Farm colony

“ The farm colony must be so organized that it furnishes work summer and winter. As its name implies, the colony is not confined to work on land. Many skilled workmen would lose their skill if they were put to farm work. ”

“ By the establishment of this Farm Colony we should create a great school of technical agricultural education. It would be a Working Men's Agricultural University, training people for the life which they would have to lead in the new countries they will go forth to colonise and possess.
Every man who goes to our Farm Colony does so, not to acquire his fortune, but to obtain a knowledge of an occupation and that mastery of his tools which will enable him to play his part in the battle of life. ”

“ There the colonist has no expence to incur in clearing his farm: he is not compelled to a great preliminary out-lay of capital, before he can expect a considerable return; he has only to set fire to the grass, to prepare his land for the immediate reception of the plough-share; so that, if he but possess a good team of horses, or oxen, with a set of harness, and a couple of substantial ploughs, he has the main requisites for commencing an agricultural establishment, and for ensuring a comfortable subsistence for himself and family. ”

“ Moreover, in a self-supporting farm colony there is work which can be done by the aged and the infirm, teaming, taking care of animals, plucking fruits and vegetables, preparing them for preserving, and all the small jobs that attend large housekeeping. ”

“ There would be a Superintendent on the Colony, who would be a practical gardener, familiar with the best methods of small agriculture, and everything that science and experience shows to be needful for the profitable treatment of the land. Then there would be various other forms of industry continually in progress, so that employment could be furnished, adapted to the capacity and skill of every Colonist. Where farm buildings are wanted, the Colonists must erect them themselves. If they want glass houses, they must put them up. Everything on the Estate must be the production of the Colonists. ”

“ From the Farm, as from the City, there can be no question that large numbers, resuscitated in health and character, would be restored to friends up and down the country. Some would find employment in their own callings, others would settle in cottages on a small piece of land that we should provide, or on Co-operative Farms which we intend to promote; while the great bulk, after trial and training, would be passed on to the Foreign Settlement, which would constitute our third class, namely The Over-Sea Colony. ”

“ At first each family of colonists worked on its own farm, and managed its own cattle, but it was found that the land was uncultivated, and the cattle died for want of attention or food; and in 1828 the society took back the cattle, and employed all the colonists indiscriminately in the general cultivation of the land of the colony. ”

“ Consequently, hired agricultural labor is almost impossible to secure, and each man is compelled to rely on the labor of himself and his family to cultivate his land. As a result, the typical agricultural unit becomes the small holding, occupied and tilled by a single family. The system is further established by the fact that the products of such a region are well adapted to this form of culture. This is the typical “farm” organization which gives its name to this class of colony. ”

“ During the first months of the colony, much anxiety was caused by the straying and loss of cattle in the bush, and by exposure to the weather of valuable plants and goods. Had any individual established a farm for the reception of cattle, and a ware-house to receive goods, it would have amply repaid him, and been the means of saving a vast deal of valuable stock and other property. ”

“ A rigid selection of settlers on the basis of their ability to farm and to stay on the farm is of prime importance. Among the applicants for farms in new colonies there are three main classes of people, each distinct from the others: (1) those who have experience, knowledge, and otherwise ability for land cultivation and the capacity for sticking to a job. These should be selected and will contribute to the success of the colony, which ultimately depends upon the settlers themselves ”

“ Grain had been raised in considerable quantities, cattle and hogs had multiplied, and the farmers were in the best of spirits. Even our hero, who hated farm labor, began to entertain faith in the resources of his land claim to make him rich.
Such was the promising condition of the colony in the summer of 1845. Much of the real prosperity of the settlers was due to the determination of the majority to exclude ardent spirits and all intoxicating drinks from the country. ”

“ I have spoken to some practical farmers, who have not the slightest doubt that the colony posseses every capability, both for agriculture and grazing, and though the pasture lands on this side of the hills are not extensive, there is an unlimited tract behind them, and at no great distance. ”

“ It is, in the main, the stage of contemporary colonies. What brings it to an end? The soil gets exhausted, prices fall, and a succession of wet seasons in New Zealand or of dry seasons in Australia or South Africa sends the farmer into the money market. Nearly every province of almost every colony gets mortgaged up to the hilt. The foot of the land agent is on the neck of the farmer, who becomes his tenant or serf—adscriptus glebæ as much as the Old English villeins who were the ancestors of the farmer, or the Virginia villeins who repeated in the seventeenth century the Old English status. ”

“ The settlers had come without wives and children, and each man worked not to acquire property for himself and his family but to further the general purposes of the colony. In planting corn, in felling trees, in repairing the fortifications, even in hunting or fishing, he was working for the community; whatsoever he could get by his own toil or by trade with the natives went straightway into the common stock, and the skilful and industrious fared no better than the stupid and lazy. ”

“ As a whole, however, the people of the Colony have been very comfortable in their circumstances, and the bulk of the white settlers, outside of the villages, occupy large and prosperous cattle farms in which little of the soil is cultivated, and where the work is largely performed by coloured labourers. ”

“ The majority of them are farmers, lured by the prospects of government bounty in lands, by the reported fertility of the soil, and by the desire to be first among those who are planting our institutions on the Pacific coast. Among them are artisans of every trade, comprising with farmers the very best material for a new colony. ”

“ In clearing land the settlers have so far applied hand labor almost exclusively, but in the coming year horse power will be needed. Near the houses small potato patches and vegetable gardens have been planted. Field crops have been started, in a small and primitive way, and among these oats and feed grasses predominate. The sale of milk is the most important item of income of the settlers. Dairy farming is the company's aim in the development of the colony. ”

“ On our way we passed many residences of great woolgrowers, owning as much as 20,000 acres of land each, but living, for the most part, in England, their affairs in the Colony being managed by agents. They keep only one man on each 5,000 acres. There is scarcely any agriculture, although the land is very suitable, but being taken up in this way, there is no room for population to increase, and the people have to emigrate. ”

“ A certain extent of ground is cultivated in common by the colonists, each head of a family being required to work on it three days in the year, at wages paid in a colonial paper money. The produce of this common land is employed in supplying the deficiencies of the harvests of the separate farms, and meeting the expenses of the school, the hospital, and the general Administration. The colonists are also allowed in summer to pasture their cattle in the common pastures of the colony. ”

“ In this extensive territory, forming, as it were, a succession of terraces rising above each other, much barren land exists, interspersed with many spots of extreme fertility, producing, in their wild state, plants and flowers distinguished by the elegance of their forms and colours. The colony is capable of much improvement, and of maintaining a much larger population than that by which it is occupied. The principal of the rural occupants are wine-growers, corn-farmers and graziers ”

“ This person, on seeing the Toongabbie hills covered with a most promising crop of wheat, declared that be had never seen better in America, even at Rhode island, the garden of America; and on being shown some Indian corn of last year's growth, gave it as his opinion, that we wanted nothing but large herds of grazing cattle, to be a thriving, prosperous, and great colony, possessing within itself all the essential articles of life. ”

“ It occupies a man twenty days to break up an acre with a hoe, from its wild state, though this could be done easily with cattle. But, as I have already observed, we have few of them, and the neighbouring colonies will not send them, either from jealousy or fear; and individually we cannot afford to charter vessels and import them, and we are not yet strong enough to form a company. What can we then do?—two or three hundred head of cattle, and two or three thousand sheep, would be purchased by us, if they were sent by Government at a fair rate; and this would establish the colony. ”

“ It would also be advantageous, following the example of the Voluntary Colonies which have been established in this and other countries, to begin each settlement on a tract of land, a considerable part of which, at least, is undeveloped, with a view to the provision of an abundance of rough outdoor labour by means of works of reclamation, and to securing to the Colony the increased value which such works would create. It is also desirable that the Colonies, while lying away from towns, should have good means of communication. ”

“ The land is, on the whole, [Pg 182] fertile when properly drained, and a portion of it is of excellent quality and suitable for winter wheat, clover, and grass; other portions are more suited to pasture, vegetables, and forestry, and there is a stretch of peat land and sand.
When the estate was adopted for the purpose of a Forced Labour Colony the first works carried out on a large scale were road making, drainage, and building, and these have greatly increased the value of the Colony. ”

“ Industrious, saving, intelligent and persevering, with good land, plenty of water at all times of the year, and with a good location which insures health and comfort, there is no reason why they should not succeed. The colony is most beautifully situated on high sloping ground,—a veritable mesa land overlooking the vast Merced plains, and only four or five miles distant from the city. ”

“ In the short space of fifteen years, he said, the handful of men who founded the colony had—assisted by a few capitalists only, and unassisted by Government—stocked the country with 86,000 sheep, 5,000 cattle, and 1,200 horses, besides bringing 4,800 acres of agricultural land under cultivation. ”

“ The flats or plains near the stations are seen animated by immense droves of cattle, revelling in all the luxury furnished by a rich herbage. This part of the colony may be correctly termed a land flowing with milk, and even, we may say occasionally, with honey, as the latter is sometimes procured by the native blacks from the hollow trunk of a tree; by watching the direction in which the bees fly when proceeding homeward, and following them, they thus discover [261] and rob the industrious insects of the “sweets of their life.” ”

“ As for the second class of settlers, the growers of grain and other field produce for the colonial market, as they consist generally of industrious emancipated convicts, or of free emigrants, originally of the class of agricultural labourers, who have previously lived as hired servants on estates in the colony ”

“ A new door will be open to the commerce of this country, and, of course, a vent found for the consumption pf a portion of our surplus manufactures; indeed it cannot be expected, for some years to come, the Colony will be able to supply itself with the raw material of any useful article, as the attention of every one will be rivetted to agriculture. The land must be tilled, habitations must be erected, and cattle must be reared. To produce food by manual labour, and to improve the land under the Colonial Regulations, will be the first consideration ”

“ The colony, indeed, has prospered much, quadrupling its population and trebling its exports and revenue in six years, but it is the Darling Downs, and other table-land sheep countries, or, on the other hand, the Northern gold fields, which are the main cause of the prosperity; and in the sugar and cotton culture of the coast, colored labor is now almost exclusively employed, with the usual effect of degrading field-work in the eyes of European settlers, and of forcing upon the country a form of society of the aristocratic type. ”

“ They arrive at the conclusion, which the impartial observer will endorse, that the productiveness of the different areas of the colony under a fair system of farming is in no way behind the sister colonies, and that its backwardness hitherto is in no way traceable to any inherent infertility of the soil, but is due rather to the isolation of the colony an d to the diffi­culty of obtaining a cash market for the products of agriculture. ”