to be the best in the colony. I thought it of good height,
and the ears well filled, but it is far from thick.

[*Dod, who is mentioned in my former journal of this place, had died
some months ago. And Mr. Clarke, who was put in his room, is one of the
superintendants, sent out by government, on a salary of forty pounds per
annum. He was bred to husbandry, under his father at Lewes in Sussex;
and is, I conceive, competent to his office of principal conductor of the
agriculture of Rose Hill.]

While I was looking at it, Clarke came up. I told him I thought he would
reap fifteen or sixteen bushels an acre; he seemed to think seventeen or
eighteen. I have now inspected all the European corn. A man of so little
experience of these matters as myself cannot speak with much confidence.
Perhaps the produce may average ten bushels an acre, or twelve at the
outside. Allowance should, however, be made in estimating the quality of
the soil, for the space occupied by roots of trees, for inadequate culture,
and in some measure to want of rain. Less has fallen than was wished, but
this spring was by no means so dry as the last. I find that the wheat grown
at Rose Hill last year weighed fifty-seven pounds and a half per bushel. My
next visit was to the cattle, which consists of two stallions, six mares,
and two colts; besides sixteen cows, two cow-calves, and one bull-calf,
which were brought out by the Gorgon. Two bulls which were on board died
on the passage, so that on the young gentleman just mentioned depends the
stocking of the colony.

The period of the inhabitants of New South Wales being supplied with animal
food of their own raising is too remote for a prudent man to calculate.
The cattle look in good condition, and I was surprised to hear that neither
corn nor fodder is given to them. The enclosures in which they are confined
furnish hardly a blade of grass at present. There are people appointed to
tend them who have been used to this way of life, and who seem to execute
it very well.

Sunday, December 4th, 1791. Divine service is now performed here every
Sunday, either by the chaplain of the settlement or the chaplain of the
regiment. I went to church today. Several hundred convicts were present,
the majority of whom I thought looked the most miserable beings in the
shape of humanity I ever beheld. They appeared to be worn down with
fatigue.

December, 5th. Made excursions this day to view the public settlements.
Reac