Maori Agriculture. The Cultivated Food Plants of the Natives of New Zealand, with Some Account of Native Methods of Agriculture, its Ritual and Origin Myths (New Zealand. Dominion Museum. Bulletin No. 9) by Best, Elsdon - 1925

Wellington: Whitcombe and Tombs Limited, 1925. Paperback. 172pp. Quarto [28 cm] Orange and black printed wraps. Illustrated. Very good. Published under the direction of The Board of Maori Ethnological Research, for the Dominion Museum. From the Preface- "On the whole the subject may be deemed one of considerable interest. Although ignorant of the use of metals, and possessing but extremely rude agricultural implements, yet we find that the neolithic Maori has preserved some highly interesting features in his practices and beliefs connected with agriculture. He has carried his economic plants across wide seas, and so made the arts of the husbandman known in many far scattered isles. He has had to change his principal cultivated products, his materials for clothing, and his manner of life, as he settled lands differing widely in climate and natural products. He has, in common with many other peoples, surrounded his principal cultivated food product with a network of myths, superstitions, tapu, and ritual performances. His procedure in the matter of cultivation of the kumara resembles a religious function."