Experiment Farm Cottage, in Harris Park, Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia, is one of Australia’s oldest standing residences. It is located at the site of Experiment Farm, Australia's first European farmstead, which was itself created by Australia's first land grant.
In 1789, James Ruse was chosen by Governor Arthur Phillip to run an experiment to see how long it would take a man to support himself. Ruse was granted one and a half cleared acres (6,000 m²) of land, as well as assistance for clearing an additional five acres (20,000 m²). He was also provided with two sows and six hens. He was fed and clothed from the public store for 15 months, after which time he had become successfully self-sufficient and was granted an additional 30 acres (120,000 m²).
In October 1793, Ruse sold his farm to surgeon John Harris, builder of the substantial colonial cottage which exists today. Doctor Harris was a prominent citizen in the rapidly emerging colony, and was also friends with John and Elizabeth MacArthur of Elizabeth Farm, another celebrated early agricultural venture only a short walk away.
Experiment Farm Cottage was purchased in 1961 by the National Trust of Australia (NSW) and was the first NSW National Trust–owned property.
Famous quotes containing the words experiment, farm and/or cottage:
“The man who invented Eskimo Pie made a million dollars, so one is told, but E.E. Cummings, whose verse has been appearing off and on for three years now, and whose experiments should not be more appalling to those interested in poetry than the experiment of surrounding ice-cream with a layer of chocolate was to those interested in soda fountains, has hardly made a dent in the doughy minds of our so-called poetry lovers.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“I respect not his labors, his farm where everything has its price, who would carry the landscape, who would carry his God, to market, if he could get anything for him; who goes to market for his god as it is; on whose farm nothing grows free, whose fields bear no crops, whose meadows no flowers, whose trees no fruit, but dollars; who loves not the beauty of his fruits, whose fruits are not ripe for him till they are turned to dollars. Give me the poverty that enjoys true wealth.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“After the planet becomes theirs, many millions of years will have to pass before a beetle particularly loved by God, at the end of its calculations will find written on a sheet of paper in letters of fire that energy is equal to the mass multiplied by the square of the velocity of light. The new kings of the world will live tranquilly for a long time, confining themselves to devouring each other and being parasites among each other on a cottage industry scale.”
—Primo Levi (1919–1987)