Ferdinand von Mueller

1

Letter not found. The text given here is from 'Kardella Village Settlement', Korumburra times, 19 June 1893, p. 2 (B93.06.03).

To James Stirling, Esq., F.L.S., F.G.S., etc.

In reply to your letter of yesterday,

2

Letter not found.

it seems to me best that, in the first instance, at this cool season, that hardy kitchen vegetables should be sown at the new South Gippsland settlements,

3

Kardella was one of the 'Village Communities' established in the South Gippsland hills under the Settlements of Lands Act, 1893, partly as a form of unemployment relief. It was not without controversy: see Scates (1997), chapter 4 ('"The new Arcadia": communal settlements on the land'); see also 'J. P.', 'The Kardella Village Settlement', Australasian (Melbourne), 10 February 1894, p. 7.

and on a large scale. This would afford ample food supply; and for the surplus not required locally, there would always be a ready market in Melbourne, and perhaps nearer. In the eighth edition of my Select Plants. p. 533-34, I have indicated the principal elimentary

4

Typesetter ' s misreading of alimentary?

plants, and at page 574, those which yield in the first season, and the most important of these are indicted by an asterisk (*). In my small establishment, which has no contingency vote, no seeds magazine can be kept, and no collector can be employed; but the Agricultural Department has large votes, and would likely be able to purchase the requisite quantity of the kitchen vegetable seed usually kept by Melbourne seedsmen. I shall be able to send you within the next few days seed of Indian millets, Indian pulses and other seeds of economic South Asiatic plants, freshly received; but they ought to be sown only after the frosty nights have passed. I have repeatedly — also in recent times — provided seeds for the Royal Horticultural Garden at Burnley, near Melbourne, so that at this planting season seedling of various kinds, suitable for South Gippsland, would be available there, more especially as the said gardens are subsidised by the Government. Mr. Neilsen,

5

i.e. Nielson.

the experienced curator, could provide also plants of strawberry, gooseberry, red and black currants, raspberry, all ordinary kinds of orchard trees, cuttings of many sorts of vines, figs, etc., in sufficient quantity. The cereals have already received sufficient attention to enable bread-stuffs to be raised locally. Select cultures of various kinds can follow; but the main staple plants for sustenance must be relied upon in the first instance. Poultry should also be a great help to these young settlements, which for large pastoral stock may not be a fitting place. It would be well if I could have a personal call from you, so that all these important subjects might be discussed viva voce. —

Melbourne, June 10, 1893.