It Will, I Reckon, Yield About Twelve Bushels
An Acre.
Continued my walk and looked at a little patch of wheat
in the governor's garden, which was sown in
Drills, the ground
being first mixed with a clay which its discoverers pretended was marle.
Whatever it be, this experiment bespeaks not much in favour of
its enriching qualities; for the corn looks miserably, and is far exceeded
by some neighbouring spots on which no such advantage has been bestowed.
Went round the crescent at the bottom of the garden, which certainly
in beauty of form and situation is unrivalled in New South Wales.
Here are eight thousand vines planted, all of which in another season
are expected to bear grapes. Besides the vines are several small fruit trees,
which were brought in the Gorgon from the Cape, and look lively;
on one of them are half a dozen apples as big as nutmegs. Although the soil
of the crescent be poor, its aspect and circular figure, so advantageous
for receiving and retaining the rays of the sun, eminently fit it
for a vineyard. Passed the rivulet and looked at the corn land
on its northern side. On the western side of Clarke's* house the wheat
and maize are bad, but on the eastern side is a field supposed to be
the best in the colony. I thought it of good height, and the ears well filled,
but it is far from thick.
[*Dod, who is mentioned in my former journal of this place, had died
some months ago. And Mr. Clarke, who was put in his room, is one of
the superintendants, sent out by government, on a salary of forty pounds
per annum. He was bred to husbandry, under his father at Lewes in Sussex;
and is, I conceive, competent to his office of principal conductor
of the agriculture of Rose Hill.]
While I was looking at it, Clarke came up. I told him I thought
he would reap fifteen or sixteen bushels an acre; he seemed to think
seventeen or eighteen. I have now inspected all the European corn.
A man of so little experience of these matters as myself cannot speak
with much confidence. Perhaps the produce may average ten bushels an acre,
or twelve at the outside. Allowance should, however, be made in estimating
the quality of the soil, for the space occupied by roots of trees,
for inadequate culture, and in some measure to want of rain. Less has fallen
than was wished, but this spring was by no means so dry as the last.
I find that the wheat grown at Rose Hill last year weighed fifty-seven
pounds and a half per bushel. My next visit was to the cattle,
which consists of two stallions, six mares, and two colts; besides
sixteen cows, two cow-calves, and one bull-calf, which were brought out
by the Gorgon. Two bulls which were on board died on the passage, so that
on the young gentleman just mentioned depends the stocking of the colony.
The period of the inhabitants of New South Wales being supplied with
animal food of their own raising is too remote for a prudent man to calculate.
The cattle look in good condition, and I was surprised to hear that
neither corn nor fodder is given to them. The enclosures in which
they are confined furnish hardly a blade of grass at present. There are
people appointed to tend them who have been used to this way of life,
and who seem to execute it very well.
Sunday, December 4th, 1791. Divine service is now performed here
every Sunday, either by the chaplain of the settlement or the chaplain
of the regiment. I went to church today. Several hundred convicts
were present, the majority of whom I thought looked the most miserable
beings in the shape of humanity I ever beheld. They appeared to be
worn down with fatigue.
December, 5th. Made excursions this day to view the public settlements.
Reached the first, which is about a mile in a north-west direction
from the governor's house. This settlement contains, by admeasurement,
134 acres, a part of which is planted with maize, very backward,
but in general tolerably good, and beautifully green. Thirteen large huts,
built in the form of a tent, are erected for the convicts who work here;
but I could not learn the number of these last, being unable to find
a superintendant or any person who could give me information.
Ponds of water here sufficient to supply a thousand persons.
Walked on to the second settlement, about two miles farther, through
an uncleared country. Here met Daveney, the person who planned
and now superintends all the operations carried on here. He told me
that he estimated the quantity of cleared ground here at 300 acres.
He certainly over-rates it one-third, by the judgment of every other person.
Six weeks ago this was a forest. It has been cleared, and the wood
nearly burnt off the ground by 500 men, in the before-mentioned period,
or rather in thirty days, for only that number have the convicts worked.
He said it was too late to plant maize, and therefore he should sow turnips,
which would help to meliorate and prepare it for next year. On examining
the soil, I thought it in general light, though in some places loamy
to the touch. He means to try the Rose Hill 'marle' upon it, with which
he thinks it will incorporate well. I hope it will succeed better
than the experiment in the governor's garden. I wished to know
whether he had chosen this ground simply from the conveniency of its situation
to Rose Hill, and its easy form for tillage, and having water,
or from any marks which he had thought indicated good soil. He said that
what I had mentioned no doubt weighed with him, and that he judged the soil
to be good, from the limbs of many of the trees growing on it being
covered with moss.
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