Foreign Notices : — Australia. 671 



planted with sunflowers (Helianthus &nnuus). My neighbour, E. A. Barnit, 

 Esq., is now putting out 10 acres. It is done with a view to the oil. This 

 gentleman has erected machinery to extract and prepare the oil : he finds 

 that one bushel of the sunflower seed will give a gallon of very superior 

 oil ; and that the cake is excellent food for cattle. An acre of good land 

 produces from 60 to 75 bushels of the seed. The culture is the same as 

 that of the maize. The farmers can afford to raise it at 25 cents [I*. Id.] per 

 bushel. A good deal was done last year, but that was only to be viewed 

 in the light of an experiment. — J. L. York, Pennsylvania, May, 1830. 



High and equal Education. — Your views as to high and equal education 

 are most correct. We have an example of it in the United States. From 

 the first settlement of the country here, education has been, in a measure, 

 universal. If our government is better than that of any other country, it is 

 because more attention is paid to the education of the mass of the people. 

 Is not our government better than that of England? It furnishes the same 

 protection of individual rights at one twentieth of the expense j and, as to 

 individual comfort, there is nearly as much difference between the two 

 countries in that respect. Your correspondent has an income of 6000 

 dollars (^1300), which doubtless grants him quite as many comforts as 

 could be enjoyed in England from an income of many times the amount. 

 — J. L. York, Pennsylvania, Nov. 27, 1830. 



AUSTRALIA. 



From the Hobart Town Courier, which we receive regularly from the 

 editor, we learn that this colony is in a prosperous state ; that there is an 

 abundant demand for labour, that wages are high, and that there is no want 

 of markets either for grain or wool. Garden seeds are very high; and 

 practical gardeners, who can combine the duties of nurserymen and garden 

 architects, are very much wanted. — Cond. 



From the Report of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of New 

 South Wales for 1830 (Pamph. 8vo. pp.82.). — There_is scarcely any thing 

 in this Report on the subject of gardening; but it appears that all the agri- 

 cultural plants which have been tried, with some few exceptions, succeed, 

 and some of them in a very remarkable degree. Hops succeed well, and 

 also the sweet potato (Convolvulus) ; but the common potato is neither 

 so vigorous nor so productive in that dry climate as it is in Britain. The 

 yam (Dioscorea), on the other hand, arrives at a great degree of perfec- 

 tion. Lucern, as may be supposed, grows luxuriantly. It is easy to conceive 

 that turnips and mangold wurtzel would not arrive at a great size, and that 

 melons, cucumbers, and pumpkins should attain great bulk, and produce 

 enormous crops. Oil is made from the Palma Christi. Cotton produces 

 well ; and tobacco, it is supposed, will in time become one of the principal 

 exports, though there is no evidence that it has yet grown very luxuriantly. 

 The common British fruits, with the exception of gooseberries, currants, 

 raspberries, and strawberries, have done tolerably. Mulberries bore well ; 

 apples, pears, quinces, and medlars, abundantly. The olive tree, it is 

 thought, will be included among Australia's most favourite and profitable 

 productions. " Oranges, lemons, and citrons are in perfection, well grown, 

 and of good quality. Such shaddocks and lime trees as are of mature age 

 bear abundantly. The winter crop of loquats and guavas is abundant and 

 promising." (p. 22.) The culture of the grape is rapidly extending through- 

 out the colony, and the quality of the wine which has been made gives an 

 encouraging promise of future excellence. The president directs all vine- 

 yards to be made on the sides of hills having a south-east aspect, and a 

 light, gravelly, calcareous, or slaty soil free from clay. On his own estate 

 at Regentville, he has employed a German emigrant from the Rhine to 

 form terraces horizontally along the. hill, each 7 ft. wide, with a dry stone 



