on the banks of rivers above the navigable waters are often unequalled in richness, while the valleys are composed of a soft clay, producing a rich coarse herbage, very fit for pasturing horned cattle, but unsuitable for cultivation.
The neighbourhood of the first settlement, west and south-west of Sydney, is chiefly composed of sandstone and unproductive clays. The first good land was found in patches on the River Hawkesbury; and on the alluvial flats formed by the overflowing fresh-water rivers the richest cultivable land is to be found. Works for draining or irrigating can only be attempted where damming a valley or draining a high-lying marsh can produce a great effect at a moderate expense. For half a century the progress of colonisation in Australia has rested on its pastoral resources, which are of the very first order, as regards soil, climate, and arrangement of territory.
From the level of the sea to the summit of the highest mountains pastures are to be found extending for hundreds of miles,—now undulating smoothly and almost imperceptibly, then extending in broad, flat plains, or over a succession of round-backed hills, broken with rocky ranges, and ending in deep gullies. Over these the flockmaster may, if needful, drive his flock for days, nay, for weeks, without meeting any serious interruption to his progress, or without failure of the pasture on which sheep thrive.
The districts which, from their dampness and rankness of the vegetation, would be unsuitable for sheep, are available for cattle, which in certain regions, in default of grass, find good feed on the tender branches of a species of primrose.
Agriculture has hitherto been but rudely pursued in Australia, with rare exceptions. To gentlemen of capital it is not, and is not likely to become, a profitable pursuit; for this reason, a prejudice against the agricultural capabilities of the colonies has been entertained and sedulously encouraged among the pastoral interest, who, dreading the prospect of a class of yeomanry which might encroach on their sheep-walks, can with difficulty be induced to admit that there is any fertile soil to be found—a prejudice which must always be taken into consideration in estimating the value of colonial evidence on such subjects. It is quite certain that ignorant cultivators have successfully cropped farms on the Hawkesbury, the Hunter, the Macquarie, year after year, without manure, and without any sensible diminution in the returns. As to quality of grain, the wheat imported into this country from South Australia, Port Phillip, and Van Diemen's Land, has been pronounced equal to any ever exhibited in Mark-lane for weight, size, and flavour.
