ON THE CULTIVATION OF OATS.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume 2, Issue 29, 31 January 1850, Page 2

ON THE CULTIVATION OF OATS.

Following up our course of inquiry, with reference to the most beneficial manner of cultivating the numerous fruits of the earth, and in the earnest hope of interesting your minds, and improving your circumstances, by drawing you to the adoption of an enlarged and enlightened system of agriculture, wc next proceed to offer n few observations on the growth and culture of oats. Agriculture is the most ancient and the most indispensable of nil the arts. It is one commanded by God himself; and wherever that art is followed out with the greatest industry and intelligence, there the people nro the most prudent and prosperous. In all countries, and with all nations, the soil is the main and primary substance of wealth, and it is the ability with which, by study and application, waste can be converted to productive land that constitutes one of the most marked distinctions betwixt the savage

and the civilized. " In a general sense, agriculture is n term used to denote the art of rendering the eaith fruitful by tillage and culture. Its theory includes the nature and properties of land, the dillerent sort of plants fitted for it, and the rotation of crops. The practical part comprehends the labours of husbandry, with the implements and animals appertaining thereto. Agriculture is the most important science to which the human intellect can be directed, alike interesting all nations and all ages, and spreading an influence over the whole circle of our wants, comforts, pleasures, luxuries, arts, and commerce. It is the basis of all other arts, and in all countries coeval with the first dawn of civilization. It is not only indispensable to national prosperity, but is eminently conducive to the welfare of those who are engaged in it. It gives health to the body, energy to the mind, is favourable to temperate and virtuous habits, and to purity of moral character. In the energetic language of a great English writer, (Dr. Johnson) we may truly say, that' though mines of gold and silver should be ex-

hausted, and the species (coins) made of them be lost; though diamonds and pearls should remain concealed in the bowels of the earth and the womb of the sea ; though commerce with strangers be prohibited; though all arts which have no other object than splendour and embellishment, should be abolished; yet the fertility of the earth alone would aflbrd an abundant supply for the occasions of an industrious people, by furnishing subsistence for them, and such armies ns should be mustered in their defence. We, therefore, ought not to be surprised that agriculture was in so much honour among the ancients; for it ought rather to seem wonderful that it should ever cease to be so, and that the most necessary and most indispensable of all proshould have fallen into any contempt.' " If agriculture had fallen into any contempt at the time of the eloquent writer, whose sagacious remarks we have appropriated, it has experienced quite another fortune at the present day, especially ■in Great Britain, where the rich and noble of the land are the foremost to devote their wealth and intellect in developemcnt of a'l its latent resources. In no age of the world, was the science of agriculture so energetically studied as during the present. Men of the most distinguished character are devoting the entire powers of their mind, are applying their best faculties of observation and inquiry to examination of the earth, and the various means and expedients whereby natural fertility may be enhanced, and sterile and inhospitable soil reduced to beneficial subserviency to man. We are most solicitous to impart to you, by easy steps, a portion of that knowledge which it has cost our countrymen much care and anxiety to acquire; it is with that hope that we follow up our lessons of rural industry, which, if not entirely successful, will, nevertheless, we trust, induce some of you to consider the subjects of which it has cost ns much time and trouble to write. With the growth of wheat, potatoes, maize, cabbages, turnips, and other edibles you are already comparatively familiar. With wheat, in particular, you have been hitherto tolerably successful, nay more, you have frequently exhibited samples superior to those of European growers. Such success must not however render you vain, nor induce you to believe you have mastered an art of which you have barely acquired the simplest rudiments. The fertility of your soil has done more for you than your skill. We say so, not to discourage but to guard you against the error of over taxing that soil by forcing it to hear crop after crop of wheat until all its natural productiveness shall have been exhausted, and it shall have become a mass of weeds disgusting to the eye and almost valueless to man and beast. We have beheld some of the finest lands of Van Diemen's Land thus tortured and taxed, until the field that has yielded its 50 bushels an acre of fine plump wheat has, at last, refused to return the seed poured into its exhausted lap. It' is to guard against and counteract such ruinous excesses that farmers study the rotation, or change, of crops, sowing for example ba'ley on the field from which turnips have been fed ofF, wheat after barley, and grasses and oats in succession. The observation which tells the farmer how to apply such changes most advantageously to his field are some of the rudiments of the Agricultural system. These you have yet to learn, and it is to show you their application and to convince you of their paramount importance that we have collated the written opinions of men of practical knowledge, throwing these into the form we consider to be the most and likely to assist you in your search after that knowledge which maketh the diligent rich. Having said thus much, let us proceed to examine the character and properties of Oats and their most successful mode of culture. To be continued.