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Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume 1, Issue 6, 15 March 1849, Page 3

Auckland, 13th March, 1849. Dear Friends, —This is the first time I have written to you in the newspaper-but perhaps it will not be the last, I was up the Waikato and Waipa the other day. I was much pleased to see so much wheat cultivated, nnd such a desire for wheat mills; but if you wish to improve in this good work, you must take more pains, than at present, in your reaping, which is very bad. In several plates, ft great quantity has been wasted by being loft to get too ripe, and by careless men ■who cut it down. But the gre.uost evil of all is the neglect to the stubblo ground, which should be turned up and well dug, at once. ]>o this no:u, immediately, and your land, which is very rich for the growth of wheat, ivill give you a better crop next summer than

it did this. 1% it deep, and you will 1)0 icpaid many fold for your labour. i\laWe good your fences liy the spring of the year, and you will be able to live in peace with your neighbours, and hu happy while your crops are growing. Look well to digging the ground deep— »noiv, tit oncc t helore the wet weather comes on, for ground is belter when worked in dry weather than in wet. You should get some fresh seed, if you can, from your distant ftiends. The waste of wheat would be more than enough for seed to send in exchange for what you get from a distance. I intend to tell you all about smut in wheat, and the cure for it ; and about the quantity of seed to be sown on an acre of land in different months, and of the different kinds of wheat. Hut what is the use of it until you have tho ground ready; Look to the ground, for that is the source of the good, if well managed, and the evil, if badly managed. I There is one thing more now to warn you about, which is the rats. Ifyou do not mind, they will have more than their share. A European told inc hu had saved his slock nt Rangeaowhia, by fencing it round with timber eo close, that the rats could not get through. Rut the safest of ull ways is to thrash the whole, and store it. Your friend, CHAS. W. Licar.

Fhibnd l ?, Maoiuks, — You Imve now got many horses, and you are daily purchasing more. In a year or so you will be using these horses lo turn up llio ground before you plant your wheat or potatoes. Now I wish you to know, before you get more horses, that in some countries the people prefer oxen to horses for preparing the ground for the seed. The reasons given for this preference nre the following : Ist. Oxen are much cheaper than horses. 2nd. Oxen nre less expensive, and less troublesome lo keep. 3rd. The dun# of oxeu is more valuable as a manure, than that of horses. 4th. Oxen arc less liable to become siek and die. sth. Oxen, when they are 100 old to work, can bi fattened and sold for foud, which, you know, a horse cannot be. I allow that a horse is a much finer animal than an ox, and yon ought to keep horses for shoiv, to visit your fi tends, n-id for many other uses; but dnpimil upon it that oxen are cheaper and better than horses for cultivating your land. Talk over the matter enntnined in this i letter.among yourselves. Snow the letter to iany of your Kuiopcau friends who have been in coiiudics where oxeu arc used for cultivating the ground, and I have no doubt they will tell you that the words contained in it arc thuse ul" truth and common sense. I,