Page:Extracts from the letters and journals of George Fletcher Moore.djvu/149

 Rh pork at 8l. per cask—what a price your Irish pork and butter, leather, and shoes, would produce here! No shoes in the whole colony, except a few made in India, not worth a farthing. Another sow has farrowed in the bush; only four youngsters alive—how provoking !

23rd.—Purchased a cow for 2l. 10s. My stock of black cattle now consists of ten, great and small, with a prospect of increase. Heard that many settlers are expected, and, consequently, that our land will rise in value. Busy all day ricking my hay, which the men carried in a sort of hand-barrow: there are four tons yet remaining in the field, and the quantity in rick is ten tons. Transplanted celery early in the morning.

25th.—This has been a very scorching day, hotter than yesterday, when I was an hour in the water, cutting, sawing, and raising stumps of trees. Thermometer 90° in my room. Johnny has gone to Guildford for 2 cwt. of wheat for the pigs; this with garden vegetables will keep them in condition. James (not in the sulks at present) has been mowing in the distant field.

27th.—A great change in the weather; it being now cloudy and threatening rain, with high wind. Black servants, I find, are very serviceable in this colony; on them we must eventually depend for labour, as we can never afford to pay English servants the high wages they expect, besides feeding them so well. The black