Page:Some Account of New Zealand.pdf/74

Rh mark, that in my opinion no kind of food taken to sea has a greater tendency to preserve the health of a ship's company, or to recover it from the effects of a long voyage. I think I have observed more benefit derived in cases of scurvy from eating the root raw with vinegar, than from any other remedy: it appears to be most efficacious if taken in the morning fasting.

I could not learn when they first became possessed of this invaluable root; they have, however, had some opportunities of changing their seed, which has been of great advantage to them. Cutting is not in practice, the smaller potatoes being always preserved for seed.

Their cultivation has hitherto been attended with considerable disadvantages, owing to the want of proper implements: the only mode of turning the soil being with a wooden spade; but as the soil is light, this impediment is not so great as might be imagined.

Their potatoe inclosures are not planted Rh