it for the time being. It comprehended two or three
acres on the shoulder of a low range, and was once the site of a Maori
kainga, or village. Hence, the scrub that covered it was not of large
growth, while the soil is exceptionally loose and rich, consisting of
black mould largely intermixed with shells. This space we cleared and
fenced in. Then we went to work with spade and pickaxe and mattock.

We cut drains through the garden, and laid it off into sections. These
were planted with potatoes, kumera, melons, pumpkins, onions, and
maize. Digging was, of course, a hard job, the ground being full of
roots. We threw out these as we dug, or left them; it does not matter
much, for as long as we just covered the seeds anyhow, the rest was of
small concern. After a crop or two the ground gets into better
condition, and what we put in thrives just as well among the stumps as
not.

Round the sides of the garden we planted peach-stones, which have now
developed into an avenue of fine trees. We also set cuttings of
fig-trees, apples, pears, loquats, and oranges, obtained from some
neighbour.

Thus, before we had been a year on the land, we had gone a good way
towards providing the bulk of our food-supply for the future. We have
since seldom had to buy anything but our flour, tea, sugar, salt and
tobacco, so far as important and absolutely needful items are concerned.