Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 - 1842), Saturday 7 September 1816, page 2


To the EDITOR of the SYDNEY GAZETTE.

.. SIR,

" Having observed the rapid improvements in Agriculture, produced by the introduction of the Horse Husbandry system in England, I have

been led to adopt the same system since I engaged in agricultural pursuits in this Colony. It is needless for me to observe, where manual labour is so very expensive, and the expence of keeping horses comparatively so trifling, the superiority of the power of the horse, one of which being equal to six men. This useful animal can now be purchased by almost every description of settler,

and without which no man can make much pro-gress in farming. To introduce the Horse Hus-bandry System, it is necessary in the first place to clear the ground of all roots and stumps, which will greatly add to the beauty of the cultivated

ground, as well as augment the produce, nine acres clear of stumps being upon a fair calculation equal to ten. In falling, where the timber is very heavy, I am well convinced that the common me-thod of falling with saws, and axes is the best and least expensive ; but where the ground is thin of timber, and the trees are not large, I should pre-fer falling by digging and cutting the roots. In-burning off, in which I make very little use of either saw or axe, cutting the logs into lengths by fire, the first thing to be attended to is, looking out if any of the timber is fit for posts, rails, &c. either for building or fencing. After the logs are cross burnt, I lay open the roots of the large stumps, roll the logs against them, and there make the fires. If the first logs are not sufficient, I roll more, till the whole of the stump is destroyed The lateral roots which run too near the surface I grub, and raise, with levers. Where there is not much timber, I find it best to burn from one side, as it requires the greatest quantity of timber, as well as the longest time to burn through the sap.

It is very essential to spread all the ashes, parti-

ticularly of the red gum and iron bark, as they

contain the greatest quantity of pot ash. After the stumps are burnt so low as to require no more fire, I burn the remaining timber any where. If I have any she oaks, I take them out by splitting with wedges, and twisting them out with a lever about 14 feet long, shod with iron. Before the ground is broke up I rake it over with a rake drawn by one horse, which will rake five or six acres in a few hours. If in the first breaking up with the plough, the man carries with him an axe and a hoe, he will completely clear the ground of all roots which were missed in the grubbing. One man can, with a good light plough and pair of horses, plough an acre of ground in a day, and it would requite ten men to hoe an acre in the same

time, and as well.

" In drilling Wheat there is a great saving of seed; and in the light soils in this country the wheat should always be rolled : This closes the ground round the roots of the grain, and lays those particles of earth which had been absorbing

carbonic acid gas, to the roots, and exposes fresh particles to absorb more of the gas. Turnip

crops, and all vegetables grown in any quantity,

should be drilled, as it saves seed, and turnips are generally spoiled from being sown too thick. Po-

tatoes can be cultivated entirely by horses ; ploughed into the ground, hilted up, and ploughed out of the ground. It is in the cultivation of In-

dian corn, the staple grain of this country, where

the immense saving of manual labour will be

found. Here one man can with one pair of horses plough, plant, hill, hoe, and cut down 40 acres of com in one season. The corn drill is drawn by

one horse, and will plant one acre of corn in one hour. I think the best distance between plant and plant in the rows is from 12 to 18 inches, and between each row four feet. The shape of the grain makes it very difficult to drill so regularly as the other seeds. I found last year that my

drilled corn was not blown down by the high winds, which I suspected might have been the case ; and

that it grows much larger and more luxuriantly by being single than when there are several stalks together :-the ground will produce a much hea-vier crop, as the nourishment is drawn from the whole of the ground equally, and the surrounding mould, far beyond the extent of the fibres of the

roots, has only to nourish one plant. The more open and hollow the ground is, the better Indian com thrives ; and if the ground is now and then loosened by the improved cultivation called the expanding scuttle, which will equally hoe the corn planted in hills as well as in drills, only requiring for the hills to be worked across as well as up and

down the corn land. The expanding scuttle will hoe four acres of corn land in one day with one horse, and can be made wider or narrower at pleasure, for pease, beans, &c. I hill the corn sometimes.with the plough, but I prefer the ex-panding double mould horse hoe, as this can be drawn by one horse. When the corn is fit to

pull, I go down the rows with the expanding scuf-fle, and cut the stalks a little below the surface. The corn may be then raked together with the horse rake, which will expedite the carrying ; and thus you see. by this method I can cultivate corn, and keep the ground as clear as a dead fal-low, with one man and one horse, which by the old method is the most expensive grain to grow, requiring so much manual labour. I am much surprised that where manual labour is so expen-sive, more means are not devised to decrease it. In America even shovels are worked by bullocks, which are very steady drawing animals, but can not be worked in a plough by one man ; nor do they walk so fast ; and where a farmer has not much cultivated ground, I should recommend horses, as being animals of more general utility

" Clearing an acre of ground in this country is a very heavy expence ; and whether it produces much or little, the working of it is attended with the same expence : therefore, everyone should be made. to produce the greatest crop possible ; and what is very justly observed by an able writer on agriculture, and should be particularly attend-ed to in this country is, " It is not the acres sown, but the bushels reaped."

" In South Wales there is the same bad system of farming which is now practised in this country ; but the land there is all cleared and fenced in, and most of the farmers have more arable land

than they can keep in cultivation at once : they therefore crop on part until the crop is not worth carrying : then they let that rest, and begin upon another, and proceed in this way all through the fallow. It is very easy by fair cropping to keep ground in heart ; but if worn out, it is very diffi-

cult to recover it.

" I think the loss in seed in sowing wheat late, as it will then not have time to tiller, is made up by its coming to perfection in a much shorter time, and consequently draws the ground less.

" To the Grazier I would recommend a very simple and easy method of improving and making good Pasturage and meadows. After the ground

is clear, leave the native sod, and scarify the ground from an inch and a half two inches deep twice a year: this will divide the roots of the native grasses, and make incisions for the air to penetrate into the soil. After scarifying, if you can procure the seed, thinly sow a little trefoil, white Dutch clover, and meadow fescue ; but if the ground be very poor, sow burner instead of the other grasses, and then roll it. To destroy the ferns it will require frequent scarifying; but

wherever the root of a fern is cut so as to cause

the mucilage it contains to exude, it will immedi-ately die away. [The several lmplements neces-sary for carrying on this species of Husbandry are to be obtained by application to Mr. Bostock, of Hunter street.]

*' Hoping that these hints may cause some more experienced persons to repeat those experi-ments with greater accuracy, and upon a larger scale ; and who, if found to answer as well with

them as with me, would introduce a System of Agriculture both beautiful and profitable, I rest convinced that the interests of the farmer would be thereby considerably advanced, and the Colo-ny much benefited. The labouring part of the community would then be employed in grubbing, fencing, &c. instead of doing that which that use-ful animal the horse, now suffered idly to range the forest, would do more effectually, and with with greater expedition. Whoever has seen the Isle of Thanet, must admit that it is one of the neatest and most beautiful spots in England. Every part represents garden beds more than ara-ble land for the common purposes of agriculture, and there no work is performed by a man, which |can be done by a horse.

" AGRICOLA."