Walsh. — On the Cultivation and Treatment of the Kumara. 15 



over which the fire had run some time before and had killed 

 the standing trees. The branches and small stuff were broken 

 down and piled around the larger trunks, and, where neces- 

 sary, dry material was collected and carried in to assist the 

 combustion. The small roots were dug up and thrown on the 

 fires, and, where possible, the large stumps were undermined 

 and prised out with a kind of gigantic spade worked as a lever 

 by the united strength of several men.* This may seem rather 

 a tedious way of clearing land, but a number of hands intelli- 

 gently employed made light work, and on a dry, windy day 

 the business proceeded merrily ; and if some of the heavier 

 masses of timber still proved refractory they were left to be 

 dealt with at a future season, and so by degrees all obstacles 

 to cultivation were removed. 



In the case of clay lands, especially those on the river-flats, 

 drainage was necessary, and, where possible, surface channels 

 were made before the winter rains set in, as the prolonged 

 exposure to water not only retarded the spring operations, but 

 had the effect of " souring " the soil and making the work of 

 cultivation more difficult. On the old cultivations the clean- 

 ing-out of these drains was the first thing to be attended to as 

 tiie planGing-time approached. 



In breaking up new land the principal implement used was 

 the ko, a kind of long-handled spade consisting of a pole of 

 hard wood sharpened to a wedge-shaped point and furnished 

 with a foot -rest or tread (hamaruru) lashed to one side with 

 flax sinnets from about l!^ in. to 18 in. from the bottom, 

 according to the depth the land was to be dug. Both the 

 foot-rest and the handle on the top of the shaft were often 

 elaborately carved, as may be seen in the case of some ex- 

 cellent specimens in the Auckland Museum. Armed with 

 this implement, a numoer of men formed in line a few feet 

 apart across the plot that was to be operated on, and, keeping 

 time to a song by their leader invoking a blessing on their 

 labour, drove the ko into the ground so as to make a continu- 

 ous cut about 1ft. or 18 in. back from the face, according to 

 the nature of the soil. This done, they used the implement 

 as a lever and hove the whole sod over together, with a loud 

 shout of Huaia I when they started afresh on another piece. 

 Meanwhile the women and children followed up, breaking the 

 clods with small wooden instruments of various patterns and 

 clawing out the fern-root and rubbish with their fingers. The 

 best of the fern-root was reserved for food and stacked up 

 to dry, while the refuse, together with other useless fibrous 

 matter, was thrown on to one of the heaps of burning timber. 



It is not to be supposed that these processes were com- 



* See Hamilton's " Maori Art," pt. iii. 



