ted upon; hence no system of agriculture has been yet
adjusted to the peculiarities of climate and soil. Instead of studying
and adopting the agriculture of similar climates, and the arts by which
deficiencies in similar latitudes have from time immemorial been
corrected: irrigation, for instance, has not been yet attempted; the
natural fertility of the soil has alone been relied on, to compensate, in
favourable, seasons, for the deficiencies of others, not favourable,
perhaps, for the growth of wheat or barley, but the best imaginable for
that of other kinds of productions. So generally available is the
structure of the country for the reservation of water by dams, that a
small number of these might be made to retain as much of the surface
water as might even impart humidity to the atmosphere. This is because
the channels of rivers are in general confined by high banks, within
which many, or indeed most of them, might be converted by a few dams into
canals. To such great purposes convict labour ought to have been applied,
had it been possible to have allowed colonization and transportation to
work together. But the undulations of the land present everywhere
facilities for constructing reservoirs, which heavy showers would fill,
and thus afford means sufficient for the purposes of irrigation, were not
labour now too scarce there, to admit of the progress of colonization in
a manner suitable to the spirit of the age, and character of the nation.

The rich lands along the eastern coast, under a lofty range which
supplies abundance of water for the purposes of irrigation, are well
adapted for the cultivation of cotton and sugar, and, with labour,
nothing could prevent these regions from being made extensively
productive of both articles. Of the vine and the olive[*], it remains to
be ascertained whether some parts of the country may not be made as
productive as Andalusia, for instance, is, in the same parallel of
latitude, in the opposite hemisphere. The want of hands alone retards the
development of every branch of production derivable from industry in
these regions.

[* Five months ago, soon after my return to England, I gave to the
Society of Arts two bottles of olive oil, the first samples ever
produced, I believe, in Australia. The oil was made by Mr. Kid,
superintendent of the Botanic garden at Sydney, from olives grown there,
and seemed very clear and good.]

Settled districts, back from the coast, at elevations o