Page:Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay.djvu/193

 Numerous farms at any of these places can be readily purchased, with all the qualifications I have stipulated for.

I will therefore suppose that the small farmer purchases a farm of one hundred acres of rich land, such as I have described in the beginning of this work. A farm such as this, situated on a navigable river or creek, well fenced in, and with all necessary buildings in good repair, would not cost more than four hundred pounds, when I left the colony, although to bring it into its present improved state, from a state of nature, four times that amount had probably been expended:—

Six hundred pounds are therefore invested before commencing operations. We must now consider the current annual expenditure for rations, wages, seed, &c. By contrasting afterwards this current annual expenditure with the assumed value of the farm produce in Sydney, diminished by the expenses of freight, we shall obtain the profit or loss attendant on the undertakings.

To cultivate one hundred acres properly, and perform all the work of a farm of that size would require four men, with the occasional assistance of