WHEAT FOR SEED.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume VI, Issue 5, 15 March 1859, Page 1

WHEAT FOR SEED.

In the Shipping Report of the present number, we have felt bound to draw the attention of our readers, in the strongest manner, to the lamentable falling off in the exports of grain and to the large and expensive imports which our own defective industry has rendered necessary. But there is no evil, however great, without some counterbalancing good, and to that we now seek to direct attention. The wheat just arrived from Adelaide is of the finest quality; it has been landed in first rate order, at a time when a change of wheal is most essentially necessary to the prosperity of every farmer in this country ; and it comes at a season when the plough will shortly be at work, and with an energy, we hope, which may make up for the short comings of the two past years. Constant production from the same seed is most injurious to farming. The seed gets " run out" as it is called, that is it becomes so greatly deteriorated that it has neither strength nor substance to relurn a liberal

yield, nor yet to produce a grain of sound ] wholesome quality. We have, in former numbers, taken occasion to remark upon a wheat much grown by the Natives of the East Coast, and known as " Humpback Wheat." This description of wheat makes very weak and bad flour, such as is hardly fit to be used in the manufacture of bread. We were very glad to i learn, some time since, that our Millers had made up their minds not to buy this humpback wheat, except at a very low price, su that the sooner the Natives cease to grow it the belter for themselves. The wheat from the East Coast is sometimes very smutty. This evil may be prevented by sleeping the seed, before sowing, with blue stone dissolved in water. This blue sione, we believe, can be obtained of many European traders along the coast. At all events, it can always be procured in Auckland; and, in our next number, we shall furnish directions for using it properly. But it is not the wheat from the East coast that is alone defective; a very large proportion of the wheal grown throughout the country appears to have lt run out." This can only be remedied by a general i change of seed. From the above causes,, Native wheat has acquired a bad name noi in Auckland alone, but in Sydney and Melbourne likewise, where it cannot be sold except at from is. 6d. lo 2s. per bushel less than the Adelaide wheat. Yet, notwithstanding this, the Natives have demanded such a price for their wheat, that not only could none be shipped, but, on the contrary, the Auckland Millers have been compelled to import large quantities from Adelaide and Sydney. The quality of this Australian wheat is so much belter than the Native wheat, that the Millers prefer lo import ii to buying Maori wheal at ihe high prices ihe Natives have endeavoured lo obtain. The latest prices of good wheat in Sydney were from 6s. to 7s. per bushel; it is clear, therefore, that without a determination to sell at market value, the Auckland merchants cannot ship the Native wheal to the Australian ports. To remedy this injurious slate of affairs the Natives must do two things First: improve the quality of their wheat by an immediate and universal change of seed, rjie means are now at their com-

mand, as they will perceive by the advertisement of Messrs. Thornton, Smiih and Firth, printed on the*wrapper of the present number. Secondly, sell their wheat at much more reasonable prices. If these two recommendations be followed up, we shall again see our Shipping and Export trade in active and profitable employment, for we shall be able to ship wheat away instead of having to bring it from Australia hither.