ground, which would
certainly lessen the quantity of cleared ground; this ground
being grubbed up and laid open, gave me an opportunity of
examining what the soil consisted of, and although I do not
pretend to any knowledge in farming, yet I thought it required no
very great judgment to perceive and determine this favourite spot
(which, to do it justice, is certainly better than any upon or
near this harbour) to be a poor, sandy, steril, soil; the surface
is covered a few inches deep with a soil which seems to be
produced from decayed vegetation, rotten leaves, burnt and
withered grass; and under that is a mere bed of sand.

Rose Hill is certainly a pretty situation, but the country
will require much manure, much dressing, and good farmers to
manage it, before good crops can be expected from it; the best
they have ever had, I have been informed, has amounted only to
six or seven to one, and this last season has been little more
than two to one, but that may in some measure be accounted for by
there being a great scarcity of rain.

If it be the determination of government to persevere in
establishing a settlement in this country, upon an extensive
plan, the nation must be contented to submit to a very heavy
expence. It must be stocked with cattle, were it only for the
manure, for without manure this country is too poor ever to yield
tolerable crops; and if it should be resolved upon to stock it
with cattle, it will be found highly necessary to employ a
considerable number of people in the care of them, to prevent
their being frequently attacked by the natives, whom we know are
frequently driven to very great distress for food.

The country about Rose Hill, which I have formerly mentioned
as requiring not much labour in clearing, from its being covered
only with lofty, open woods, without any underwood, and which I
then observed ran to the westward about twenty miles, has since
been travelled over by several gentlemen, who admit that that
kind of country does extend near the distance above-mentioned to
the westward, but in a north and south direction, it does not
extend more than three or four miles, when you come again into
barren, rocky land, wholly unfit for cultivation; in short, as I
have walked over a good deal of ground since I have been here,
and have frequently travelled from Botany-Bay to Broken-Bay along
the sea coast, I can with much truth declare, that I have never
met with a piece of ground any where s