THE NORWEGIAN OAT.

Poverty Bay Standard, 4 September 1875, Page 2

THE NORWEGIAN OAT.

Old Colonial thus writes in the Weekly News: — I observe that Messrs W. J. Hurst and Co. have obtained a supply of Norwegian oats for seed purposes. Many years ago this variety of oat created a great deal of noise, especially in the United States, and stories were related of its productiveness which almost exceeded belief. Making due allowance for the American disposition to stretch a fancy point to the utmost, there is little doubt the Norweigan oat is a very productive variety. Considering the length of time which this oat has been referred to occasionally in agricultural journals and works, it does not speak much for the enterprise or energy of Auckland seedsmen, that Auckland settlers have had to wait un|il the year 1875 before they had an opportunity of obtaining a supply of seed from a local tradesman. It is this snail pace in the race of progress that has made Auckland people and Auckland institutions by-words not only in the adjoining colonies, but in the southern districts of our own colony. It is to a certain extent satisfactory that a supply bf seed of this valuable oat has at last been placed within the reach of settlers ; but it somewhat detracts from the credit of enterprise in introducing it, to think that Auckland seedsmen should wait, not only until it was introduced by the more energetic Scotsmen in Otago, but actually wait until an Otago seedsman grew a crop of the oat, and thus obtained the profit of his own cultivation. Does it ripen earlier or later than the varieties of oats now in common cultivation? Will it be less subject to be destroyed by that scourge of Auckland farmers, “ the caterpillar,” than the oats now cultivated? What will be the nutritive value of the hay made from this crop, as compared with that made from other varieties of oats ? These and other points could have been settled, had Mr. Hurst introduced it earlier and carried on a few experiments with it upon his own farm; and I am sure that if the result of such experiments had been satisfactory, the publication of them would have caused such a demand for seed of

the locally grown Norwegian oats as would have amply compensated him for his trouble. If the New Zealand Agricultural Society had been more successfully and energetically managed in the past, and beeu in the possession of a fair supply of funds, it might have taken up the position vacated by our seedsmen by the early introduction of small quantities, for the purpose of proving any new kind of agricultural seeds that are favorably reported upon elsewhere. Had the New Zealand Agricultural Society done this, there is little doubt but many farmers would have been fouud willing to devote a, small corner of a field to prove the value of such an introduction before going, extensively into its culture. But the Society is not able to take up this position, and Auckland seedsmen seem to lack the energy possessed by their fellow tradesmen elsewhere; and, as a consequence, the interests of the working farmer to some extent suffer.