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[Page 7]
very scarce.
The method of farming is conducted upon a bad principle, and carried on in a slovenly manner. Nothing farther is done, than to break up the ground with a hoe and throw in the wheat, which again is chopped over with a hoe or harrowed. This is generally done in the month of March or April. The Plough has been tried by some, but it does not seem to be preferred before the hoe. The stumps that yet remain in the ground are against it, and also the high price of cattle. But what appears to me to prevent it coming into frequent use, is the want of workmen that know how to use it.
I have never seen any people weed their wheat, thus it is generally overrun with weeds, particularly a species of Lolium. The height of harvest is about Christmas. The Wheat is reaped in a slovenly manner, and a deal left scattered on the ground. After it is bound up into sheaves, it is carried by men on their back to the barn or stack. This is obliged to be done by those who have not horses or oxen, which is chiefly the case throughout the colony. But, I have seen wheat housed in this manner by Government, and in such a situation, where a horse, or an ox, would have had very little more to have done than to bear up the shafts of the cart. This could not be done for the want of a team, as Government have got several, but merely through a conceited whim, or selfish ignorance. Such ways are not only attended with slowness and expence, but a great whim