Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 2.djvu/197

 ON THE SOIL. 168 always be carried away, for those who cannot be received ITW-I on board the ships as seamen or carpenters pay for their passage." * Daring the latter end of 1790 and the commencement of 1791 as much progress was made with the cultivation of the land by the convicts on the public account as the circum- stances would permit. The conditions were not favourable. With debilitated and ill-fed men as labourers, the clearing of the ground could only proceed slowly, while the pro- longed dry weather rendered it impossible to put any seed in the ground until June, when a little rain fell. But the Adverse drought did not break up until August, and Phillip. had to report in November that, although the crops looked better than there had been reason to expect, they had suffered very much from the seed having lain so long in the ground before it vegetated.f What progress had been made by the settlers towards the end of the year is shown by the return of land under culti- caitiration. vation at Parramatta in November, 1791. J The total area cleared was 921 acres ; but of this 288 J acres had not been sown. The remaining 632^ acres included 90i acres of • Historical Record*, toI. 1, part 2, p. 697. t "During this month [Juoe, 1791] some rain had fallen, which had encouraged the sowing of the public grounds, and one hundred and sixteen bushels of wheat were pown at Parramatta. Until these rains fell, the ground was so dry, hard, and literal! t burnt up, that it was almost impossible to break it yriih a hoe, and until this time tliero had be^n no hope or probability of the grain vegetating." — Collins, Tol. i, p. 166. " In addition to the quantity of ground sown with wheat, a large proportion was cleared to be sown ihis season with Indian com ; and the country about Parramatta, as well as the town itself, where eight huts were now built, wore a vtry promising appearance. At Sydney, the little ground that was in cultivation belonged to individuals ; the whole labour of the conricts employed in clearing ground being exerted at Parramatta, where the soil, though not the best for the purposes of agriculture (according to the opinion of every man who possessed any knowledge of farming) was still better than the sand about Sydney, where, to raise even a cabbage after the first crop, manure was absolutely requisite." — lb., p. 167. An obvious printer's error occurs in this passage of Collins's work. He gives the number of huts at Parramatta as eight, whereas Tench, who visited the town some months before, states that about fifty huts were then finished, and more were in course of erection. There is other evidence to indicate that t Historical Records, vol. i, part 2, p. 539.;
 * eight " is a misprint for " eighty."