6 
Introductory Paper. 
the highest practical value. Very erroneous opinions are 
liable to be formed in regard to the limited productive 
powers of Tasmania. It is apt, at first sight, to be con¬ 
ceived—and has, indeed, been sometimes represented—as 
consisting almost entirely of barren mountains, in which 
the land available for agricultural purposes has been 
taken in and cultivated ; and where, consequently, in¬ 
creased production is not to be sought for in breaking 
up new soil, but in improving and fertilizing the soil 
already under cultivation. These opinions have, doubt¬ 
less, been countenanced, if not originated, by the deci¬ 
dedly mountainous character of the greater portion of 
our Island; and especially by that peculiarly dry and 
faded aspect which the country, in its natural state, often 
presents to the eye of the superficial observer. But no 
one who has witnessed the beautiful verdure of our cultU 
rated fields in spring, and the almost unequalled perfec¬ 
tion to which the more valuable kinds of grain and fruit 
arrive, under the exquisitely genial influence of our 
climate, can hesitate for a moment about the high natural 
capacity of the country for agriculture ; while the undeni¬ 
able success which has followed the few attempts that have 
been made, even under a confessedly rude and imperfect 
system of agriculture, to carry cultivation up the sides of 
the hills, together with the very large tract of remote 
country which still remains unoccupied and almost un¬ 
known, clearly shows that the available extent of agri¬ 
cultural territory has been even more erroneously esti¬ 
mated than its fertility. 
Now the information which a scientific journal mio-],^ 
afford, in regard to the qualities of soil, the different kinds 
of manure, and even more appropriate methods and in. 
struments of cultivation, might materially aid in dis¬ 
posing and encouraging, as well as directing, the settler to 
