The Wheat Sown In June Is Now
Turning Yellow; That Of July Is More Backward.
He has used only the broad-cast
husbandry, and sowed two bushels per acre.
The plough has never yet been
tried here; all the ground is hoed, and (as Dod confesses) very incompetently
turned up. Each convict labourer was obliged to hoe sixteen rods a day,
so that in some places the earth was but just scratched over. The ground
was left open for some months, to receive benefit from the sun and air;
and on that newly cleared the trees were burnt, and the ashes dug in.
I do not find that a succession of crops has yet been attempted;
surely it would help to meliorate and improve the soil. Dod recommends
strongly the culture of potatoes, on a large scale, and says that were they
planted even as late as January they would answer, but this I doubt.
He is more than ever of opinion that without a large supply of cattle nothing
can be done. They have not at this time either horse, cow, or sheep here.
I asked him how the stock they had was coming on. The fowls he said
multiplied exceedingly, but the hogs neither thrived or increased in number,
for want of food. He pointed out to us his best wheat, which looks tolerable,
and may perhaps yield 13 or 14 bushels per acre**. Next came the oats
which are in ear, though not more than six inches high:
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