 CHAPTER IX The Loss of a Yoke of Oxon LAKE HOUSE April 18, 1833 But it is time that I should give you some account of our log-house into which we moved a few days before Christmas, many unlooked for delays having hindered its completion before that time. I began to think it would never be habitable. The first misfortune that happened was the loss of a fine yoke of oxen that were purchased to draw in the house-logs—that is, the logs for raising the walls of the house. Not regarding the bush as pleasant as their former masters, cleared pastures, or perhaps for seeing some hard work to come. Early one morning they took into their heads to ford the lake at the head of the rapids and march off, leaving no trace of their route accepting their footing at the water's edge. After many days spent in vain search for them, the work was at a stand, and for one month they were gone, and we began to give up all expectation of hearing any news of them. At last we learned they were some twenty miles off in a distant township, having made their way through bush and swamp, creek and lake, back to their former owner, with an instinct that supplied to them the want of roads and compass. Oxon had been known to traverse a tract of wild country to a distance of thirty or forty miles, going in a direct line for their former haunts by unknown paths, where memory could not avail them. In the dog we consider it is sent, as well as memory, that guides him to his far-off home. But how is this conduct of the oxon to be accounted for? They returned home through the mazes of interminable forests, where man, with all his reason and knowledge, would have been bewildered and lost. It was the latter end of October, before even the walls of our house were up. To effect this we called a bee. Sixteen of our neighbours cheerfully obeyed our summons, and though the day was far from favourable, so faithfully did our hive perform their tasks, that by night the outer walls were raised. The work went merrily on, with the help of plenty of Canadian nectar, whisky, the honey that our bees are soulless with. Some huge joints of salt-pork, a peck of potatoes, with a rice pudding, and a loaf as big as an enormous cheshire cheese, formed the feast that was to regale them during the raising. This was spread out in the shanty, in a very rural style. In short we laughed, and called it a picnic in the back woods. And rude as the fair, I can assure you great was the satisfaction expressed by all the guests of every degree, our bee being considered as very well conducted. In spite of the difference of rank among those that assisted at the bee, the greatest possible harmony prevailed, and the party separated well pleased with the day's work and entertainment. The following day I went to survey the newly raised edifice, but was sorely puzzled, as it presented very little appearance of a house. It was merely an oblong square of logs raised one above the other, with open spaces between every row of logs. The spaces for the doors and windows were not then chopped out, and the rafters were not up. In short it looked a very queer sort of place, and I returned home a little disappointed, and wondering that my husband should be so well pleased with the progress that had been made. A day or two after this I again visited it. The sleepers were laid to support the floors, and the places for the doors and windows cut out of the solid timbers, so that it had not quite so much the look of a birdcage as before. After the roof was shingled we were again at a stand, as no boards could be procured nearer than Peterborough, a long day's journey through horrible roads. At that time no sawmill was in progress. Now there is a fine one building within a little distance of us. Our flooring boards were all to be sawn by hand, and it was some time before anyone could be found to perform this necessary work, and that at high wages, six and six pence per day, well, the boards were at length down, but of course unseasoned timber. This was unavoidable. So as they could not be planed, we were obliged to put up with their rough, unsightly appearance, for no better were to be had. I began to recall to mind the observation of the old gentleman with whom we travelled from Coburg to Rice Lake. We console ourselves with the prospect that by next summer the boards will be all seasoned, and then the house is to be turned topsy-turvy by having the floors all relayed, jointed, and smoothed. The next misfortune that happened was that the mixture of clay and lime that was to plaster the inside and outside of the house between the chinks of the logs was one night frozen to stone. Just as the work was about half completed, the frost suddenly setting in, put a stop to our proceeding for some time, as the frozen plaster yielded neither to fire nor to hot water, the latter freezing before it had any effect on the mass, and rather making bad worse. Then the workman that was hewing the inside walls to make them smooth, wounded himself with the broad axe, and was unable to resume his work for some time. I state these things merely to show the difficulties that attend us in the fulfilment of our plans. And this accounts in a great measure for the humble dwellings that settlers of the most respectable description are obliged to content themselves with at first coming to this country. Not, you may be assured, from inclination, but necessity. I could give you such narratives of this kind as would astonish you. After all, it serves to make us more satisfied than we should be on casting our eyes around to see few better off than we are, and many not half so comfortable, yet of equal, and in some instances superior pretensions as to station and fortune. Every man in this country is his own glazier. This you will laugh at, but if he does not wish to see, and feel that his comfort of broken pains he must learn to put them in his windows with his own hands. Workmen are not easily to be had in the backwoods when you want them, and it would be preposterous to hire a man at high wages to make two days' journey to and from the nearest town to mend your windows. Boxes of glass of several different sizes are to be bought at a very cheap rate in the stores. My husband amused himself by glazing the windows of the house, preparatory to their being fixed in. To understand the use of carpenter's tools, I assure you, is no despicable or useless kind of knowledge here. I would strongly recommend all young men coming to Canada to acquire a little acquaintance with this valuable art, as they will often be put to great inconvenience for the want of it. I was once much amused with hearing the remarks made by a fine lady, the reluctant sharer of her husband's emigration, on seeing the son of a naval officer of some rank in the service busily employed in making an axe-handle out of a piece of rock-elm. I wonder that you allowed George to degrade himself so, she said, addressing his father. The captain, looked up with surprise, degrade himself in what manner, madam? My boy neither swears, drinks whiskey, steals, nor tells lies. But you allow him to perform tasks of the most menial kind. What is he now, better than a hedge-carpenter, and I suppose you allow him to chop, too? Most assuredly I do. That pile of logs and the cart there was all cut by him after he had left study yesterday, was the reply. I would see my boys dead before they should use an axe like common labourers. Idleness is the root of all evil, said the captain, how much worse might my sons be employed if he were running wild about the streets with bad companions. You will allow this is not a country for gentlemen or ladies to live in, said the lady. It is the country for gentlemen that will work and cannot live without, to starve in, replied the captain bluntly. And for that reason I make my boys early accustomed themselves to be usefully and actively employed. My boys shall never work like common mechanics, said the lady indignantly. Then, madam, they will be good for nothing as settlers, and it is a pity you drag them across the Atlantic. We were forced to come. We could not live as we had been used to do at home, or I never would have come to this horrid country. Having come hither you would be wise to conform to circumstances. Canada is not the place for idle folks to retrench a lost fortune in. In some parts of the country you will find most articles of provision as dear as in London. Clothing much dearer, and not so good, and a bad market to choose in. I should like to know, then, who is Canada good for? said she angrily. It is a good country for the honest, industrious artisan. It is a fine country for the poor labourer, who, after a few years of hard toil, can sit down in his own log-house and look abroad on his own land and see his children well settled in life as independent freeholders. It is a grand country for the rich speculator who can afford to lay out a large sum in purchasing land in eligible situations. For if he have any judgment he will make a hundred percent his interest for his money after waiting a few years. But it is a hard country for the poor gentleman whose habits have rendered him unfit for manual labour. He brings with him a mind unfitted to his situation. And even if necessity compels him to exertion his labour is of little value. He has had a hard struggle to live. The certain expenses of wages and living are great, and he has obliged to endure many privations if he could keep within compass and be free of debt. If he have a large family, and bring them up wisely, so as to adapt themselves early to a settler's life, why he does well for them, and soon feels the benefit of his own land, but if he is idle himself, his wife extravagant and discontented, and the children taught to despise labour, why, madam, they will soon be brought down to ruin. In short, the country is a good country for those to whom it is adapted, but if people will not conform to the doctrine of necessity and expediency they have no business in it. It is plain, Canada is not adapted to every class of people. It was never adapted for me or my family, said the lady disdainfully. Very true was the laconic reply, and so ended the dialogue. But while I have been recounting these remarks I have wandered far from my original subject, and left my poor log-house quite in an unfinished state. At last I was told it was in a habitable condition, and I was soon engaged in all the bustle and fatigue attendant on removing our household goods. We received all the assistance we required from Blank, who is ever ready and willing to help us. He laughed and called it a moving bee. I said it was a fixing bee, and my husband said it was a settling bee. I know we were unsettled enough till it was over. What a den of desolation is a small house, or any house under such circumstances. The idea of chaos must have been taken from a removal or a setting to rights, for I suppose the ancients had there flitting, as the scotch call it, as well as the moderns. Various were the valuable articles of crockery-wear that perished in their short but rough journey through the woods. Peace to their mains. I had a good helper in my Irish maid, who soon roused up, famous fires, and set the house in order. We have now got quite comfortably settled, and I shall give you a description of our little dwelling. What is finished is only part of the original plan. The rest must be added next spring or fall, as circumstances may suit. A nice small sitting-room with a store-closet, a kitchen, pantry, and bed-chamber formed the ground floor. There is a good upper-floor that will make three sleeping-rooms. What a nutshell, I think, I hear you exclaim. So it is at present, but we propose adding a handsome frame-front as soon as we can get boards from the mill, which will give us another parlor, long-haul, and good spare bedroom. The windows and glass-store of our present sitting-room command pleasant lake views to the west and south. When the house is completed we shall have a veranda in front, and at the south side, which forms an agreeable addition in the summer, being used as a sort of outer-room, in which we can dine, and have the advantage of cool air, protected from the glare of the sunbeams. The Canadians call these verandas stoops. Few houses, either log or frame, are without them. The pillars look extremely pretty, wreathed in the luxuriant hot vine, mixed with the scarlet creeper and morning glory. The American name for the most splendid of our major convulvuluses. These stoops are really a considerable ornament, as they conceal in a great measure the rough logs, and break the barn-like form of the building. Our parlor is warmed by a handsome Franklin stove with brass gallery and fender. Our furniture consists of a brass-railed sofa, which serves upon occasion for a bed. Canadian painted chairs, a stained pine table, green and white curtains, and a handsome Indian mat that covers the floor. One side of the room is filled up with our books. Some large maps and a few good prints nearly conceal the rough walls, and form the decoration of our little dwelling. Our bed-chamber is furnished with equal simplicity. We do not, however, lack comfort in our humble home, and though it is not exactly such as we could wish, it is as good as, under existing circumstances, we could have. I am anxiously looking forward to the spring that I may get a garden laid out in front of the house, as I mean to cultivate some of the native fruits and flowers, which I am sure will improve greatly by culture. The strawberries that grow wild in our pastures, woods and clearings are several varieties and bear abundantly. They make excellent preserves, and I mean to introduce beds of them into my garden. There is a pretty little wooded islet on our lake that is called Strawberry Island, another raspberry island. They abound in variety of fruits, wild grapes, raspberries, strawberries, black and red currants, a wild gooseberry, and a beautiful little trailing plant that bears white flowers like the raspberry, and a darkish purple fruit consisting of a few grains of a pleasant brisk acid, somewhat like flavor to our dewberry, only not quite so sweet. The leaves of this plant are of a bright light green, in shape like the raspberry, to which it bears in some respects, so great a resemblance, though it is not shrubby or thorny, that I have called it the trailing raspberry. I suppose our scientific botanists in Britain would consider me very impertinent in bestowing names on the flowers and plants I meet with in these wild woods. I can only say I am glad to discover the Canadian or even the Indian names if I can, and where they fail I consider myself free to become their floral godmother and give them names of my own choosing. Among our wild fruits we have plums, which in some townships are very fine and abundant. These make admirable preserves, especially when boiled in maple molasses, as is done by the American housewives. Wild cherries also a sort called choke cherries from the peculiar astringent qualities, high and low-bush cranberries, blackberries which are brought by the squaws and birch-paskets, all these are found on the plains and beaver meadows. The low-bush cranberries are brought in great quantities by the Indians to the towns and villages. They form a standing preserve on the tea-tables in most of the settler's houses, but for richness of flavour and for beauty of appearance I admire the high-bush cranberries. These are little sought after on account of the large flat seeds which prevent them from being used as a jam. The jelly, however, is delightful, both in colour and flavour. The bush on which this cranberry grows resembles the gilder-rose. The blossoms are pure white and grow in loose umbels. They are very ornamental when in bloom to the woods and swamps, skirting the lakes. The berries are rather of a long oval and of a brilliant scarlet and when just touched by the frosts are semi-transparent and look like pendant bunches of scarlet grapes. I was tempted one fine frosty afternoon to take a walk with my husband on the ice, which I was assured was perfectly safe. I must confess for the first half-mile I felt very timid, especially when the ice is so transparent that you may see every little pebble or weed at the bottom of the water. Sometimes the ice was thick and white and quite opaque. As we kept within a little distance of the shore I was struck by the appearance of some splendid red berries on the leafless bushes that hung over the margin of the lake and soon recognised them to be the aforesaid high-bush cranberries. My husband soon stripped the boughs of their tempting treasure and I delighted with my prize, hastened home and boiled the fruit with some sugar to eat at tea with our cakes. I never ate anything more delicious than they proved. The more so, perhaps, from having been so long without tasting fruit of any kind with the exception of preserves during our journey and at Peterborough. Soon after this I made another excursion on the ice, but it was not in quite so sound a state. We nevertheless walked on for about three-quarters of a mile. We were overtaken on our return by S. with a handslay, which is a sort of wheel-barrel, such as porter-jews, with outsides, and instead of a wheel, is fixed on wooden runners, which you can drag over the snow and ice with the greatest ease, if ever so heavily laden. S. insisted that he would draw me home over the ice like a Lapland lady on a sledge. I was soon seated in state and in another minute felt myself impaled forward with a velocity that nearly took away my breath. By the time we reached the shore I was in a glow from head to foot. You would be pleased with the situation of our house. The spot chosen is the summit of a fine sloping bank above the lake, distant from the water's edge some hundred or two yards. The lake is not quite a mile from shore to shore. To the south again we command a different view, which will be extremely pretty when fully opened. A fine, smooth basin of water diversified with beautiful islands that rise like verdant groves from its bosom. Below these there is a fall of some feet where the waters of the lake confined within a narrow channel between the beds of limestone rush along with great impetuosity, foaming and dashing up the spray in mimic clouds. During the summer the waters are much lower and we can walk for some way along the flat shores which are composed of different strata of limestone full of fossil remains, evidently a very recent formation. Those shells and river insects that are scattered loose over the surface of the limestone left by the recession of the waters are similar to the shells and insects encrusted in the body of the limestone. I am told that the bed of one of the lakes above us I forget which, is of limestone that it abounds in a variety of beautiful river shells which are deposited in vast quantities in the different strata and also in the blocks of limestone scattered along the shores. These shells are also found in great profusion in the soil of the beaver meadows. When I see these things and hear of them I regret I know nothing of geology or conchology as I might then be able to account for many circumstances that at present only excite my curiosity. Just below the waterfall I was mentioning there is a curious natural arch in the limestone rock which at this place rises to a height of ten or fifteen feet like a wall. It is composed of large plates of grey limestone lying one upon the other. The arch seems like a rent in the wall but worn away and hollowed possibly by the action of water rushing through it at some high flood. Trees grow on the top of this rock. Hemlock furs and cedars are waving on this elevated spot above the turbulent waters and clothing the stone barrier with a sad but never-fading verter. Here too the wild vine, the red creeper and poison elder, luxuriate and wreath fantastic bowers above the moss-covered masses of the stone. A sudden turn in this bank brought us to a broad perfectly flat and smooth bed of the same stone occupying a space of full fifty feet along the shore. Between the fissures of this bed I found some rose bushes and a variety of flowers that had sprung up during the spring and summer when it was left dry and free from the action of water. This place will shortly be appropriated for the building of a saw and gristmill which I fear will interfere with its natural beauty. I daresay I shall be the only person in the neighbourhood who will regret the erection of so useful and valuable an acquisition to this portion of the township. The first time you send a parcel or box do not forget to enclose flower-seeds and the stones of plums, dampsons, bullies, pips of the best kind of apples in the orchard and garden as apples may be raised here from seed which will bear very good fruit without being grafted. The latter, however, are finer in size and flavour. I should be grateful for a few nuts from our beautiful old stocknut trees. Dear old trees, how many gambles have we had in their branches when I was light of spirit and as free from care as the squirrels that perched among the topmost boughs above us? Well, you will say, the less that sage matrons talk of such wild tricks as climbing nut-trees, the better. Fortunately, young ladies are in no temptation here seeing that nothing but a squirrel or a bear could climb our lofty forest-trees. Even a sailor must give it up in despair. I am very desirous of having the seeds of our wild primrose and sweet violet preserved for me. I long to introduce them in our meadows and gardens. Pray let the cottage children collect some. My husband requests the quantity of lucerne seed. Which he seems inclined to think may be cultivated to advantage. End of Chapter 9 Letter X of the Backwoods of Canada by Catherine Parr Trail This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org The Backwoods of Canada by Catherine Parr Trail Letter X Variations in the Temperature of the Weather Lakehouse May 9th, 1833 What a different winter this has been to what I had anticipated. The snows of December were continually thawing. On the first of January not a flake was to be seen on our clearing though it lingered in the bush. The warmth of the sun was the first and second days of the new year that it was hardly possible to endure a cloak or even a shawl out of doors and within the fire was quite too much for us. The weather remained pretty open until the latter part of the month when the cold set in severely enough and continued so during February. The first of March was the coldest day and night I ever experienced in my life. The mercury was down to twenty-five degrees in the house. Abroad it was much lower. The sensation of cold early in the morning was very painful producing an involuntary shuddering and an almost convulsive feeling in the chest and stomach. Our breaths were congealed in horror frost on the sheets and blankets. Everything we touched of metal seemed to freeze on our fingers. This excessive degree of cold only lasted three days and then a gradual amelioration of temperature was felt. During this very cold weather I was surprised by the frequent recurrence of a phenomenon that I supposed was of an electrical nature. When the frosts were most intense I noticed that when I undressed my clothes which are at this cold season chiefly of woolen cloth or lined with flannel gave out when moved a succession of sounds like a crackling and snapping a fire and in the absence of a candle emitted sparks of a pale whitish-blue light similar to the flashes produced by cutting loavesugar in the dark or stroking the back of a black cat the same effect was also produced when I combed and brushed my hair. Note this phenomenon is common enough everywhere when the air is very dry. Editor The snow lay very deep on the ground during February and until the nineteenth of March when a rapid thaw commenced which continued without intermission till the ground was thoroughly freed from its hoary livery which was affected in less than a fortnight's time. The air during the progress of the thaw was much warmer and more balmy than it usually is in England when a disagreeable damp cold is felt during that process. Though the Canadian winter has its disadvantages it also has its charms. After a day or two of heavy snow the sky brightens and the air becomes exquisitely clear and free from vapor. The smoke ascends in tall spiral columns till it is lost seen against the saffron-tinted sky of an evening or early of a clear morning when the whorefrost sparkles on the trees the effect is singularly beautiful. I enjoy a walk in the woods of a bright winter day when not a cloud or the faint shadow of a cloud enters the soft azure of the heavens above when, but for the silver covering of the earth I might look upwards to the cloudless sky and say, it is June, sweet June. The evergreens as the pines, cedars, hemlocks and balsam furs are bending their pendant branches loaded with snow which the least motion scatters in a mimic shower around but so light and dry as it that it is shaken off and lost in convenience. The tops of the stumps look quite pretty with their turbans of snow. A blackened pine stump with its white cap and mantle will often startle you into the belief that someone is approaching you thus fancifully attired. As to ghosts or spirits they appear totally banished from Canada. This is too matter-of-fact country for such supernaturals to visit. There are no historical associations no legendary tales of those that came before us. Fancy would starve for lack of marvellous food to keep her alive in the backwoods. We have neither fey nor fairy, ghost nor boggle, satire nor wood-nymph, our very forests to stain to shelter dryad or hamedryad, no naad haunts the rushy margins of our lakes or hallows with their presence in the most rills. No druid claims our oaks and instead of pouring with mysterious awe among our curious limestone rocks that are often singularly grouped together we refer them to the geologist to exercise his skill in accounting for their appearance. Instead of investing them with the solemn characters of ancient temples or heathen altars we look upon them with a curious eye of natural philosophy alone. Even the Irish and Highlanders of the humblest class seem to lay aside their ancient superstitions on becoming denizens of the woods of Canada. I heard a friend exclaim when speaking of the want of interest this country possessed. It is the most unpovetical of all lands. There is no scope for imagination. Here all is new. The very soil seems newly formed. There is no hoary ancient grandeur in these woods. No recollections of former deeds connected with the country. The only beings in which I take any interest are the Indians and they want the warlike character and intelligence that I had pictured to myself they would possess. This was the limitation of a poet. Now the class of people to whom this country is so admirably adapted are formed of the unlettered and industrious laborers and artisans. They feel no regret that the land they labor on has not been celebrated by the pen of the historian or the lay of the poet. The earth yields an increase to them as freely as if it had been enriched by the blood of heroes. They would not spare the ancient oak from feelings of veneration nor look upon it with regard for anything but its use as timber. They have no time even if they possess the taste to gaze abroad the beauties of nature but their ignorance is bliss. After all these are imaginary evils and can hardly be considered just causes for dislike to the country. They would excite little sympathy among everyday men and women, though doubtless they would have their weight with the more refined and intellectual members of society who naturally would regret that taste, learning and genius should be thrown out of its proper sphere. For myself, though, I can easily enter into the feelings of the poet and the enthusiastic lover of the wild and the wonderful of historic lore. I can yet make myself very happy and contented in this country if its volume of history is yet a blank that of nature is open and eloquently marked by the finger of God and from its pages I can extract a thousand sources of amusement and interest whenever I take my walks in the forest or by the borders of the lakes. But I must now tell you of our sugar-making in which I take rather an active part. Our experiment was on a very limited scale having but one kettle besides two iron tripods but it was sufficient to initiate us in the art and mystery of boiling this sap into molasses and finally the molasses down to sugar. The first thing to be done in tapping the maples is to provide little rough troughs to catch the sap as it flows. These are merely pieces of pine tree hollowed with the axe. The tapping the tree is done by cutting a gash in the bark or boring a hole with an auger. The former plan as being most readily performed is that most usually practiced. A slightly hollowed piece of cedar or elder is then inserted so as to plant downwards and direct the sap into the trough. I have seen a flat chip made the conductor. Ours were managed according to rule. You may be sure. The sap runs most freely after a frosty night followed by a bright warm day. It should be collected during the day in a barrel or large trough capable of holding all that can be boiled down the same evening. It should not stand more than twenty-four hours of ferment and will not grain well unless fresh. My husband with an Irish lad began collecting the sap last week in March. A pole was fixed across two forked stakes strong enough to bear the weight of the big kettle. Their employment during the day was emptying the troughs and chopping wood to supply the fires. In the evening they lit the fires and began boiling down the sap. It was a pretty and picturesque sight to see the sugar boilers with their bright log fires among the trees. Now stirring up the blaze pile now throwing in liquid and stirring it down with a big ladle. When the fire grew fierce it boiled and foamed up in the kettle and they had to throw in fresh sap to keep it from running over. When the sap begins to thicken into molasses it is then brought to the sugar boiler to be finished. The process is simple. It requires attention in skimming and keeping the mass from boiling over till it has arrived at the sugaring point which is ascertained by dropping a little into cold water. When it is near the proper consistency the kettle or pot becomes full of yellow froth that dimples and rises in large bubbles from beneath. These throw off puffs of steam and when the molasses is in this stage it is nearly converted into sugar. Those who pay great attention to keeping the liquid free from scum and understand the precise sugaring point will produce an article little if at all inferior to mascovado. Note Good, well-made maple sugar bears a strong resemblance to that called powdered sugar candy sold by old grocers as a delicate article to sweeten coffee. It is more like maple sugar in its regular crystallizations. And note In general you will see the maple sugar in large cakes like beeswax close and compact without showing the crystallization but it looks more beautiful when the grain is coarse and sparkling and the sugar is broken in rough masses like sugar candy. The sugar is rolled or scraped down with a knife for use as it takes long to dissolve in the tea without this preparation. I superintended the last part of the process that of boiling the molasses down to sugar and considering it was a first attempt and without any experienced person to direct me otherwise than the information I obtained from blank I succeeded tolerably well and produced some sugar of a fine sparkling grain and good color. Besides the sugar I made about three gallons of molasses which proved a great comfort to us forming a nice ingredient in cakes and an excellent sauce for puddings. The Yankees I am told make excellent preserves with molasses instead of sugar. The molasses boiled from maple sap is very different from the molasses of the West Indies both in flavor, color and consistency. Beside the sugar and molasses we manufactured a small cask of vinegar which promises to be good. This was done by boiling five pailfuls of sap down to two and fermenting it after it was in the vessel with barm. It was placed then near the fire and suffered to continue there in preference to being exposed to the sun's heat. With regard to the expediency of making maple sugar it depends on circumstances whether it be profitable or not to the farmer. With higher hands for the work and pay high wages it certainly does not answer to make it unless on a large scale. One thing in its favor is that the sugar season commences at a time when little else can be done on the farm with the exception of chopping the frost not being sufficiently out of the ground to admit of crops being sown. Time is therefore less valuable than it is later in the spring. Where there is a large family of children and a convenient sugar-bush on the lot the making of sugar and molasses is decidedly a saving as young children can be employed in emptying the troughs and collecting firewood. The bigger ones contend the kettles and keep up the fire while the sap is boiling and the wife and daughters can finish off the sugar within doors. Maple sugar sells for four pence and six pence per pound and sometimes for more. At first I did not particularly relish the flavor it gave to tea but after a while I liked it far better than the mascovado and as a sweet meat it is to my taste delicious. I shall send you a specimen by the first opportunity that you may judge for yourself of its excellence. The weather is now very warm oppressively so we can scarcely endure the heat of the cooking-stove in the kitchen as to a fire in the parlor there is not much need of it as I am glad to sit at the open door and enjoy the lake breeze. The insects are already beginning to be troublesome particularly the black flies a wicked looking fly with black body and white legs and wings you do not feel their bite for a few minutes but are made aware of it by a stream of blood flowing from the wound after a few hours it becomes extremely painful these beasties chiefly delight in biting the sides of the throat, ears and sides of the cheek and with me the swelling continues for many days the mosquitoes are also very annoying I care more for the noise they make even than their sting to keep them out of the house we light little heaps of damp chips the smoke of which drives them away is not entirely effectual and is of itself rather an annoyance this is the fishing season our lakes are famous for mask and orange salmon trout, whitefish black bass and many others we often see the lighted canoes of the fishermen pass and repass of a dark night before our door S is considered very skillful as a spearsman and enjoys the sport so much that he seldom misses a night favourable for it the darker the night and the calmer the water the better it is for the fishing it is a very pretty sight to see these little barks slowly stealing from some cove of the dark pine clad shores and maneuvering among the islands on the lakes rendered visible in the darkness by the blaze of light cast on the water from the jack a sort of open graded iron basket which looks to a long pole at the boughs of the skiff or canoe this is filled with a very combustible substance called fat pine which burns with a fierce and rapid flame or else with rolls of birch bark which is also very easily ignited the light from above renders objects distinctly visible below the surface of the water one person stands up in the middle of the boat a sort of iron trident ready to strike at the fish that he may chance to see gliding in the still waters while another with his paddle steers the canoe cautiously along this sport requires a quick eye a steady hand and great caution in those that pursue it I delight in watching these torchlighted canoes so quietly gliding over the calm waters which are illuminated for yards with a bright track of light by which we may distinctly perceive the figure of the spearsman standing in the center of the boat first glancing to one side then the other or poising his weapon ready for a blow when four or five of these lighted vessels are seen at once on the fishing ground the effect is striking and splendid the Indians are very expert in this kind of fishing the squaws paddling the canoes admirable skill and dexterity there is another mode of fishing in which these people also excel this is fishing on the ice when the lakes are frozen over a sport that requires the exercise of great patience the Indian provided with his tomahawk with which he makes an opening in the ice a spear, his blanket and a decoy fish of wood proceeds to the place he is fixed upon having cut a hole in the ice he places himself on hands and knees and casts his blanket over him so as to darken the water and conceal himself from observation in this position he will remain for hours patiently watching the approach of his prey which he strikes with admirable precision as soon as it appears within the reach of his spear the masquerage thus caught are superior in flavor to those taken later in the season and may be bought very reasonably from the Indians I gave a small loaf of bread for a fish weighing from eighteen to twenty pounds the masquerage is to all appearance a large species of the pike and possesses the ravenous propensities of that fish one of the small lakes of the autonomy is called trout lake from the abundance of salmon trout that occupy its waters is also found in these lakes and is very delicious the large sorts of fish are mostly taken with the spear few persons having time for angling in this busy country as soon as the ice breaks up our lakes are visited by innumerable flights of wild fowl some of the ducks are extremely beautiful in their plumage and are very fine flavored I love to watch these pretty creatures floating so tranquilly on the water we're suddenly rising and skimming along the edge of the pine fringe shores to drop again on the surface and then remain stationary like a little fleet at anchor sometimes we see an old duck lead out a brood of little ones from among the rushes the innocent soft things look very pretty sailing around their mother but at the least appearance of danger they disappear instantly by diving the frogs are great enemies to the young broods they are also the prey of the muscanage and I believe of other large fish that abound in these waters the ducks are in the finest order during the early part of the summer when they resort to the rice beds in vast numbers getting very fat on the green rice which they eagerly devour the Indians are very successful in their duck shooting they fill a canoe with green bows so that it resembles a sort of floating island beneath the cover of these bows they remain concealed and are enabled by this device to approach much nearer than they otherwise would do to the wary birds the same plan is often adopted by our own sportsmen with great success a family of Indians have pitched their tents very near us on one of the islands in our lake they distinguish the thin blue smoke of their wood fires rising among the trees from our front window or curling over the bosom of the waters the squaws have been several times to see me sometimes from curiosity sometimes with the view of bartering their baskets mats, ducks or venison for pork, flour potatoes or articles of wearing apparel sometimes their object is to borrow kettle to cook which they are very punctual in returning once a squaw came to borrow a washing tub but not understanding her language I could not for some time discovered the object of her solicitude at last she took up a corner of her blanket and pointing to some soap began rubbing it between her hands imitated the action of washing then laughed and pointed to a tub she then held up two fingers to initiate that it was for two days she needed the loan these people appear of gentle and amiable disposition and as far as our experience goes they are very honest once indeed the old hunter Peter obtained from me some bread for which he promised to give a pair of ducks but when the time came for payment and I demanded my ducks he looked gloomy and replied with characteristic brevity no duck jibba-wa meaning s the name they have affectionately giving him gone up lake with canoe no canoe duck by and by by and by is a favourite expression of the Indians signifying an indefinite point of time maybe it means tomorrow or a week or month or it may be a year or even more they rarely give you a direct promise as it is not wise to let anyone cheat you if you can prevent it I coldly declined any further to bartering with the Indians until my ducks made their appearance sometime afterwards I received one duck by the hands of my queen a sort of Indian fliberty gibbet this lad is a hunchback dwarf very shrewd but a perfect imp his delights seem to be tormenting the brown babies in the wigwam or teasing the meek deerhounds he speaks English very fluently and writes tolerably for an Indian boy he usually accompanies the women in their visits and acts as their interpreter grinning with mischievous glee at his mother's bad English and my perplexity at not being able to understand her signs in spite of his extreme deformity he seems to possess no inconsiderable share of vanity gazing with great satisfaction at his face in the looking-glass when I asked him his name he replied Macqueen but English name Mr. Walker very good man this was the person he was called after these Indians are scrupulous in their observance of the Sabbath and show great reluctance to having any dealings in the way of trading or pursuing their usual avocations of hunting or fishing on that day the young Indians are very expert in the use of a longbow with wooden arrows rather heavy and blunt at the end Macqueen said he could shoot ducks and small birds with his arrows but I should think they were not calculated to reach objects at any great distance as they appeared very heavy to sweet to hear the Indians singing their hymns of a Sunday night their rich soft voices rising in the still evening air I have often listened to this little choir praising the Lord's name in the simplicity and fervor of their hearts and have felt it was a reproach that these poor half civilized wanderers should alone be found to gather together to give glory to God in the wilderness I was much pleased with the simple piety of our friend the hunter Peter's squaw a stout swarthy matron of most amiable expression we were taking our tea when she softly opened the door and looked in an encouraging smile induced her to enter and depositing a brown papouse Indian for baby or little child on the ground she gazed round with curiosity and delight in her eyes we offered her some tea and bread motioning to her to take a vacant seat beside the table she seemed pleased by the invitation and drawing her little one to her knee poured some tea into the saucer and gave it to the child to drink she ate very moderately and when she had finished rose and wrapping her face in the folds of her blanket bent down her head on her breast in the attitude of prayer this little act of devotion was performed without the slightest appearance of pharisaical display but in singleness and simplicity of heart she then thanked us with a face beaming with smiles and taking little Rachel by the hands threw her over her shoulder with a peculiar slight that I feared would dislocate the tender things arms but the papouse seemed well satisfied with this mode of treatment in long journeys the children are placed in upright baskets of a peculiar form which are fastened round the necks of the mothers by straps of deerskin but the young infant is swathed to a sort of flat cradle secured with flexible hoops to prevent it from falling out to these machines they are strapped so as to be unable to move a limb much finery is often displayed in the outer covering and the bandages that confine the papouse there is a sling attached to this cradle that passes over the squaw's neck the back of the babe being placed to the back of the mother and its face outward the first thing a squaw does on entering a house is to release herself from her burden and stick it up against the wall or chair, chest or anything that will support it where the passive prisoner stands looking not unlike a mummy in its case I have seen the picture of the virgin and child in some of the old illuminated missiles not unlike the figure of a papouse in its swaddling clothes the squaws are most affectionate to their little ones gentleness and good humour appear distinguishing traits in the tempers of the female Indians whether this be natural to their characters the savage state or the softening effects of Christianity I cannot determine certainly in no instance does the Christian religion appear more lovely than when untainted by the doubts and infidelity of modern skeptics it is displayed in the conduct of the reclaimed Indian breaking down the strongholds of idolatry and natural evil and bringing forth the fruits of holiness and morality they may be said to receive the truth of the gospel as little children with simplicity of heart and unclouded faith the squaws are very ingenious in many of their handiwork we find their birch bark baskets very convenient for a number of purposes my bread basket knife tray, sugar basket are all of this humble material when ornamented and wrought in patterns with dyed quills I can assure you they are by no means inelegant they manufacture vessels of birch bark so well that they will serve for many useful household purposes such as holding water, milk broth or any other liquid they are sewn or rather stitched together with the tough roots of the tamarack or larch or else with strips of cedar bark they also weave very useful sorts of baskets from the inner rind of the basswood and white ash some of these baskets of a coarse kind are made use of for gathering up potatoes Indian corn or turnips the settlers find them very good substitutes for the Oseer baskets used for such purposes in the old country the Indians are acquainted with a variety of dyes with which they stain the more elegant fancy baskets and porcupine quills our parlor is ornamented with several very pretty specimens of their ingenuity in this way which answers the purpose of note and letter cases flower stands and work baskets they appear to value the useful rather more highly than the merely ornamental articles that you may exhibit to them they are very shrewd and close in all their bargains and exhibit a surprising degree of caution in their dealings the men are much less difficult to trade with than the women they display a singular pertenacity in some instances if they have fixed their mind on any one article they will come to you day after day and offer to their notice one of the squaws fell in love with a gay chintz dressing gown belonging to my husband and though I resolutely refused to part with it all the squaws and the wigwam by turns came to look at the gown which they pronounced with their peculiarly plaintive tone of voice and when I said no gown to sell they uttered a melancholy exclamation of regret seldom make any article you want on purpose for you if you express a desire to have baskets of a particular pattern that they do not happen to have ready made by them they give you the usual vague reply of by and by if the goods you offer them in exchange for theirs do not answer their expectations they give a sullen and dogged look or reply car car no no or carweeny or forceable negative but when the bargain pleases them they signify their approbation by several affirmative nods of the head and a note not much unlike a grunt the ducks fish venison or baskets are placed beside you and the articles of exchange transferred to the folds of their capacious blankets or deposited in a sort of russian wallet not unlike those straw baskets in which English carpenters carry their tools the women imitate the dresses of the whites and are rather skillful in converting their purchases many of the young girls can sew very neatly I often give them bits of silk and velvet and braid for which they appear very thankful I am just now very busy with my garden some of our vegetable seeds are in the ground though I am told we have been premature there being ten chances to one but the young plants will be cut off by the late frost which are often felt through May and even the beginning of June our garden at present has nothing to boast of being merely a spot of ground enclosed with a rough unsightly fence of split rails to keep the cattle from destroying the vegetables another spring I hope to have a nice fence and a portion of the ground devoted to flowers this spring there is so much pressing work to be done on the land in clearing for the crops that I do not like to urge my claims on behalf of a pretty garden the forest trees are nearly all in leaf never did spring burst forth with greater rapidity than it has done this year the verger of the leaves is most vivid a thousand lovely flowers are expanding in the woods and clearings nor are our Canadian songsters mute the cheerful melody of the robin the bugle song of the blackbird and thresh with the weak but not unpleasing call of the little bird called Thitibekik and a wren whose note is sweet and thrilling fill our woods for my part I see no reason or wisdom in carping at the good we do possess because it lacks something of that which we formerly enjoyed I am aware it is the fashion for travellers to assert that our feathered tribes are either mute or give utterance to discordant cries that pierce the ear and disgust rather than please it would be untrue were I to assert that our singing birds were as numerous or as melodious on the whole as those of Europe but I must not suffer prejudice to rob my adopted country of her rights without one word being spoken in behalf of her feathered vocalists nay, I consider her very frogs have been belied if it were not for the monotony of their notes I really consider they are not quite unmusical the green frogs are very handsome being marked over with brown oval shields on the most vivid green coat they are larger in size than the biggest of our English frogs and certainly much handsomer in every respect their note resembles that of a bird and has nothing of the creek in it the bullfrogs are very different from the green frogs instead of being angry with their comical notes I can hardly refrain from laughing when a great fellow pops up his broad brown head from the margin of the water and says will-a-roo, will-a-roo, will-a-roo to which another bullfrog from a distant part of the swamp replies in horser accents get out, get out, get out get out and presently a sudden chorus is heard of old and young as if each party was desirous of outcroaking the other in my next I shall give you an account of our logging-bee which will take place the latter end of this month I feel some anxiety respecting the burning of the log-heaps on the fallow round the house as it appears to me a rather hazardous matter I shall write again very shortly farewell, dearest of friends with respect to the various questions, my dear friend, to which you request my particular attention I can only promise that I will do my best to answer them as explicitly as possible though at the same time I must remind you that brevity in epistolary correspondence is not one of my excellencies if I become too diffused in describing mere matters I shall give you an account of our logging-bee too diffused in describing mere matters of fact you must bear with mine infirmity and attribute it to my womanly propensity of over-much talking so for your comfort if your eyes be wearied your ears will at least escape I shall take your queries in due rotation first then you ask who are the persons best adapted for bush-settlers to which I reply without hesitation the poor, hard-working sober labourers who have industrious habits a large family to provide for and a laudable horror of the work-house and perish overseas this will bear them through the hardships and privations of a first settlement in the backwoods and in due time they will realize an honest independence and be above want, though not work artisans of all crafts are better paid in village towns or long cleared districts than as mere bush-settlers who are the next best suited for emigration men of a moderate income or good capital may make money in Canada if they have judgment and can afford to purchase on a large scale they will double or treble their capital by judicious purchases and sales but it would be easier for me to point out who are not fit for emigration than who are the poor gentleman of delicate and refined habits who cannot afford to employ all the labour requisite to carry on the business of clearing on a tolerable large scale and is unwilling or incapable of working himself is not fitted for Canada especially if his habits are expensive even the man of small income unless he can condescend to take in his hand the axe or the chopper will find even with prudent and economical habits much difficulty in keeping free from debt for the first two or even three years many have succeeded but the struggle has been severe but there is another class of persons most unsuited to the woods these are the wives and families of those who have once been opulent tradesmen accustomed to the daily enjoyment of every luxury that money could procure or fashion invent whose ideas of happiness are connected with a round of amusements company and all the novelties of dress and pleasure that the gay world can offer young ladies who have been brought up at fashionable boarding schools with a contempt of everything useful or economical make very indifferent settler's wives nothing can be more unfortunate than the situations in the woods of the people of Canada of persons so educated disgusted with the unpleasant change in their mode of life wearyed and discontented with all the objects around them they find every exertion a trouble and every occupation a degradation for persons of this description and there are such to be met with in the colonies Canada is the worst country in the world so unfitted by habit and inclination under no consideration to cross the Atlantic for miserable and poor and wretched they will become the immigrant if he would succeed in this country must possess the following qualities perseverance patience industry ingenuity moderation self-denial and if he be a gentleman a small income is almost indispensable a good one is still more desirable the outlay for buying and clearing land, building buying stock and maintaining a family paying servants wages with many other unavoidable expenses cannot be done without some pecuniary means and as the return from the land is but little for the first two or three years it would be advisable for a settler to bring out some hundreds to enable him to carry on the farm and clear the above mentioned expenses or he will soon find himself involved in great difficulties now to your third query what will be the most profitable way of employing money if a settler brought out capital more than was required for his own expenditure on this head I am not of course competent to give advice my husband and friends in the affairs of the colonies say lend it on mortgage on good landed securities and at a high rate of interest the purchase of land is often a good speculation but not always so certain as mortgage as it pays no interest and though it may at some future time make great returns it is not always so easy to dispose of it to an advantage when you happen to need it and possessing many thousand acres in different townships may be distressed for twenty pounds if suddenly called upon for it when he is unprepared if he invests all his capital and property of this kind it would be difficult for me to enumerate the many opportunities of turning ready money to account there is so little money in circulation that those persons who are fortunate enough to have it in that command can do almost anything with it they please what are the most useful articles for a settler to bring out tools a good stock of wearing apparel and shoes good bedding especially warm blankets as you pay high for them here and they are not so good as you would supply yourself with at a much lower rate at home a selection of good garden seeds the stores are sad trash moreover they are pasted up in packets not to be open till paid for and you may as we have done pay for little better than shaft and empty husks or old worm-eaten seeds this I am sorry to say is a Yankee trick though I doubt not but John Bull would do the same if he had the opportunity as there are rogues in all countries under the sun with respect to furniture and heavy goods of any kind I would recommend little to be brought articles of hardware are not much more expensive here than at home if at all and often of a kind more suitable to the country than those you are at the trouble of bringing besides all land-carriage is dear we lost a large package of tools that have never been recovered from the forwarders though their carriage was paid beforehand to Prescott it is safest and best to ensure your goods when the forwarders are accountable for them you ask if groceries and articles of household consumption are dear or cheap they vary according to circumstances and situations in towns situated in old cleared parts of the country and near the rivers and navigable waters they are cheaper than at home but in newly settled townships where the water communication is distant and where the roads are bad and the transport of goods difficult they are nearly double the price where the supply of produce is inadequate to demand owing to the influx of emigrants in thinly settled places or other causes than all articles of provisions are sold at a high price and not to be procured without difficulty but these are merely temporary evils which soon cease competition is lowering prices in the Canadian towns as it does in British ones and you may now buy goods of all kinds nearly as cheap as in England where prices depend on local circumstances it is impossible to give any just standard as what may do for one town would not for another and a continual change is going on in all the unsettled or half settled townships and like Manor the prices of cattle vary they are cheaper in old settled townships and still more so on the American side of the river or lakes than in the Canada's note the duties on goods imported to the Canada's are exceedingly small which will explain the circumstance of many articles of consumption being cheaper in places where there are facilities of transit than at home while in the backwoods where roads are scarcely yet formed there must be taken into account the cost of carriage and increased number of agents the greater value of capital and consequent increased rate of local profit etc items will diminish in amount as the country becomes settled and cleared what are necessary qualifications of a settler's wife and the usual occupations of the female part of the settler's family are your next questions to the first clause I reply a settler's wife should be active, industrious ingenious, cheerful not above putting her hand to whatever is necessary to be done in her household nor too proud to profit by the advice and experience of older portions of the community from whom she may learn many excellent lessons of practical wisdom like that padron of all good housewives described by the prudent mother of King Lemuel it should be said of the emigrant's wife she layeth her hand to the spindle and her hands hold the dystaph she seeketh wool and flocks and worketh willingly with her hands she looketh well to the ways of her household and eateth not the bread of idleness nothing argues a greater degree of good sense and good feeling than a cheerful conformity to circumstances adverse though they be compared with a former lot surely none that felt as they ought to feel would ever despise a woman however delicately brought up for doing her duty in the state of life unto which God to call her since I came to this country I have seen the accomplished daughters and wives of men holding no inconsiderable rank as officers both naval and military milking their own cows making their own butter and performing tasks of household work that few of our farmers' wives would now condescend to take part in instead of despising these useful arts and emigrants the family rather pride themselves on their skill in these matters the less silly pride and the more practical knowledge the female emigrant brings out with her so much greater is the chance for domestic happiness and prosperity I am sorry to observe that in many cases the women that come hither give way to melancholy regrets and destroy the harmony of their fireside marriages of their husbands and brothers by constant and useless repining having once made up their minds to follow their husbands or friends to this country it would be wiser and better to conform with a good grace and do their part to make the burden of emigration more bearable one poor woman that was lamenting the miseries of this country was obliged to acknowledge that her prospects were far better than she had or could have been at home what then was the cause of her continual regrets and discontent I could hardly forbear smiling when she replied she could not go to shop of a Saturday night to lay out her husbands earnings and have a little chat with her neighbours while the shopman was serving the customers for why there were no shops in the bush and she was just dead alive if miss is such a one the way she was always quarreling when they lived under the same roof was near her she might not feel quite so lonesome and for the sake of a dish of gossip while lulling her elbows on the counter of a village shop this foolish woman would have foregone the advantages, real solid advantages of having land and cattle and poultry and food and firing and clothing and all for a few years hard work which her husband wisely observed must have been exerted at home with no other end in view than an old age of poverty or a refuge from starvation in a parish workhouse the female of the middling or better class in her churn pines for the society of the circle of friends she has quitted probably forever she sighs for those little domestic comforts that display of the refinements and elegancies of life that she had been accustomed to see around her she has little time now for those pursuits that were ever her business as well as amusement the accomplishments she has now to acquire are of a different order she must become skilled in the arts of sugar boiling candle and soap making the making and baking of huge loaves cooked in the bake kettle unless she be the fortunate mistress of a stone or clay oven she must know how to manufacture hop rising or salt rising for leavening her bread salt meat and fish knit stockings and mittens and comforters spinning yarn in the big wheel the french-canadian spinning wheel and dyeing the yarn when spun to have manufactured into cloth and coloured flannels to clothe her husband and children making clothes for herself her husband and children her tailors or mentua-makers in a bush the management of poultry and the dairy must not be omitted for in this country most persons adopt the Irish and Scotch method that of churning the milk a practice that in our part of England was not known for my own part I am inclined to prefer the butter churned from cream as being most economical unless you chance to have Irish servants who prefer butter milk to new or sweet skimmed milk there is something to be said in favour of both plans no doubt the management of the calves differ here very much some persons wean the calf from the mother from its birth never allowing it to suck at all the little creatures kept fasting the first 24 hours it is then fed with the finger with new milk which it soon learns to take readily I have seen fine cattle thus reared and am disposed to adopt the plan as the least troublesome one the old settlers pursue an opposite mode of treatment allowing the calf to suck till it is nearly half a year old under the idea that it ensures the daily return of the cow as under ordinary circumstances she is apt to ramble sometimes for days together when the herbage grows scarce in the woods near the homesteads and you not only lose the use of the milk but often from distention of the udder the cow is materially injured at least for the remainder of the milking season I am disposed to think that were care taken to give the cattle regular supplies of salt and a small portion of food if ever so little near the milking place they would seldom stay long away a few refuse potatoes the leaves of the garden vegetables daily in use set aside for them with the green shoots of the Indian corn that are stripped off to strengthen the plant will ensure their attendance in the fall and winter pumpkins, corn, straw and any other fodder you may have with the browse they get during the chopping and underbrushing season will keep them well the weanling calves should be given skimmed milk or buttermilk with the leafy boughs of basswood and maple of which they are extremely fond a warm shed or fenced yard is very necessary for the cattle during the intense winter frosts this is too often disregarded especially in new settlements which is the cause that many persons have the mortification of losing their stock either with disease or cold eventually the Canadian cattle are very hardy and when taken moderate care of endure the severest winter as well but owing to the difficulties that attend a first settlement in the bush they suffer every privation of cold and hunger which brings on a complaint generally fatal called the hollow horn this originates in the spine or extends to it and is cured or palliated by boring the horn or the turpentine, pepper or other heating substances when a newcomer has not winter food for his cattle it is wise to sell them in the fall and buy others in the spring though at a seeming loss it is perhaps less loss in reality than losing the cattle altogether this was the plan my husband adopted and we found it decidedly the better one besides saving much care trouble and vexation I have seen some good specimens of native cheese that I thought very respectable considering that the grass is by no means equal to our British pastures I propose trying my skill next summer who knows but that I may inspire some Canadian bard to celebrate the produce of my dairy as Bloomfield did the Suffolk cheese a clept bang you remember the passage for Bloomfield is your countryman as well as mine it begins unrivaled stands like county cheese o'giles etc I have dwelt on the dairy information as I know you are desirous of imparting all you could collect to your friends you wish to know something of the culture of Indian corn and if it be a useful and profitable crop the cultivation of Indian corn on newly cleared lands is very easy it is extended with very little labour on old farms it requires more the earth is just raised with a broad hole and three or four corns dropped in with a pumpkin seed in about every third or fourth hole and in every alternate role the seed are set several feet apart the pumpkins and the corn grow very amicably together the broad leaves of the former shading the young plants planting the two great evaporation of the moisture from the ground the roots strike little way so that they rob the corn of a very small portion of nourishment the one crop trails to an amazing length along the ground while the other shoots up to the height of several feet above it when the corn is beginning to branch the ground should behold once over to draw the earth a little to the roots and cut down any weeds that might injure it this is all that is done till the cob is beginning to form when the blind and weak shoots are broken off leaving four or five of the finest bearing shoots the feather when it begins to turn brown and dead should also be taken off that the plant may have all the nourishment to the corn we had a remarkable instance of smut in our corn last summer the diseased cobs had large white bladders as big as the small puff ball or very large nuts and these on being broken were full of an inky black liquid on the same plants might be observed a sort of false fructification the cob being deficient in kernels which by some strange accident were transposed to the top feather or male blossoms I leave botanist to explain the cause of this singular anomaly I only state facts I could not learn that the smut was a disease common to Indian corn but last year smut or dust bran as it is called by some was very prevalent in the oat, barley and wheat crops in this country especially new lands are very subject to the disease the ripe corn is either shocked as beans are at home or the cobs pulled and braided on ropes after the manner of onions and tongue over holes or beams in the granaries or barns the stripping of the corn gives rise among some people to what they call a husking bee which like all the other bees is one of Yankee origin and is not now so frequently adopted among the more independent or better class of settlers the Indian corn is a tender and somewhat precarious crop it is liable to injury from the late frosts while young for which reason it is never put in before the 20th of May or beginning of June and even then it will suffer it has also many enemies bears, raccoons squirrels, mice and birds and is a great temptation to breachy cattle who to come at it will even toss down a fence with stakes and riders for protection that is a pole or crossbar supported between crossed steaks and mounts the zigzag rail fence for better securing them from the incursions of cattle even in Canada this crop requires a hot summer to ripen it perfectly which makes me think Mr. Cobbett was deceiving the English farmer when he recommended it as a profitable crop in England profitable and highly useful it is under every disadvantage as it makes the richest and sweetest food for all kinds of glorious animals even in its green state and affords sound good food when ripe or even partially ripe for fattening beasts and working oxen last summer was very favourable and the crops were abundant but owing to the failure of the two preceding ones few settlers grew it our small patch turned out very good the flower makes a substantial sort of porridge called by the Americans supporn this is made with water and eaten with milk or else mixed with milk it requires long boiling bread is seldom if ever made without a large portion of wheat and flour mixed with the cornmeal with respect to the culture of other grain I can tell you nothing but what every book that treats on emigration will give you the potato in drills is planted in hills which are raised over the sets this crop requires owing with respect to the usual rate of wages this also differs according to the populistness of the place but the common wages now given to an active able man are from eight to eleven dollars per month ten is perhaps the general average from four to six for lads and three to four for female servants you make it a little girl say from nine to twelve years for her boarding and clothing but this is far from a saving plan as they soon wear out clothes and shoes thus bestowed I have once tried this way but found myself badly served and a greater loser than if I had given wages a big girl will go out to service for two and two and a half dollars per month and the fields also if required binding after the reapers planting and owing corn and potatoes I have a very good girl the daughter of a Wiltshire emigrant who is neat and clever and respectful and industrious to whom I give three dollars only she is a happy specimen of the lower order of English emigrants and her family are quite acquisitions to the township in which they live I think I have now answered all your queries to the best of my ability but I would have you bear in mind that my knowledge is confined to a small portion of the townships along the autonomy lakes therefore my information after all may be but local things may differ and do differ in other parts of the province though possibly not very materially I must now say farewell should you ever feel tempted to try your fortune on this side of the Atlantic let me assure you of a warm welcome to our Canadian home from your sincerely attached friend End of letter 11 I was charmed with the pretty caps and worked frocks sent for my baby the little fellow looks delightfully in his new robes and I can almost fancy his conscious of the ascension to his wardrobe so proud he seems of his dress he grows thin and thick and thick and thick and thick in the hands of his dress he grows fat and lively and as you may easily suppose is at once the pride and delight of his foolish mother's heart his father who loves him as much as I do myself often laughs at my fondness and asks me if I do not think him the ninth wonder of the world he has fitted up a sort of rude carriage on the handslafe for the little fellow nothing better than a tea-chest lined with a black bearskin this humble equipage he enjoys many a pleasant ride over the frozen ground nothing could have happened more opportunity for us than the acquisition of my uncle's legacy as it has enabled us to make some useful additions to our farm for which we must have waited a few years we have laid out a part of the property in purchasing a fine lot of land adjoining our home lot the quality of our new purchase from its situation greatly enhances the value of the whole property we had a glorious burning this summer after the ground was all logged up that is all the large timbers chopped into lengths and drawn together in heats with oxen to effect this the more readily we called a logging-bee we had a number of settlers attend with yokes of oxen and men to assist us after that was over my husband with the men-servant set the heaps on fire and a magnificent sight it was to see such a conflagration all round us I was a little nervous at first on account of the nearness of some of the log-heaps to the house but care is always taken to fire them with the wind blowing in a direction away from the building accidents have sometimes happened but they are of rarer occurrence than might be expected when we consider the subtlety of the moment employed on the occasion if the weather be very dry and a brisk wind blowing the work of destruction proceeds with astonishing rapidity sometimes the fire will communicate with the forest and run over many hundreds of acres this is not considered favourable for clearing as it destroys the underbrush and light timbers which are almost indispensable for ensuring a good burning it is however a magnificent sight to see the blazing trees and watch the awful progress of the conflagration as it hurries onward consuming all before it or leaving such scorching mementos as have blasted the forest growth for years when the ground is very dry the fire will run all over the fallow consuming the dry leaves sticks and roots of a night the effect is more evident sometimes the wind blows particles of the burning fuel into the hollow pines and tall decaying stumps these readily ignite and after a time present an appearance that is exceedingly fine and fanciful fiery columns the bases of which are hidden by the dense smoke-reads are to be seen in every direction sending up showers of sparks that are whirled about like rockets and fire-wheels in the wind some of these tall stumps when the fire has reached the summit the blast lamp-posts newly lit the fire will sometimes continue unextinguished for days after the burning is over the brands are collected and drawn together again to be re-burnt and, strange as it may appear to you there is no work that is more interesting and exciting than that of tending the log-heaps rousing up the dying flames and closing them in and supplying the fires with fresh fuel there are always two burnings first the brush-heaps which have lain during the winter till the drying winds and hot suns of April and May have rendered them sear and are set fire to this is previous to forming the log-heaps if the season be dry and a brisk wind abroad much of the lighter timber is consumed and the larger trees reduce during this first burning after this is over the rest is chopped up and clogged for the second burning and lastly the remnants are collected and consumed till the ground be perfectly free from all encumbrances accepting the standing stumps which rarely burn out and remain eyesores for several years the ashes are then scattered abroad and the field fenced in with split timber the great work of clearing is over our crops this year are oats, corn and pumpkins potatoes with some turnips we shall have wheat, rye, oats potatoes and corn next harvest which will enable us to increase our stock at present we have only a yoke of oxen buck and bright the names of three fourths of all the work in oxen in Canada two cows, two calves three small pigs ten hens and three ducks and a pretty brown pony but she is such a skillful clearer of unrailed fences that we shall be obliged to part with her breechy cattle of any kind are great disturbers of public tranquility and private friendship for which reason any settler who values the goodwill of his neighbours would rather part with the best working yoke of oxen in the township than keep them if they prove breechy a small farmer at home would think very poorly of our Canadian possessions especially when I add that our whole stock of farming implements consists of two reaping-hooks several axes a spade and a couple of hose add to these a queer sort of harrow that is made in the shape of a triangle for the better passing between the stumps this is a rude machine compared with the nicely painted instruments of the sort I have been accustomed to see used in Britain it is roughly hewn and put together without regard to neatness strength for use is all that is looked to here the plow is seldom put into the land before the third or fourth year nor is it required the general plan of cropping the first fallow with wheat or oats and sowing grass seeds with the grain to make pastures renders the plow unnecessary till such a time as the grasslands require to be broken up this method is pursued by most settlers while they are clearing bushland always chopping and burning enough to keep a regular succession of wheat and spring crops while the former clearings are allowed to remain in grass the low price that is now given for grain of every kind wheat having fetched only from two shillings and nine pence to four shillings the bushel makes the growing of it a matter of less importance than rearing and fattening of stock wages bear no proportion to the price of produce a labourer receives ten and eleven dollars and board a month while wheat is selling at only three shillings three shillings and six pence or four shillings and sometimes even still less the returns are little compared with the outlay on the land nor does the land produce that great abundance that men are apt to look for on newly cleared ground the returns of produce however must vary with the situation and fertility of the soil which is generally less productive in the immediate vicinity of the lakes and rivers than a little further back from them the land being either swampy or ridgy covered with pines and beset with blocks of limestone and granite the subsoil poor and sandy this is the case on the small lakes and on the banks of the autonomy the back lots are generally much minor in quality producing hardwood such as basswood, maple hickory, butternut, oak beech and ironwood which trees always indicate a more productive soil than the pine tribe in spite of the indifference of the soil the advantage of a water frontage is considered a matter of great importance in the purchasing of land and lots with water privileges usually fetch a much higher price than those further removed from it these lands are in general in the possession of the higher class of settlers who can afford to pay something extra for a pretty situation and the prospect of future improvements when the country shall be under a higher state of cultivation and more thickly settled we cannot help regarding with infinite satisfaction the few acres that are cleared round the house and covered with crops a space of this kind in the midst of the dense forest imparts a cheerfulness to the mind of which those that live in an open country or even in a partially wooded one can form no idea the bright sunbeams and the blue cloudless sky breaking in upon you rejoices the eye and cheers the heart as much as the cool shade of a palm grove would the weary traveller on the sandy wastes of Africa if we feel this so sensibly who enjoy the opening of a lake a full three quarters of a mile in breath directly in front of our windows what must those do whose clearing is first opened into the depth of the forest hemmed in on every side by a thick wall of trees through the interminable shades of which the eye vainly endeavors to penetrate in search of objects and other scenes but so dense is the growth of timber that all beyond the immediate clearing is wrapped in profound obscurity a settler on first locating his lot knows no more of its boundaries and its natural features than he does of the northwest passage under such disadvantages it is ten chances to one if he chooses the best situation on the land for the sight of his house this is a very sufficient reason for not putting up an expensive building till the land is sufficiently cleared to allow its advantages and disadvantages to become evident many eligible spots often present themselves to the eye of the settler in clearing his land that cause him to regret having built before he could obtain a better choice of ground but circumstances will seldom admit of delay in building in the bush a dwelling must be raised speedily and that generally on the first cleared acre the emigrant however looks forward to some no very distant period when he shall be able to gratify both his taste and love of comfort in the erection of a handsomer and better habitation than his log-house or his shanty which he regards only in the light of a temporary accommodation on first coming to this country surprised me more than the total absence of trees about the dwelling-houses and cleared lands the acts of the chopper relentlessly levels all before him man appears to contend with the trees of the forest as though they were his most obnoxious enemies for he spares neither the young sapling in its greenness nor the ancient trunk in its lofty pride he wages war against the forest with fire and steel there are sufficient reasons to be given for this seeming want of taste the forest trees grow so thickly together that they have no room for expanding and putting forth lateral branches on the contrary they run up to an amazing height of stem resembling seedlings on a hot-bed that have not duly been thinned out trees of this growth when unsupported by others are tall weak and entirely divested of those graces and charms of outline and foliage that would make them desirable as ornaments to our grounds but this is not the most cogent reason for not leaving them supposing some more sightly than others were to be found instead of striking deep roots in the earth the forest trees with the exception of the pines have very superficial hold in the earth the roots running along the surface have no power to resist the wind when it bends the tops which thus act as a powerful lever in tearing them from their places the taller the tree the more liable it is to being uprooted by storms and if those that are hemmed in as in the thickly planted forests fall you may suppose the certain fate of any isolated tree deprived of its former protectors when left to brave and battle with the storm it is sure to fall and he may chance to injure any cattle that are within its reach this is the great reason why trees are not left in the clearing indeed it is a less easy matter to spare them when chopping than I at first imagined but the fall of one tree frequently brings down two or three or even more smaller ones that stand near it a good chopper will endeavor as much as possible by partly chopping through smaller ones in the direction they propose the larger ones to fall I was so desirous of preserving a few pretty sapling beech trees that pleased me that I desired the choppers to spare them but the only one that was saved from destruction in the chopping had to pass through a fiery ordeal which quickly scorched and withered up its gay green leaves stands a melancholy monument of the impossibility of preserving trees thus left the only thing to be done if you desire trees is to plant them while young in favorable situations when they take deep root and spread forth branches the same as the trees in our parks and hedgerows another plan which we mean to adopt on our land is to leave several acres of forest in a convenient situation without the old timbers for firewood leaving the younger growth for ornament this method of preserving a grove of trees is not liable to the objections formally stated and combines the useful with the ornamental there is a strange excitement created in the mind whilst watching the felling of one of the gigantic pines or oaks of the forest proudly and immovably forced to resist the storm of blows that assail its massy trunk from the united axes of three or even four choppers as the work of destruction continues a slight motion is perceived an almost imperceptible quivering of the boughs slowly and slowly it inclines while the loud rending of the trunk at length warns you that its last hold on earth is gone the axe of the chopper has performed its duty the motion of the falling tree becomes accelerated every instant till it comes down in thunder on the plane with a crash that makes the earth tremble and the neighbouring trees real and bow before it though decidedly less windy on our british isles canada is subject at times to sudden storms nearly approaching to what might be termed whirlwinds and hurricanes a description of one of these tempests I gave you in an early letter during the present summer I witnessed another hurricane somewhat more violent and destructive in its effect the sky became suddenly overcast with clouds of a highly electric nature the storm came from the northwest and its fury appeared to be confined within the breadth of a few hundred yards I was watching with some degree of interest the rapid movements in the lurid and copper-coloured clouds that were careering above the lake when I was surprised by the report of trees falling on the opposite shore and yet more so by seeing the air filled with scattered remnants of the pines within less than a hundred yards of the house while the wind was scarcely felt on the level ground on which I was standing in a few seconds the hurricane swept over the water and with irresistible power not less than thirty or forty trees bending others to the ground like reeds it was an awful sight to see the tall forest rocking and bowing before the fury of the storm and with the great trunks falling one after the other as if they had been a pack of cards thrown down by a breath fortunately for us the current of the wind merely passed over our open clearing doing us no further damage than uprooting three big pine trees on the ridge above the lake but in the direction of our neighbour blank it did great mischief destroying many rods offencing and crushing his crops with the prostrate trunks and scattered boughs occasioning great loss and much labour to repair the mischief the upturned roots of trees thrown down by the wind are great nuisances and disfigurements in clearings and cause much more trouble to remove than those that have been felled by the axe some of the stumps of these wind-fallen trees will ride again if chopped from the trunk soon after they have been blown down the weight of the roots and upturned soil being sufficient to bring them back into their former places we have pursued this plan very frequently we have experienced one of the most changeable seasons this summer that was possible the spring was warm and pleasant from the latter part of May to the middle of Harvest we had heavy rains cloudy skies with moist hot days and frequent tempests of thunder and lightning most awfully grand but seemingly less destructive than such storms are at home possibly the tall forest trees divert the danger from the low dwellings which are sufficiently sheltered from the effect of the lightning the autumn has been wet and cold I must say at present I do not think very favourably of the climate however it is not right to judge by so short an acquaintance with it as everyone says this summer has been unlike any of its predecessors the insects have been a sad annoyance to us and I hailed the approach of the autumn as a respite from their attack for these pests are numerous and various persons as I have learned from sad experience I am longing for home letters let me hear from you soon farewell friends End of letter 12