The principal labour in hand at Sydney at this time was what the building of the barracks occasioned; and at the other settlements the people were chiefly employed in getting into the ground the grain for the ensuing season, and in preparing for sowing the maize. This article of subsistence having in the late season proved very unprofitable, the average quantity being not more than six bushels per acre in the whole, the lieutenant-governor determined to sow with wheat as much of the public grounds as he could; and every settler who chose to apply was permitted to draw as much wheat from the public granary as his ground required, proper care being taken to insure its being applied solely to that use. At Toongabbie no addition had been made to the public ground since Governor Phillip's departure; but by a survey made at the latter end of this month it appeared, that the officers to whom lands had been granted, had cultivated and cleared two hundred and thirty-three acres, and had cut down the timber from two hundred and nineteen more. All the settlers of a different description had added something to their grounds; and there were many who might be pronounced to be advancing fast toward the comfortable situation of independent farmers. The quantity of land granted since the governor's departure amounted to one thousand five hundred and seventy-five acres, eight hundred and thirty of which lay between the towns of Sydney and of Parramatta, the lieutenant-governor wishing and purposing to form a chain of farms between these settlements. The advantages to be derived from this communication were, the opening of an extent of country in the neighbourhood of both townships, and the benefit that would ultimately accrue to the colony at large from the cultivation of a track of as good land as any that had been hitherto opened; by some indeed it was deemed superior to the land immediately about Parramatta or Toongabbie. In this chain, on the Parramatta side, were placed those settlers who came out in the _Bellona_; and although they had only taken possession of their farms about the middle of February, they had got some ground ready for wheat, and by their industry had approved themselves deserving of every encouragement.