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: Indian corn will not
form grain from the same cause. On the other hand, peas, beans,
turnips, carrots, cabbages, etc., produce crops as heavy as those
of England. Potatoes, being the staple article of production,
are principally cultivated, as the price of twenty pounds per ton
yields a large profit. These, however, do not produce larger
crops than from four to six tons per acre when heavily manured;
but as the crop is fit to dig in three months from the day of
planting, money is quickly made.
There are many small farmers, or rather gardeners, at Newera
Ellia who have succeeded uncommonly well. One of the emigrants
who left my service returned to England in three years with three
hundred pounds; and all the industrious people succeed. I am now
without one man whom I brought out. The bailiff farms a little
land of his own, and his pretty daughter is married ; the others
are scattered here and there, but I believe all are doing well,
especially the blacksmith, upon whose anvil Fortune has smiled
most kindly.
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