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[Page 10]
marle in the country, and as limestone is seemingly not within the limits of the colony; it may be a long time before there is any manure obtained of mineral origin.
Though straw is well known in England as a durable thatch, yet a kind of grass (Saccharum cylindricum) is used here for that purpose, which is not half so durable, and which is also very troublesome to get. What can be the cause of this? certainly custom (for it cannot be assigned to ignorance) for at the commencement of the colony, grass was undoubtedly substituted for straw, and having once got footings it then became customary to use it for such purposes.
Gardening, that useful branch so subservient to mankind, is in an infant state, that it is rather remarkable, that as the food is mostly salt, that it has not been more attended to.
It is not uncommon, to see people in a reputable situation to be without vegetables for some months in the year. Cabbages are more used than any other. Potatoes were very bad and stinging on my first coming here, but of late are much improved; and no doubt but if the seed was exchanged often, and by a proper attention, they would still improve. Pompions and Watermelons are much thought of. Onions do not bear good seed, this is obliged to be got from Norfolk island. These