Page:Diary of ten years.djvu/159

141 Dined to-day with Mr. Burgess on a "wallabee," the result of our own chase; it was roasted whole, and stuffed, and tasted not unlike hare. We have some artichokes looking strong and luxuriant, much more so than any I recollect to have seen at home. Beans are podding well, though the general opinion here is that they will not succeed with us as a crop.

29th.—Yoked my team this morning and harrowed the wheat in the flat ground, which had been rather roughly broken up. I think it will answer, though it appears a rude process to subject grown wheat to. I have two, or perhaps three acres ready for the plough, that is, cleared from black boys (dwarf grass trees), which are grubbed out of it; the root of these is a knobby woody hemp, with roots very like heather.

I have just finished dinner (one o'clock)—every thing at table was the produce of the farm; corned mutton, green peas, new potatoes, sugarloaf cabbage, radishes, and lettuce. Afterwards I superintended the burning of trees on the ground, which we shall commence to plough on Monday. Our practice, after the trees have been consumed, is to plough the ashes in, and let the ground lie fallow. I have been greatly puzzled in laying out the boundary line between Lamb and myself, my pocket compass being incorrect. We are much in want of assistance from the Surveyor's Office; being left to mark out the lines ourselves, we may have laid the foundation of much future litigation. The settlers could lay the lines themselves if they had good instruments, but even those in the Surveyor's Office are not to be depended on.

Sunday, 30th.—I recollect we sometimes were annoyed at home with a host of kitchen visitors on Sundays, but hardly expected this nuisance here: there have been nineteen here to-day with my servants; the last only passed at nine at night, and I have just heard a sound which indicates the