When His Term Of Punishment Expired, In August 1789,
He Claimed His Freedom, And Was Permitted By The Governor, On
Promising
to settle in the country, to take in December following, an uncleaned piece
of ground, with an assurance that
If he would cultivate it, it should not
be taken from him. Some assistance was given him, to fell the timber,
and he accordingly began. His present account to me was as follows.
I was bred a husbandman, near Launcester in Cornwall.
I cleared my land as well as I could, with the help
afforded me. The exact limit of what ground I am to have,
I do not yet know; but a certain direction has been
pointed out to me, in which I may proceed as fast as I
can cultivate. I have now an acre and a half in bearded
wheat, half an acre in maize, and a small kitchen garden.
On my wheat land I sowed three bushels of seed, the
produce of this country, broad cast. I expect to reap
about twelve or thirteen bushels. I know nothing of
the cultivation of maize, and cannot therefore guess
so well at what I am likely to gather. I sowed part
of my wheat in May, and part in June. That sown in May
has thrived best. My maize I planted in the latter end
of August, and the beginning of September. My land I
prepared thus: having burnt the fallen timber off the
ground, I dug in the ashes, and then hoed it up, never
doing more than eight, or perhaps nine, rods in a day,
by which means, it was not like the government farm,
just scratched over, but properly done. Then I
clod-moulded it, and dug in the grass and weeds. This
I think almost equal to ploughing. I then let it lie
as long as I could, exposed to air and sun; and just
before I sowed my seed, turned it all up afresh. When
I shall have reaped my crop, I purpose to hoe it again,
and harrow it fine, and then sow it with turnip-seed,
which will mellow and prepare it for next year. My
straw, I mean to bury in pits, and throw in with it
every thing which I think will rot and turn to manure.
I have no person to help me, at present, but my wife,
whom I married in this country; she is industrious.
The governor, for some time, gave me the help of a
convict man, but he is taken away. Both my wife and
myself receive our provisions regularly at the store,
like all other people. My opinion of the soil of my
farm, is, that it is middling, neither good or bad.
I will be bound to make it do with the aid of manure,
but without cattle it will fail. The greatest check
upon me is, the dishonesty of the convicts who, in
spite of all my vigilance, rob me almost every night.
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