I have often wondered about the kinds of wheat that may have arrived with the First Fleet and which James Ruse, a reformed convict turned wheat farmer, later grew and selected.
The answer may remain elusive, as variety names in the 1700s tended to be colloquial and confined to individual farmers or small rural districts. There must have been literally hundreds of provenance or "landrace" varieties in existence in the English countryside, but detailed information about them was seldom published.
The First Fleet departed from Portsmouth on the Isle of Portsea on 13th May 1787 . By the late 1700s wheat would certainly have been grown in the Hampshire countryside, but as William Page points out in his book A History of the County of Hampshire published in 1908, the soil of Portsea is very poor, with sands and gravels to the south and heavy clay to the north.. He further adds:
"Vegetables only are grown in any quantity, and all wheat is imported. In the seventeenth century the inhabitants depended almost entirely on the Isle of Wight for their supplies of wheat and flour. This fact doubtless accounts for the scarcity of mills in the island." (Page, 1908, p. 172).
Although the manifests of The First Fleet show that 60 bushels of seed wheat were loaded in Portsmouth, the Fleet also picked up grain in other sea ports along the way. The First Fleet stopped at ports in the Canary Islands (3 June 1787), Rio de Janeiro (4 Aug - 4 Sept, 1787) and Capetown 13 Oct - 13 Nov, 1787) and seed wheat was procured from the latter two of these ports.
Unfortunately, by the time the Fleet had arrived in the new colony, most of its supplies of grain had spoiled due to moisture and predation by weevils, and subsequent over-heating. The fields then sown to this seed also ultimately failed, due to lack of viability, further accident, and poor husbandry. So a second shipment of wheat and other stores and provisions had to be procured quickly from Capetown.
James Ruse and the "Bearded Wheat" :
In his publication of 1793, marine officer Watkin Tench writes of his visit to the farm of ex-convict James Ruse in November 1790. On page 80, Ruse provides Tench with an account of his experiences with growing "bearded wheat" in the new colony.
Source: Tench, Watkin. (1793)
A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson in New South Wales Including an Accurate Description of the Colony (etc.) - Nicol. London.
A newspaper article from 1925 is more specific about the kind of wheat that James Ruse was growing at Parramatta in the early days of the colony. The author calls it a "red-awned bearded wheat", but unfortunately does not provide the source of the information, although the article appears to be well-researched. (
Morning Bulletin, 31 Mar, 1925, p.7)
James Ruse was a First Fleet convict who came from Cornwall. After his release in August 1789, he became the first emancipated convict to receive a grant of land. He married Elizabeth Perry (aka Elisabeth Parry) on 5th September 1790. In May and June 1790, Ruse began to clear and prepare his land for crops. He manually hoed his ground, tilling it deeply, and dug in abundant burnt ash. On the cultivated ground he planted bearded wheat and from his one and a half acres of land he got ten bushels of grain. Ruse had planted the first successful wheat crop in Australia. He had succeeded where the Government Farm had failed, and he had proven that wheat could be grown here. In March of 1791, Ruse was granted a further 30 acres and a brick cottage, which was named "Experimental Farm" on the deed. On this land he refined his methods and grew further selections of his bearded wheat.
Source: "JAMES RUSE". (1925, March 31).
Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld. : 1878 - 1954), p. 7. Retrieved June 23, 2015, from
Trove NLA Digitized Newspaper Article #54301868.
Artist's Depiction of James Ruse.
The fledgling colony of Parramatta in 1793.
Titled Vista de la Colonia de Paramata en la Nuova Gales Mendional by Fernando Brambila.
Source: la Cátedra interinstitucional de Historia Naval (Armada Española-Universidad de Murcia).
Early map of Parramatta showing the 30 acre block belonging to James Ruse.
The Possible Identity of Ruse's "Bearded Wheat" :
The taxonomy of the 18th Century was heavily influenced by the work of Joannis Raii (aka John Ray, also "John Wray") who published in the late 17th Century. The reliance on common names in the 17th and 18th Century literature has made the task of identifying species, varieties and cultivars of wheat very frustrating and difficult. The big problem with common names is that one name can apply to more than one entity.
To use some modern examples to illustrate this problem: in Germany "korn" can mean wheat; however in Scotland "corn" can mean rye or barley; while "maize" in the UK and Scotland can be corn; but in America "corn" is corn (i.e.
Zea mays), and in many Western countries "corn flour" can also be wheat flour.
The taxonomy of the 17th and early 18th centuries is just as confusing, because cone or rivet wheats (
Triticum turgidum subsp.
turgidum) were sometimes referred to as "bearded wheats" due to the presence of awns. However these are winter wheats that generally shed their awns on ripening, whereas the term "bearded wheat" (in its most widely used and recognized sense today), is a spring-planted wheat with persistent awns. The common name "bearded wheat" should generally refer to
Triticum aestivum subsp.
aestivum, not
T. turgidum, but in the old literature this was not always the case. It was not until the early 1800s that the classification was clarified, e.g. in 1822, Stephen Reynolds Clarke provides an eloquent summary of the main varieties of wheat being cultivated in England in his
Hortus Anglicus; or, The Modern English Garden, Vol. 1. F. C. & J. Rivington. London. pp. 59-61.
It could therefore seem unwise to speculate too much on the actual variety of wheat that James Ruse had grown in 1790, particularly if we base our assumptions entirely on the contemporary literature. At first glance at this subject, we may well imagine that Ruse's "bearded wheat" was one of the tall and lanky straw varieties from England, such as those traditionally used for thatching and weaving; or, alternatively, a kind of old English "pollard" or rivet (commonly called Cone wheat). A possible contender may well be the one shown in the second photo on this webpage (click following link).
Bearded Red Wheat (W1012) [
Triticum aestivum subsp.
aestivum]. A tall long awned red chaffed form, similar to 'April Bearded' but a winter type with better standing ability. Canopy height 130 cm. (
Source: John Innes Centre, 2015.)
Nevertheless, many of the farm husbandry and "gentleman society" publications of the 1700s do provide some clues as to the possible identity of early colonial wheat varieties in Australia.
One such publication is John Morton's 1712
The Natural History of Northamptonshire. R. Knaplock. London.
Morton was the Rector of Oxendon and a naturalist. His book provides a fairly comprehensive classification of the main kinds of cereals being grown in Northamptonshire in the early 1700s.
Morton writes of a "Red-ear'd bearded Wheat" Triticum aristis circumvallatum, &c.
J. R.
Red and white bearded varieties are described and illustrated by William Salmon in his
Botanologia. Dawks, Rhodes and Taylor, 1710. The small bunched grains and short, fine awns shown in his illustration are highly suggestive of
Triticum turgidum types.
Bearded wheat as it is illustrated in Salmon (1710, p. 1249).
A red bearded variety is mentioned by the author Richard Bradley in 1727, as follows:
"Triticum aristis circumvallatum, granis & spica rubentibus, glumas levibus & splendentibus Raii. Synop. Plant. aristis circumvallatum, Ger. Park. Red bearded wheat".
Source: Bradley, Richard (ed.). 1727.
Husbandry and trade improv'd: being a collection of many valuable materials relating to corn, cattle, coals, hops, wool, &c. ; with a compleat catalogue of the several sorts of earths, and their proper product ... as also full and exact histories of trades, as malting, brewing, &c. Woodman and Lyon. London.
The book
Horse-hoeing Husbandry, Or, An Essay on the Principles of Vegetation and Tillage: by Jethro Tull. A. Millar. London. (1751) distinguishes between the two most commonly grown wheat varieties in Britain: Cone and Lammas. Note that Cone wheat is referred to as "Bearded wheat" by Tull.
"Bearded wheat is in this country called Cone, and that which has no Beard Lammas." (Tull, 1751, p. 425.)
Evidence From Early Colonial Accounts :
A significant clue to the identity of one wheat variety that was being cultivated in the colony in 1795 comes from the account of Lieutenant Collins (published in 1804).
"The harvest was begun early in December; when the Cape wheat (a bearded kind of grain differing much from the English), was found universally to have failed, and was pronounced not worth the labour of sowing." (Collins, 1804, p. 313).
Source: Collins, David; King, Philip Gidley; Bass, George. 1804.
An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales: From Its First Settlement in January 1788, to August 1801.... T. Cadell and W. Davies. The Strand.
Then in William Wentworth's
Description of the Colony of New South Wales, published in 1819 by Whittaker of London, we find another important clue:
"The red and white lammas and the Cape or bearded wheat are the species generally cultivated." (Wentworth, 1819, p. 92).
It seems likely that Red and White Lammas [which are spring-planted, awnless varieties of
Triticum aestivum] did arrive very early to the colony, as they were widely grown in England throughout the 1700s. Other common wheat varieties of the time, such as Velvet-eared (or "Hoary") wheat, April Bearded, and Cone wheat varieties, may have also been transported.
Cape wheat was almost certainly picked up from Capetown during the Fleet's month-long stopover there, as it was not widely cultivated in England until the 1800s. Unfortunately, by the time the Fleet had arrived in the new colony, most of its cargo of grain had spoiled due to moisture and predation by weevils, and subsequent over-heating. The fields then sown to this seed also ultimately failed, due to lack of viability, further accident, and poor husbandry. So a second shipment of wheat and other stores and provisions had to be procured quickly from Capetown. Governor Phillip wasted no time in ordering the
Sirius under the command of John Hunter to fulfill this urgent task.
I will discuss the circumstances of the first and second introductions of wheat from Capetown in more detail in the sections following.
The Possible Identity of "Cape Wheat" :
I have been frustrated in my attempts to find an illustration of Cape wheat from the time of James Ruse, but there are some reasonable early descriptions of it. The Farmers Magazine, Vol. 20, of 1819 describes it as such:
"Red Sprat or Cape Wheat has a short flat ear with the grain remarkably close set and much chaff; the straw is short and strong, except immediately under the ear, where it is brittle and liable to break off in the field when ripe. This wheat is most proper for rich soils as it does not easily lodge: although it ripens early, has very plump grain, and yields well in some cases, yet it is always very defective after an unkind blooming season." (
Source:
The Farmers Magazine, Vol. 20. 1819. Constable, Edinburgh. p. 316).
It is described briefly in the 1842
Journal of the Agricultural & Horticultural Society of India, Vol. 1 (Medical Journal Press. Fort William.):
"Cape wheat. The ears very fine. The stalks not very abundant; the straw remarkably strong." (p. 143).
The
GRIS wheat pedigree database describes Cape Wheat as being superficially similar to the cultivars "Defiance" and "Fife". Cape wheat is a hexaploid bread wheat, being
Triticum aestivum L. subsp.
aestivum.
"Cape wheat" possibly reached England in 1768, following the passing of an act of Parliament, which, for a limited time, permitted the duty free importation of wheat and wheat flour from Africa. It may also have arrived via European sources.
Cape wheat is perhaps what the French called "Blé du Cap Barbu" or "Barbu du Cap"*. By the mid to late 1800s there were several varieties of "Blé du Cap", as classified by Vilmorin, including a broad leaf, a bearded and a "Pictet" form (with fewer and shorter awns). A copy of Vilmorin's lengthy 1895 classification can be downloaded from the Brockwell Bake website (Warning, this is a tome, so may take some extra time to download!):
link - de Vilmorin, Henry L. 1895. Catalogue Méthodique et Synonymique des Froments qui Composent la Collection. Edition 2. Chez vilmorin-andrieux & c.
* Other names for "Cape wheat" include: "Kapweizen" or "Wesser Bartweizen vom Cap" in German; "Kaap Tarwe" or "Kaap Bebaarde Tarwe" in Dutch; "Kaap Koring" or "Kaap Bebaarde Koring" in Afrikaans. "Barbu du Cap" occasionally appears in contemporary English literature as "Barbu de Cap".
A photo of a "Bearded Cape wheat" (or "Barbu du Cap") can be found on
The Brockwell Bake Wheat Gateway database - link.
Left: "Bearded Cape wheat" ("Barbu du Cap").
Right: The variety "Blé du Cap cv. Pictet" with its greatly reduced awns.
Photo at left Copyright: INRA, Audrey Didier.
These are undoubtedly the same varieties that were described by Auguste Desvaux in 1831 and replicated by Louis Vivien in 1836:
"Bearded Cape (Triticum sativum capense); ears elongated (large), whitish; glumes with mediocre tips; grain large, yellow, tender; foliage, when green is covered with bluish bloom. It is a hardy variety, a little less early than our [French] varieties, but succeeding perfectly.
"Bearded Pictet (Triticum sativum pictetianum); much like the bearded Cape wheat, for the chaff and grain; but it is less robust, lower in height. It succeeds very well. It has varied little in the colour of the grain, which is less yellow, since that it is cultivated in our gardens."
Sources: Desvaux, A. N. 1831.
Opuscules sur les sciences physiques et naturelles: L. Pavie. Angers. And Vivien, Louis. 1836.
Cours Complet D'agriculture ou Nouveau Dictionnaire D'agriculture Théorique et Pratique .... Pourrat. Paris.
It does seem likely that "Cape wheat" was always a rather generic or collective term and could have covered a range of different wheat varieties and selections. "Cape wheat" is evidently still being grown in South Africa to this day, but I suspect the name is rather loosely applied and refers to nearly any bearded African bread wheat. The seed companies certainly differentiate between cultivars of line-bred "Cape wheat" and other wheat cultivars, but it is doubtful if many of these modern cultivars have much in common with original forms of "Cape wheat". Many however possibly do still carry the original genes in their pedigree.
Cape wheat is listed in Spennemann's publication of 19th Century Australian wheat varieties. Spennemann reports that Cape wheat was of South African origins and was being tested for rust resistance in Australia in 1891. He describes it as having a "bald ear", which is smooth, whitish or yellowish in colour; grain red or amber, hard on "bite test", of medium milling quality; flag moderate; straw strong; and heads showing little tendency to shell. He also provides an illustration. This variety of Cape wheat was evidently closer to the "Pictet" variety of Vilmorin and was clearly not the same as the bearded variety described in earlier colonial accounts.
Cape wheat, as illustrated in Spennemann (2001).
The genebank of INRA Clermont-Ferrand have another accession called "CAPE" in their collection, which originated from South Africa in 1929. This variety is very similar to the one described and illustrated by Spennemann.
An accession simply known as "CAPE" (No. 1778)
in the genebank of INRA Clermont-Ferrand in France.
Photo: Copyright: INRA, Audrey Didier.
To add to the taxonomic confusion, the celebrated English horticulturist and agronomist, George Sinclair (1825, p. 423), writes the following:
"When the wheat came into blossom, it proved to be the common bearded spring or cape wheat, which in this climate is very subject to the rust disease, or rubigo; and its power to supply clean or bright straw is therefore rendered very uncertain, even should a mode of culture be found out, under the circumstances of a British climate, that would afford culms or straw of this grain sufficiently fine, and at the same time of a texture sufficiently tough and firm for the Leghorn plait; but experience will prove that these last-mentioned properties are not to be obtained here by this plant ." (
Source: Sinclair, George. 1825.
Hortus Gramineus Woburnensis, Or, An Account of the Results of Experiments on the Produce and Nutritive Qualities of Different Grasses and Other Plants Used as the Food of the More Valuable Domestic Animals: J. Ridgway. London.)
So this brings us back to the very real possibility that "Cape wheat" was just a colloquial name for an existing English landrace variety of common bearded wheat or spring wheat, such as "April bearded", or a "Red-bearded wheat". But as was so often the case, the application and usage of common names in colloquial settings during the 16th to 18th centuries has made positive identifications very difficult.
First Fleet Wheat - A Problem of Supply and Storage :
Captain Phillip was a meticulous and methodical planner. He had not counted on English supplies surviving the entire voyage and had planned to stock up on provisions and supplies at every opportunity. The First Fleet was docked in Capetown for an entire month. The final leg of the voyage was incredibly long and potentially hazardous. The Fleet had to navigate a vast expanse of uncharted or poorly-charted waters, which to this day has a reputation for rough weather, lashing winds and enormous swells.
The Manifests of the First Fleet state that 60 Bushels of Seed Wheat were among the original provisions of the Fleet when it left Portsmouth. (
Source: First Fleet Fellowhip, 2013).
The narrative of Watkin Tench is very telling, as it suggests that no wheat at all was provided to the Fleet for purposes of human consumption during the long voyage.
"Of two hundred and twelve marines we lost only one; and of seven hundred and seventy-five convicts, put on board in England, but twenty-four perished in our route. To what cause are we to attribute this unhoped for success? I wish I could answer to the liberal manner in which Government supplied the expedition. But when the reader is told, that some of the necessary articles allowed to ships on a common passage to West Indies, were withheld from us; that portable soup, wheat, and pickled vegetables were not allowed; and that an inadequate quantity of essence of malt was the only anti-scorbutic supplied, his surprise will redouble at the result of the voyage. For it must be remembered, that the people thus sent out were not a ship's company starting with every advantage of health and good living, which a state of freedom produces; but the major part a miserable set of convicts, emaciated from confinement, and in want of cloaths, and almost every convenience to render so long a passage tolerable. " (Tench, 1789).
The First Fleet evidently picked up additional wheat in Rio and Capetown during their stopovers at each port, as evidenced from Phillip's later correspondence. Wheat had been grown around Capetown with some success, ever since it was founded by the Dutch in 1652. However supplies were very limited when the Fleet landed there, as made evident in this very despondent narrative of marine officer Watkin Tench, published in 1789:
"At seven o’clock in the evening of the 13th of October, we cast anchor in Table Bay, and found many ships of different nations in the harbour.
"Little can be added to the many accounts already published of the Cape of Good Hope, though, if an opinion on the subject might be risqued, the descriptions they contain are too flattering. When contrasted with Rio de Janeiro, it certainly suffers in the comparison. Indeed we arrived at a time equally unfavourable for judging of the produce of the soil and the temper of its cultivators, who had suffered considerably from a dearth that had happened the preceding season, and created a general scarcity. Nor was the chagrin of these deprivations lessened by the news daily arriving of the convulsions that shook the republic, which could not fail to make an impression even on Batavian phlegm.
"As a considerable quantity of flour, and the principal part of the live stock, which was to store our intended settlement, were meant to be procured here, Governor Phillip lost no time in waiting on Mynheer Van Graaffe, the Dutch Governor, to request permission (according to the custom of the place) to purchase all that we stood in need of. How far the demand extended, I know not....
"The table land, which stands at the back of the town, is a black dreary looking mountain, apparently flat at top, and of more than eleven hundred yards in height. The gusts of wind which blow from it are violent to an excess, and have a very unpleasant effect, by raising the dust in such clouds, as to render stirring out of doors next to impossible. Nor can any precaution prevent the inhabitants from being annoyed by it, as much within doors as without." Source: Tench, Watkin. 1789.
A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay. J. Debrett. London.
By contrast, the Fleet's earlier one month stopover in Rio de Janeiro had coincided with a time of plenty and Tench remarks at length on the great variety of fresh products that were available. Wheat growing in Rio Grande do Sul had begun about 1770 and Brazil would have had plentiful supplies of wheat by the time the First Fleet arrived there, which the following passage by historian Leslie Bethell confirms:
"Wheat growing in Rio Grande do Sul began about 1770 but, as with the cultivation of rice, its production was initially restricted by the absence of grist mills or of a knowledge of how to make them. In 1773 the crown dispatched a master carpenter and a master miller from Lisbon to remedy that problem, and three years later they returned from Rio Grande do Sul having apparently accomplished their mission. By 1780 wheat was being sown at the northern and southern extremities of the Lagoa dos Patos, around the towns of Porto Alegre and Rio Grande, the first centres of wheat farming in the captaincy, and in exceptional years yields as high as 70:1 were attained. Grain shipments to other parts of Brazil began in the early 1790s, averaging nearly 94,000 alqueires (75,200 bushels) a year, and by the turn of the century the annual harvest reached nearly 160,000 bushels. Half of the crop was sent to Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, and Pernambuco, and wheat joined processed beef and hides as one of Rio Grande do SuI's most conspicuous exports. The availability of a local grain source within Brazil meant that Portugal was able to reduce wheat shipments to Brazil and apparently to lessen her dependence on foreign sources." Source: Bethell, Leslie. 1984.
Colonial Brazil. Cambridge University Press. London. P. 325.
A more enthusiastic account of the First Fleet's voyage from Capetown, penned by George Worgan, ship's surgeon on board the
Sirius, is also worthy of note:
"- We sailed from the Cape of Good Hope on the 12th of November 1787- As that was the last civilized Country We should touch at, in our Passage to Botany Bay We provided ourselves with every Article, necessary for the forming a civilized Colony, Live Stock, consisting of Bulls, Cows, Horses Mares, Colts, Sheep, Hogs, Goats Fowls and other living Creatures by Pairs. We likewise, procured a vast Number of Plants, Seeds & other Garden articles, such, as Orange, Lime, Lemon, Quince Apple, Pear Trees, in a Word, every Vegetable Production that the Cape afforded. Thus Equipped, each Ship like another Noah's Ark, away we steered for Botany Bay, and after a tolerably pleasant Voyage of 10 Weeks & 2 Days Governour Phillip, had the Satisfaction to see the whole of his little Fleet safe at Anchor in the said Bay." Source: Journal and Letters of George Bouchier Worgan (20 January 1788 - 11 July 1788). State Library of New South Wales. Unpublished transcript. Page 1.
Here is another account on the procurement of seed by Lieutenant David Collins:
"As it was earnestly wished to introduce the fruits of the Cape into the new settlement, Captain Phillip was ably assisted in his endeavours to procure the rarest and the best of every species, both in plant and seed, by Mr. Mason, the king's botanist, whom we were so fortunate as to meet with here, as well as by Colonel Gordon, the commander in chief of the troops at this place; a gentleman whose thirst for natural knowledge amply qualified him to be of service to us, not only in procuring a great variety of the best seeds and plants, but in pointing out the culture, the soil, and the proper time of introducing them into the ground.
"The following plants and seeds were procured here and at Rio de Janeiro:
"AT RIO DE JANEIRO
"Coffee--both seed and plant
Cocoa-in the nut
Cotton-seed
Banana-plant
Oranges--various sorts, seed and plant
Lemon--seed and plant
Guava--seed
Tamarind
Prickly pear-plant, with the cochineal on it
Eugenia, or Pomme Rose--a plant bearing a fruit in shape like an apple,
and having the flavour and odour of a rose
Ipecacuana--three sorts
Jalap
"AT THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE
"The Fig-tree
Bamboo
Spanish Reed
Sugar Cane
Vines of various sorts
Quince
Apple
Pear
Strawberry
Oak
Myrtle
"To these must be added all sorts of grain, as Rice, Wheat, Barley,
Indian corn, etc. for seed, which were purchased to supply whatever
might be found damaged of these articles that were taken on board
in England."
Source: Collins, David. 1798. An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales: with Remarks on the dispositions, Customs, Manners, etc. of the Native Inhabitants of That Country.... Vol. 1. T. Cadell Jun. and W. Davies. The Strand. Introduction, Section II.
First Crops in a New Land - A Problem of Expertise and Re-Supply :
Surgeon Worgan writes enthusiastically of his first experiences with growing plants in the new colony:
"I opened one of my Potatoe Beds, & found 6 or 7 at each Root; Indian Corn, and English Wheat, I think promise very fair; But on the whole, it is evident, that from some Cause or other, tho' most of ye Seeds vegetate, the Plants degenerate in their Growth exceedingly.
"The Plants which we brought here, from the Rio de Janeiro and the Cape of Good Hope look tolerably promising, for ye most part, but some of these have perished, and others appear to be withering. - From the short time we have been here, 'twill be unfair to speak positively on the Climate or the Soil, a Round of y Seasons will decide this Issue." (Worgan, SL-NSW, p. 8).
Despite this initial optimism, it was not long before the colony was close to starving. In October 1788, Governor Phillip sent the
Sirius under the command of John Hunter back to the Cape of Good Hope to buy emergency supplies for the colony. Phillip writes despairingly about the reasons for this voyage in September 1788:
"... it was now found that very little of the English wheat had vegetated, and a very considerable quantity of barley and many seeds had rotted in the ground, having been heated in the passage, and some much injured by the weevil; all the barley and wheat, likewise, which had been put on board the Supply at the Cape, were destroyed by the weevil. The ground was therefore necessarily sown a second time with the seed which I had saved for the next year, in case the crops in the ground met with any accident. The wheat sent to Norfolk Island had likewise failed, and there did not remain seed to sow one acre. I could not be certain that the ships which are expected would bring any quantity of grain, or if put on board them, that they would preserve it good by a proper attention to the stowage, to the want of which I impute our present loss....
".... has left us without a bushel of seed in the settlement. Having only a year's flour in store, Captain Hunter has orders to purchase as much as the ship can stow, and I apprehend he will be able to bring six months' supply for the settlement, as likewise what seed wheat, &c., we may want." Source: Phillip, A. [official extracts]. In Barton, G. B.. History of New South Wales From the Records. Vol I. Governor Phillip, 1783-1789
In a later despatch to Lord Sydney in October 1788, Phillip writes:
"By his Majesty's ship Sirius I had the honor of informing your lordship of my reasons for sending that ship to the Cape of Good Hope: The loss of all the seed-wheat and the greatest part of the other grains and seeds brought from England, which had been heated in the long passage, and very little of which, when sown, ever vegetated. All the seed-wheat put on board the Supply at the Cape of Good Hope had likewise been destroyed by the weevil; and after sowing the ground a second time with what seed had been brought from Rio de Janeiro and the Cape of Good Hope, there did not remain sufficient to sow a single acre; and the crops in the ground are exposed to various accidents in our present situation." Source: Phillip, A. [official extracts]. In Barton, G. B.. History of New South Wales From the Records. Vol I. Governor Phillip, 1783-1789.
It was a terribly long and arduous trip for the crew of the
Sirius, because the weather was severe and they had to sail east with the winds in their favour. To make matters worse, the
Sirius was in poor condition and constantly taking on water, forcing the crew to manually pump it out every two hours. At one point while rounding Cape Horn they dodged icebergs, which Hunter claimed were half-blackened with the earth or mud from wherever they had originated, and were the size of islands. All on board were constantly cold and damp. Nevertheless they made it to Capetown, where they purchased six months’ supply of flour, and twelve months’ provisions, including seed wheat and barley, for the colony (Beckett, 2012, p. 11). The
Sirius set sail for Sydney in February 1789 and arrived back at Sydney Cove in May 1789.
Source: Beckett, Gordon. 2012. Industries that Formed a Colony: (the Growth of Industrial Development in the New Colony of NSW from 1788, Including a Study of the Formation and Operations of the VDL Company). Trafford Publishing. Singapore.
So the available evidence suggests that prior to May 1789, most of the original wheat that had been brought or picked up by the First Fleet had perished, either during transit or not long after sowing.
From 1788 to 1792, Governor Phillip repeatedly wrote to Britain requesting more supplies, as well as sending out ships to seek provisions elsewhere. For instance, in February 1790, Phillip made plans to send the
Sirius to China to get more provisions, but the ship was wrecked before it could return to receive the orders. On March 19 the currents swept her on to the reef off Norfolk Island and she was lost.
In April 1790 Phillip sent another ship, the
Supply, to Batavia (now Jakarta) to get more rations, mainly rice. It returned 5 months later.
The consumption of precious seed-wheat had evidently been forbidden in the colony during this time, as Lieutenant Collins provides the following account of the provisions in the public stores on 12 April, 1790. It illustrates how dire the colony's circumstances were:
"Pork 23,851 pounds,) Which was 26th Aug.---4 months 14 days.
Beef 1,280 pounds,) to serve
Rice 24,455 pounds,) at the 13th Sept.--5 months 1 day.
Peas 17 bushels,) ration
Flour 56,884 pounds,) then issued 19th Dec.---8 months 7 days.
Biscuit 1,924 pounds,) until
"The duration of the Supply's voyage was generally expected to be six months; a period at which, if no relief arrived in the mean time from England, we should be found without salt provisions, rice, and peas.
"In the above statement three hundred bushels of wheat, which had been produced at Rose Hill, were not included, being reserved for seed."
Source: Collins, David. 1798.
An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales: with Remarks on the dispositions, Customs, Manners, etc. of the Native Inhabitants of That Country.... Vol. 1. T. Cadell Jun. and W. Davies. The Strand. Chapter 9.
Stricter rationing was immediately introduced. In the meantime the first ship of the Second Fleet, the
Lady Juliana, put to shore on 6th June 1790, bringing many more hungry mouths to feed and few provisions. But at least the female convicts on board were all in reasonably good health, and had evidently been well treated, despite their incredibly long voyage.
The Second Fleet had been organized by private contractors who thought they could cut costs by sailing directly from England to Capetown and then on to the colony. Some of the ship's masters kept the prisoners confined below deck and showed little care for their health or well-being. When the
Surprise arrived on 26th June, followed by the
Neptune and
Scarborough on 28th-29th June, the convicts on board were found to be in a deplorable state of health. About 278 people had died during this voyage and over 100 more were to succumb to disease, starvation and injury shortly after landing. (The figures vary slightly, depending on different accounts, but all attest to the horrid wretchedness of conditions on board.) Almost half of the surviving convicts were desperately ill, the rest filthy, louse-infested and emaciated. Many were near naked, as their clothes were shredded and hung on them like rags. The treatment of the convicts on board the
Neptune had been particularly harsh and brutal.
To add to the misery came the news that the
Guardian had struck an iceberg after leaving the Cape and all of its provisions had been lost. For the struggling colonists, who had been expecting fresh supplies, this was a major blow. They were ill-prepared to cater for so many desperate people and the colony was on the verge of collapse.
(
Sources:
Cobley: Sydney Cove. Cobley's Account of Mary's Time in Sydney Cove. Webpage. Accessed 12 July, 2015; and Parker, Derek. 2009. Arthur Phillip: Australia's First Governor. Woodslane Press. Warriewood, Australia. pp. 235-242.)
Just over a year later the first ship of the Third Fleet arrived on 9th July, 1791 carrying female convicts and provisions. Ten more ships arrived over the next three months loaded with convicts, supplies and provisions.
The colony was not able to completely overcome starvation and rationing until 1792. However, the scarcity of provisions, particularly wheat, continued to cause anxiety even as late as 1794, as evidenced in this account from Lieutenant David Collins:
"To lose the seed-wheat would be to repel every advance which had been made toward supporting ourselves, and to crush every hope of independence. All that had been done in cultivation, every acre which was preparing for the ensuing crop, would long have remained a memorial of our distress; and where existed the mind that could have returned to the labour of the field with that cheerful spirit or energy that would have been necessary to ensure future success?" Source: Collins, David. 1798.
An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales: with Remarks on the dispositions, Customs, Manners, etc. of the Native Inhabitants of That Country.... Vol. 1. T. Cadell Jun. and W. Davies. The Strand.
Chapter 24 and 25.
Phillip was certain that the early agricultural failures were due mainly to a lack of farming expertise among a mostly urban convict population. In a report to Under-Secretary Nepean on 8 July 1788, Phillip wrote:
"If fifty farmers were sent out with their families, they would do more in one year in rendering this colony independent of the mother country, as to provisions, than a thousand convicts."
Yet despite his initial pessimism, Phillip was also a realist and a product of the Age of Enlightenment. He actively encouraged those convicts who were hard-working and responsible, and who showed a desire to improve their lot in life. There is little doubt that Phillip encouraged and supported James Ruse and other ex-convicts for these reasons. Ruse had also come from a farming background and quickly fulfilled the occupation of farmer admirably.
It is interesting that even as late as 1815, early colonial farmers were being provided instruction in general farm husbandry from English authors such as Ellis in the newspapers. Such lore would normally have been passed on orally between the generations (Andrew Forbes,
pers. comm., July 15).
Sources: 1.
"An Extract from ELLIS'S HUSBANDRY of the Samples of Wheat." (1809, November 19). The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 - 1842), p. 2. Retrieved July 15, 2015, from
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article627865
2.
"Sydney." (1815, December 9). The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 - 1842), p. 2. Retrieved July 16, 2015, from
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article629245
Governor Phillip was perhaps not seeing the full extent of the problem. One reason why the early crops failed was the lack of work horses and machinery. Few ploughs were brought, yet rudimentary tools were; in particular, many hoes. The ground had to be manually hoed by convicts, many of whom were in a weakened condition due to constant rationing and illness. There were also many trees to contend with, so these early farmers had to either seek out sunny spaces between the trees or clear the ground. Clearing large, hardwood trees was a difficult task with only rudimentary tools, such as axes, and required a huge amount of manpower. As Australian gardeners now know, gum trees are notorious for robbing the ground of nutrients and moisture and it is unwise to attempt cultivation of food plants beneath or near them.
James Ruse succeeded by chopping down the trees and bushes and burning them, then hoeing the ash and charcoal in deeply. He was perhaps the first Australian farmer to understand the crucial roles played by subsoil moisture and soil fertility in the production of a successful crop in this country.
"My land I
prepared thus: having burnt the fallen timber off the ground, I dug in the ashes, and then
hoed it up, never doing more than eight, or perhaps nine, rods in a day; by which means it
was not like the government farm, just scratched over, but properly done. Then I clod-moulded
it, and dug in the grass and weeds. This I think almost equal to ploughing. I
then let it lie as long as I could, exposed to air and sun; and just before I sowed my seed,
turned it up all afresh. When I shall have reaped my crop, I purpose to hoe it again,
and harrow it fine, and then sow it with turnip seed, which will mellow and prepare it for
the next year. My straw I mean to bury in pits, and throw with it everything which I
think will rot and turn to manure. I have no person to help me at present but my wife,
whom I married in this country; she is industrious. ....
"My opinion of the soil of my farm, is, that it is middling, neither good or bad. I will be bound to make it do with the aid of manure, but without cattle it will fail. The greatest check upon me is, the dishonesty of the convicts who, in spite of all my vigilance, rob me almost every night." (
Source: James Ruse in Watkin Tench, 1793).
The poor, sandy, well-drained soils were without doubt also to blame for the early crop failures in the colony, and possibly also the sub-coastal climate which can often be too warm and humid for wheat. Modern wheat in eastern Australia is mostly grown to the west of the Great Dividing Range on heavier, more fertile, clay-based soils of considerable depth, on land which was formerly dominated by open, grassy woodlands or native grasslands. The winters there are typically much colder and less humid than on the coastal margin.
The time of sowing may have been another problem, especially if long-season English wheat varieties were planted too late. If traditional spring-planted wheat varieties had not been planted until spring, for example, they may not have had time to mature before the hot weather began. Such wheat varieties would need to be planted much earlier than in England, potentially in mid-late Autumn. As for English winter wheat varieties, like cone and rivet, only the hardiest cultivars of these could have survived the significantly shorter Australian winters. These varieties would have required an early Autumn planting and possibly additional water in spring to get them through to maturing before the arrival of hot weather.
In addition to the inexperience of the first colonists with farming, another problem was their honesty (and no doubt desperation), as Lieutenant Collins points out:
"The last of the wheat was served on the 17th [March, 1794] (a proper quantity being reserved for seed) ... Nothing but dire necessity could have induced the gathering and issuing this article in its present unripened state, the whole of it being soft, full of juice, and wholly unfit to grind. Had the settlers, with only a common share of honesty, returned the wheat which they had received from Government to sow their grounds the last season, the reproach which they drew upon themselves, by not stepping forward at this moment to assist Government, would not have been incurred. ... they all knew the anxiety which every one felt for the preservation of the seed-wheat, .... they all, or nearly all, pleaded an insufficiency to crop their ground for the ensuing season; a plea that was well known to be made without a shadow of truth." (Collins, 1798, Ch. 25).
18th Century English Wheat Varieties - A Problem of Names :
New supplies of wheat continued to arrive to the colony sporadically from England and elsewhere. There is little doubt that traditional English wheat did make up part of the crops sown.
I recently compiled a table of the most commonly grown wheat varieties in England from the literature of the 1700s. My aim was to group the many different provenance names and reconcile them with basic modern taxonomy. It can be viewed from the following
link- Table of Wheat Varieties Grown in England during the 18th Century.
Please note the following points in relation to the table:
- The table is not intended to be a complete list, nor is it intended to represent a list of the varieties grown in the early colony of New South Wales.
- The names have been taken "as read" from the literature, and placed under single broad species headings.
- Some of the names may have been colloquial provenance names used locally or by individual farmers.
- Many of the authors were not qualified botanists or agronomists and were writing from the point of view of general farm husbandry rather than taxonomy. However some authors did try to reconcile the local names with the accepted taxonomy of their times, with mixed success.
- The taxonomy of the early 1700s was mostly inadequate by today's standards, because it focussed too heavily on limited physical characters such as awns, often without recognizing crucial differences in seed morphology, growth habits, and seasonal dependency. Such taxonomy cannot be relied on for resolving issues of synonymy.
- Some taxonomists, such as John Ray, frequently relied on information they had obtained from Europe, so they sometimes included species and varieties that were not always relevant to England.
- The name "bearded wheat" in 1700s literature sometimes refers to "cone" or "rivet" wheat (T. turgidum subsp. turgidum) instead of "bearded wheat" in its more popular sense, which is T. aestivum subsp. aestivum. The author Jethro Tull for instance calls Cone wheat "bearded wheat". Cone and rivet are winter wheats.
- In the UK, Winter wheats are sown Sept-Oct and Spring wheats are sown Mar-April. The "Summer wheat" mentioned in some old texts generally refers to Spring planted wheat.
- Wheat with persistent awns, such as April bearded wheat and others, are mostly Spring-planted wheats, however these are varieties of Triticum aestivum subsp. aestivum (formerly T. vulgare Vill.).
- The botanical classification of "Durum" did not come until very late in the century, being Triticum durum Desf., Fl. Atlant. 1: 114. 1798 [now Triticum turgidum L. subsp. durum (Desf.) Husn.]. Durum was a mostly European wheat, however there are descriptions of wheat varieties from as early as the 1500s in England which are suggestive of Durum types, and early references to "Barbary wheat" may well have been Durum wheat. Durum is a spring-planted wheat in the UK and is today mostly cultivated in southern coastal regions, such as in Cornwall.
- According to Mr. Mike Ambrose, manager of the Germplasm Resources Unit, John Innes Centre, pers. comm. July 2, 2015: "Barbary wheats would have likely been Triticum turgidum or ‘durum’ spring types [subspecies durum], whereas Cone or rivet wheats in the UK are also Triticum turgidum [subspecies turgidum] and are distinguished by their dropping heads when they are mature and they are winter types."
The classification system of Vilmorin is also worth perusing for comparison purposes.
Link- Vilmorin's "Tableau synoptique des variétés de blés... ".
Of particular interest to my research is a book by Reverend Young (1808), in which many of the varieties grown in the English heartland in the late 1700s and early 1800s are described. Following is an additional list of varieties compiled from this work. It is obvious that by the late 1700s many new varieties had arrived on the farming scene.
- Hedge-Wheat - two varieties Chidham Red, Chidham White (1790)
- Clark Wheat
- Velvet-eared wheat (including "White Fluff" or "Fluffed", White Velvet or Woolly eared Wheat; also known in Sussex and Kent as Hoary White and Stuffed wheat; also sometimes called Hedge wheat (Blé de Haie Fr.) but the latter is also applied to other varieties)
- White hedge (perhaps the same as Chidham White?)
- Sheep feeding wheat (forage wheat)
- White Siberian
- Egyptian
- Sicilian
- Round African
- Zealand
- Cape wheat
- Dantzick (spelt as "Dantzic" or "Dantzig" in some later texts)
Source: Young, Arthur. 1808.
General View of the Agriculture of the County of Sussex. Richard Phillips. London.
It is interesting that foreign trade had evidently contributed many new exotic wheat varieties by 1808, to which the names "Siberian", "Sicilian", "African", "Cape", and "Zealand" attest. Zealand wheat was originally from the Zealand district in Denmark (according to Spennemann, 2001, p. 147). I am told by Andrew Forbes of the Brockwell Bake Association that the name Danzig (and variations) is a reference to the Hanseatic League Baltic port which was one of the first sources of wheat imports to London during medieval times. The "Egyptian" wheat on the list was probably the same as "Smyrna" (later classified by some taxonomists as varieties "Compositum", "Mirabilis", or "Mirable"). Specimens of this wheat were really just "novelty" mutants found sporadically in fields of regular cone or rivet wheat, and in others. They are genetically unstable; which is why "Smyrna" wheat frequently failed expectations whenever its offspring turned out looking just like regular wheat.
Although Reverend Young's book was published some 18 years after James Ruse had planted his first crop of "bearded wheat" in the new colony, the entries do provide valuable insights into varieties that had potentially been following the shipping routes around Ruse's time.
However newspaper articles of the early 1800s suggest that Cape wheat, Lammas, and Indian corn remained the three mainstays of the cereal industry in early colonial Australia, up until at least the 1830s. But the Cape wheat was quickly falling out of favour due to its length of straw and various disease problems (mainly blight and rust). New varieties were being sought and trialled, such as Talaverian and Bengal wheats.
"Cape wheat of a good appearance has required eighty good-sized sheaves for two bushels; white Lammas wheat has required somewhat less. The general average seems to be from thirty to forty sheaves, which is only a very little better than the average of last year's wheat, although in one place in the previous year, and when exposed to blight, not less than 160 sheaves were threshed out for one bushel. We venture to caution the farmer, therefore, not to indulge the idea that wheat will fall below a reasonable moderate price during the year. There is much less wheat in the country than is supposed (we do not speak, of course, of imported wheat), though there may be enough to serve for seed, waste, and food. People are deceived by the length of the straw. This is a bad criterion. A country clown, six feet high, boasted that his wheat was the best in the parish; " it is (quoth he) as long in the stalk as myself." " In that case," said the Solon of the village, " if it be as light in the head too, it will be of very little value." Solon was right, and the farmers in this country have experienced the truth of his remarks to their great loss and serious disappointment." Source: Thomson,
"AGRICULTURAL REPORT FOR DECEMBER - "Ye hardy Britons, venerate the plough.". (1830, January 9). The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 - 1842), p. 2. Retrieved July 14, 2015, from
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2194258
"The wheat crops from the Cape seed having generally failed, an experiment had been made, with some nicety, which left little doubt that the Bengal wheat would resist the blight or rust, which had destroyed the Cape wheat the two last seasons and which threatened to make its appearance a third time this season, in many parts of the Colony*." Source: (1823, January 23).
The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 - 1842), p. 3. Retrieved July 14, 2015, from
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2181598
* It is difficult to ascertain if the newspaper article is referring to the colony at Capetown or New South Wales in this paragraph, although the use of the word "nicety" does suggest the latter. Nevertheless the Cape colony was a principal foreign trading partner with New South Wales at the time, to which the large number of newspaper articles relating to the Cape attest.
A Final Twist? :
There may be a final twist to the story of early Colonial wheat.
Andrew Forbes of Brockwell Bake has raised the possibility in correspondence that the "Bearded Cape wheat" of the early Australian colony may have been a very early importation of "Baart" or "Baard"* wheat. There is some circumstantial evidence in the literature to support this, such as the following passage in
Classification of Wheat Varieties Grown in the United States:
"In Australia it [Baart wheat] has never been a leading commercial variety although it has been grown by some farmers for many years. The variety was introduced to Australia from the Cape Colony, South Africa about 1880. Neethling 1932 (147, p. 33) stated that "Baard" wheat was mentioned in South African literature as early as 1739 and suggests that the original stock may have been introduced from Europe." (
Source: Bayles, Burton Bernard and Clark, Jacob Allen. 1954. Classification of Wheat Varieties Grown in the United States in 1949. US Department of Agriculture. Washington D. C.)
It is therefore entirely plausible that an early form of Baart wheat found its way to the colony in New South Wales in the late 1700s, from South Africa, England, or elsewhere; but whether this is what came to be known as "Cape wheat" here (or elsewhere) is debatable. The two wheat varieties do share some similarities with regards to their tall, erect growth habit, awn length and spike structure. However the spikes of Baart wheat are generally much shorter, coarser, and more irregular, with a less streamlined and ordered structure, which seems to put Baart at odds with the descriptions of Cape wheat in the literature. It does however have "much chaff" in the head and a "very plump grain" as described in The Farmers Magazine (1819), so it is certainly a contender that is difficult to rule out completely (assuming of course that this magazine had correctly identified it).
* The word "baard" is Dutch for "beard".
Baart wheat: spike X 1; kernels X 3. (Bayles & Clark, 1954, p. 109, Fig. 66)
Conclusion :
The literature of the times suggests that the main wheat varieties grown in the early colony of New South Wales were White Lammas, Red Lammas, Cape wheat, and possibly also April bearded or a Red-bearded English wheat. James Ruse would have almost certainly grown Cape wheat or at least been very familiar with it (in whatever form it then took).
As for the intrepid James Ruse, by 1794 he had grown weary of the poor soils and relentless thieving of his supplies by "the convicts" in Parramatta. In January he moved to more fertile land on the junction of the Hawkesbury River and a creek, which came to be called Ruse's Creek. Today, the name of this tributary is South Creek. He farmed along the Hawkesbury with mixed success for the next couple of decades. He battled all the farming problems that still plague Australian farmers to this day: drought, bushfires, floods, and wheat rust.
Additional sources :
Miller, Philip. 1807.
The Gardener's and Botanist's Dictionary: Containing the Best and Newest Methods of Cultivating and Improving the Kitchen, Fruit, and Flower Garden, and Nursery; of the Performing the Practical Parts of Agriculture; of Managing Vineyards, and of Propagating All Sorts of Timber Trees, Volume 2, Part 2. F.C. & J. Rivington. London.
Miller's book contains a meticulous and comprehensive dictionary of the main wheat species and cultivars in cultivation in England in the late 1700s-early 1800s. Unfortunately it is a difficult read due to the microscopic print, which is sometimes blurry, and which does not always improve with zooming.
Spennemann, Dirk H.R.(2001).
Wheat Varieties Grown in 19th Century Australia —A handlist of varieties—. Farrer Centre, Charles Sturt University. Wagga Wagga, NSW.
Many of the varieties outlined in Spennemann's book were in existence long before the 1800s but it only provides their dates of introduction to Australia during the 1800s. It is interesting that many of the old varieties, such as Red and White Lammas, were evidently re-imported. One word of caution: Spennemann's book may give the impression that varieties were imported for widespread cultivation, when the vast majority were imported for small-scale research and breeding purposes at Government facilities. The entire book is available online as a free to
download PDF publication.
National Trust of Australia (NSW). (2005).
The Thief, The Farmer and The Surgeon. National Trust of Australia (NSW), Experiment Farm Cottage, Parramatta.
This downloadable PDF document from the National Trust (NSW) contains general information on James Ruse in the form of an education kit for schools.
