Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 2.djvu/199

 ON THE SOIL. 165 seems to have been reserved for seed. In October, 1792, l^'W Pliillip informed the Secretary of State of the progress PrMmn made in the settlement of the soil during the preceding eleven months. The number of settlers at Parramatta to whom lands had been granted had increased from 37 to 65, of whom 53 had been convicts.* The area of ground under Area i cultivation on the public account had increased from 405 October, to 1,000 acres ; that in possession of the settlers from 92 to 416 acres; and the gardens from 90^ to 100 acres ; making in all 1,516 acres. The settlers had, in addition, 97 acres of ground cleared of timber. It will be observed that the average area of ground under cultivation by each settler had been more than doubled in eleven months. Four-fifths of the Government ground were sown with maize, the remainder with wheat and barley.f The cultivated land was situated at Parramatta and Toongabbie, or '^Toon-gab-be,^' Toong»bbie. as Phillip spells the native name, which he adopted as he had done in the case of Parramatta. In the neighbour- hood of this place there were, according to Phillip, '^ several thousand acres of exceeding good ground/' A word may be said here as to the quality of the land on which the first settlers were placed. The success which at- tended Captain Macarthur's efforts at Elizabeth FarmJ a few years later, and the profitable use to which some of the land is put at the present day, shew that the soil, if not unusually rich, was at least fairly good. But in Phillip's time, as already pointed out, an idea was very generally entertained • HiBtorical Becords, vol. i, part 2, p. 661. t lb., p. 640. Phillip's statement as to the area of land in cultiyation agrees very closely vith the report of the Surveyor-General, dated 16th October, a fortnight lat^r than the despatch. According to this report, printed by Collins (vol. i, p. 248, 249), the ground " in cultivation " comprised 1,703 acres, but of this area there were 162^ acres which had been cleared only. This reduced the area of cultivated land to l,540i acres, showing only a tofling increase on the area v^iorted by Phillip in his despatch. The return will be found in the Appendix. t Orieinally one hundred acres in extent, granted to LienteBant John Maoarthur by Lieutenant-dovemor Grose, on the 12th February, I7{>3. The fann was situated on the soutii bank of the Parramatta Biver. The BoaehiU racecourse now stands on part of the ground.