May's Farm

Reference: 1 September 1828

Lawrence May owned a farm near Bardonarang (Pitt Town Bottoms) on which he conducted experiments into the irrigation of his farm. ‘The pump is placed on the margin of the river and conveys the water through lead pipesinto a ditch or trench, where it is conducted at pleasure, by furrows to any part of the farm. It is calculated that it will discharge twenty tons per hour, and requires only two to work it’. The newspaper commented that the experiment was novel and unpredecented in the colony.