Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 2.djvu/184

 156 SEXTLEKS 1790 nQYp- stands. A hut was bnilt for him; seeds, implements of agriculture, and a small quantity of live stock were provided; and he was allowed clothing and provisions for twelve gjoentiveto mouths from the public store. As a spur to his industry, he was promised that if he behaved well he would receive a grant of thirty acres on the site where his hut stood. An opinion had been freely expressed by the military officers, and, according to ColKns, was " pretty freely dis- seminated," that the land in the colony would not return an equivalent to the labour expended in cultivating it. Not- withstanding this. Ruse gladly accepted the conditions, telling the Governor that if one acre more was cleared for him he should be able to support himselE after Januaiy, 1791. Phillip doubted whether the man would he so successful as he anticipated, but thought that he would ^' do tolerably well" after he had been supported from the public store for Penever- eighteen months. Buse, however, was as good as his word. triumphant. In November, 1790, when he had been twelve months on his farm. Tench interviewed him concerning his antece- dents and the progress he had then made. He had at that hiSSt. *^°^® ^^ ^^^® ^^^ ^ ^^^^ ^^ '^ bearded wheat," half an acre in maize, and a small kitchen-garden. The wheat, which he expected to go about eight bushels to the acre, was sown in May and June, the maize in August and September. Buse gaTe the following description of his method of preparing Hte metood the ground : — " Having burnt the fallen timber off the ground, I dug in the ashes, and then hoed it, never doing more than eight, or perhaps nine rods in a day, by which means, it was not like the Grovemment farm, just scratched over, but properly done ; then I clod-moulded it, and dug in the grass and weeds — t^his, I think, almost equal to ploughing. I then let it lie as long as I could, exposed to air and sun ; and just before I sowed my seed, turned it all up afresh. . . . The greatest check upon me is the idishonesty of the coirncts, who, in spite of all my vigilance. of tillage.