1S40.] AGRICULTURE. 307 



mon spinach — that, if well watered, it will produce leaves of 

 the greatest, juiciness during the entire summer. It is said 

 that a bed of twenty plants will afford a supply sufficient for 

 a large family. 



The natives are not ignorant of the art of cultivating the 

 soil. When Cook first visited the islands, he found that they 

 turned up the earth in their kumara patches with sharp-pointed 

 sticks and other rude implements. Of late years spades and 

 plows have been introduced. A great incentive to industry 

 is furnished by the almost indestructible native fern. It springs 

 up everywhere where the forests have been cut down, or in 

 the open ground where its cultivation is neglected. When it 

 has once established itself, it is with difficulty extirpated ; and 

 it can never be got rid of except by plucking it up by the 

 roots, and burning it. Even then, wherever there is careless- 

 ness in tillage, it again makes its appearance, as if it were a 

 judgment or a punishment for indolence and neglect. 



Before he sailed from the islands, at the time of making 

 his discovery, Captain Cook planted, and left with intelligent 

 natives, the seeds of wheat, peas, cabbages, onions, potatoes 

 and turnips. All these soon run out, with the exception of 

 the turnips and potatoes; the latter of which is the chief de- 

 pendence of the New Zealander during the winter season. 

 In those soils where black loam, vegetable mould, or decom- 

 posed basalt, predominates, most of the cerealia flourish, 

 though Indian corn is the principal grain that is cultivated. 

 Sometimes wheat is sowed where the fern has been dug up 

 and burned, yet it rarely yields over fourteen bushels to the 



. ! afl ;r it is reaped the ground is seeded down to gr 

 native grasses there are scarcely any, but the foreign 

 - thrive well. The New Zealanders themselves do not, 

 • ; ral, raise over two crops from the same ground, bat 

 ;,. i • "■<•:■; ;i pie.ce for two seasons they prefer br;<a! 



Apples, peaches, grapes, cape-goosehenie . 



. , kin Is of melons and other vegetables, have been 

 introduced and cultivated with success. The apples and 



