第53章

The semicircular hill,which sweeps from the overseer of the cattle's house to the governor's house,is planted with maize,which,I am told,is the best here.It certainly looks in most parts very good--stout thick stalks with large spreading leaves--but I am surprised to find it so backward.It is at least a month later than that in the gardens at Sydney.Behind the maize is a field of wheat,which looks tolerably for this part of the world.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,134acres,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 300acres.

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 500men,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.

"Are,"said I,"your 500men still complete?"