A crop of potatoes of about three acres on the newly-cleared
forest land was totally devoured by grubs. The bull and stock
were nearly starved on the miserable pasturage of the country,
and no sooner bad the clover sprung up in the new clearings than
the Southdown ram got hoven upon it and died. The two remaining
rams, not having been accustomed to much high living since their
arrival at Newera Ellia, got pugnacious upon the clover, and in a
pitched battle the Leicester ram killed the Cotswold, and
remained solus. An epidemic appeared among the cattle, and
twenty-six fine bullocks died within a few days; five Australian
horses died during the first year, and everything seemed to be
going into the next world as fast is possible.
Having made up my mind to all manner of disappointments, these
casualties did not make much impression on me, and the loss of a
few crops at the outset was to be expected; but at length a
deplorable and unexpected event occurred.
The bailiff's family consisted of a wife and daughter; the former
was the perfection of a respectable farmer's wife, whose gentle
manners and amiable disposition bad gained her many friends; the
daughter was a very pretty girl of nineteen.
For some time Mrs. Fowler had been suffering from an illness of
long standing, and I was suddenly called to join in the mournful
procession to her grave. This was indeed a loss which I deeply
deplored.
At length death left the little settlement, and a ray of sunshine
shone through the gloom which would have made many despond.
Fortune smiled upon everything. Many acres of forest were
cleared, and the crops succeeded each other in rapid succession.
I had, however, made the discovery that without manure nothing
would thrive. This had been a great disappointment, as much
difficulty lay in procuring the necessary item.
Had the natural pasturage been good, it would soon have been an
easy matter to procure any amount of manure by a corresponding
number of cattle; but, as it happened, the natural pasturage was
so bad that no beast could thrive upon it. Thus everything, even
grass-land, had to be manured; and, fortunately, a cargo of guano
having arrived in the island, we were enabled to lay down some
good clover and seeds.
The original idea of cultivation, driving the forests from the
neighborhood of Newera Ellia, was therefore dispelled. Every
acre of land must be manured, and upon a large scale at Newera
Ellia that is impossible. With manure everything will thrive to
perfection with the exception of wheat. There is neither lime
nor magnesia in the soil. An abundance of silica throws a good
crop of straw, but the grain is wanting:
