Page:Diary of ten years.djvu/166

148 wheat threshed—very fine grain, and yielding well; but many ears are too green, which arises from the mixture of seed. Planted some potatoes in low ground for experiment; also transplanted some cabbages, mangel-wurzel, and red beet. I fear the seed which you sent is not good; Edward has tried some of the cabbage-seed without success: it probably fermented on the passage.

9th.—I only closed my last despatches for you yesterday, to go by Van Diemen's Land; it is possible that this letter may reach you first, as there may yet be a more direct conveyance. I have heard that a soldier's wife has been wounded by a spear from the natives in the Canning River—the first time they have molested a woman (a bad trait), and this outrage is likely to bring on general hostility.

Bread from our new wheat is excellent; my little mill grinds well; but hand-mills are tedious and laborious. I examined the mill which Mr. R is putting up at Perth, and am surprised that the same plan is not adopted at home; he says it is the common construction of mills in Italy, that its machinery is less expensive, and that it requires less water than those we have been accustomed to. The water passes from the reservoir through a wooden trunk about a foot square, sixty or seventy yards long, at the end of which is a copper tube two and a half inches in diameter, through which the water gushes. There is great pleasure in every approach we make towards our own support.

10th—In sinking a well, we have found water at the depth of twelve feet; the strata are vegetable mould, blue and black clays, white or dun-coloured clay, buff coloured or loamy clay, yellowish sandy loam, and dun-coloured loamy sand, on which they were working when the water first appeared.

I have been obliged to have another servant to attend the cows.

11th.—A baker came this morning for some wheat, and obviously wanted to make a large profit. I would not supply him, except with a few bushels for his own use, at 4d. per