'under cultivation by market gardners – at moorabbin, dandenong, the plenty, victoria, heidelberg, northcote, merri creek, kew, hawthorn, richmond and keilor. our market site is within one-fourth as extensive a site as covent garden and when, as on a brisk market morning, it is attended by 700 drays loaded with produce, it affords a pleasureable surprise to any visitor who was previously unaware that a market of like pretentions was to be found in melbourne. some details of the quantities of the principal items may not be uninteresting... in the season about 1,200 loads of vegetables come into the market weekly (about seven or eight hundred weight each), consisting of every variety of vegetables known to europeans, and the greater part of them in greater perfection than in the london markets; 500 geese and turkeys, 1,000 ducks and fowl, 1,000 dozen eggs, 100 suckling pigs, with an altogether unascertained but very appreciable number of rabbits, wild fowl, guinea fowl, pigeons, &c.; nearly half a ton of fresh butter is sold here every week, and honey in considerable quantities is brought through this channel before the public."