Page:Extracts from the letters and journals of George Fletcher Moore.djvu/96

 70 21st.—I breakfasted this day week with Mr. McDermot, who lives, as a matter of temporary accommodation, at the Governor's house at Guildford. The succeeding day proved so tempestuous as to prevent me from proceeding to Fremantle. I gave Captain M. some specimens of flowering shrubs, besides a bottle full of snakes, lizards, and scorpions. On Saturday was held a meeting of our Agricultural Society, of which the Governor is patron. I shall send you a printed copy of its proceedings, and can assure you that, though not quite so imposing an association as the Highland Society of Scotland, or the late Farming Society of Ireland, it is of great consequence and utility here, where agriculture is but in an infant state, and where experiments are most important.

My cow has calved, but the "milky mother" does not yet supply me and her other calf with much nutriment. The calf is happily of the feminine gender: an important consideration to me.

I have been engaged in enclosing a field of about five acres, in which the garden is included: James and John are hard at it. I regret to say that my wheat has an unhealthy appearance, being of a reddish colour at the end of the blade: whether this discolouration be the effect of the frosts, or of the underground work of a wire-worm, I am not yet agriculturist enough to determine.

22nd.—Some boatmen have just brought me five cwt. of flour, a barrel of herrings, a bag of