difficult and expensive, that but a very limited supply of them was furnished, in comparison with its necessities.  The increase, therefore, of these cattle could only be proportionate to their number; while no bounds were as yet assigned to the extension of agriculture, but, on the contrary, the whole combined energies of the colonists directed to this single channel, by the great demand which existed for their produce.  Not but that the rearing of cattle was from the commencement equally, and indeed far more profitable than the cultivation of the land; but their exorbitant price excluded all but a few great capitalists from embarking in so profitable an undertaking; while, on the contrary, a stock of provisions with a few axes and hoes, and a good pair of hands to wield them, were the principal requisites for an agricultural establishment; and, indeed, in the early period of this settlement, all these essentials were supplied the colonists by the liberality of the government, till sufficient time had elapsed for the application of the produce of their farms to their own support.

[* This epoch may be dated so far back as 1804:  the harvest of that year was so abundant, and the surplus of grain so extensive, that no sale could be had for more than one half of the crop.  During the greater part of the following year, wheat sold at prices scarcely sufficient to cover the expence of reaping, thrashing, and carrying it to market; pigs and other stock were fed upon it; and these two years of such extraordinary abundance involved the whole agricultural body in the greatest distress; grain was then their only property, and it was of so little value that it was invariably rejected by their creditors in payment of their debts.  The consequence was that it was wasted and neglected in the most shocking manner; scarcely any person would give it house room, and had the harvest of the following year proved equally abundant, the majority of the settlers must have abandoned their farms, and sought for other employment.  Fortunately, however, for the agricultural interests, the great flood of 1806 intervened to prevent the impending desertion; the old and the new stocks on the banks of the Hawkesbury and Nepean were all swept away, and thus for a few years afterwards the supply of grain was pretty nearly kept on a level with the demand for it.]

But to return to the epoch when the supply of corn became too great for the demand, and when, as has been already noticed, some part of those who till then had been exclusively engaged in agriculture, turned their attention to the more beneficial occupation of rearing cattle; still the secession of these, who formed but a very inconsiderable member of the agricultural body, in consequence of the enormous price of cattle even at that period, and the great capital which it consequently required to become a stock-holder to any extent, afforded but a very trivial relief to those who adhered from necessity to their original