(forty acres in grain), and all the fencing to put up, meals, etc., to cook, bread to bake, dishes to wash up, clothes to wash and mend: all these leave but little time for letter-writing. Up at five. Bob (my hired man) goes out, feeds the horses and pigs, cleans out the stable, and throws the harness on; meanwhile, I get the breakfast. After breakfast, about 6.15, we have a smoke to aid digestion, and wash up the breakfast things, then steady work till noon. I come in a little before, to put the potatoes on to boil, as they take so long, and then we give ourselves and horses an hour and a half's rest, then out again till 6.30 or seven, it depends whether we are pressed to finish something. Then tea, wash up dishes, mend things, set bread (if required), and then bed, and glad to get to it. On the jump the whole time. All the land within one hundred miles of here, worth taking up, is now under cultivation; and I believe I am in about the best farming part us. of Manitoba. Floods have been bad in Emmerson, everybody living upstairs, water five feet in the streets. The fellow who brought my waggon out from Emmerson, had to bring each wheel, axle, etc., over the Red River, separately in a skiff, and it cost him $4, the bridge being washed away by the flood. The prairie round the Mennonites is three feet in water, so I am afraid they will not get much crop in this year. We are in the hills, where no floods can reach However, I will not enter into a description of the country, because I hope that when you are tired of the old world for travelling, you will come over and see the new one, and all its novel labour-saving arrangements. I find I can save money by buying a self-binder, i.e. a machine which reaps the grain and binds it into sheaves at the same time, with wire. It will cost me $340,-January 1, 1883, $120; 1884, $120; 1885, $100: but then I shall cut for other people at $2 an acre, and I can cut ten acres a day; wire four pounds to the acre, at eleven cents per pound. Labour is already very scarce round here, and during harvest prices will be terrible, and men will not be able to be got for love or money. I shall be independent of much help, as my man will be able to shock up most of the grain, and I can give him a hand in the evening, after reaping. I have four more acres of oats to SOW. The wheat I have sown looks well, and is coming up nicely. I am a little behindhand, but then I have a large crop for one team to put in, and I have put it in more carefully than most round here, and harrowed it oftener; and besides that, I had so little time to prepare for it before seeding, on account of buying my place later. Good seed had to be picked out and drawn over, implements bought, and one thing and another; so I don't blame myself for being a little behind. The fellows round here are mostly sons of English clergy, and a rough lot at that; the nicest fellows being the common rough “launks,” always good-natured and ready to oblige, which the former by no means are. I am sorry to say I have not answered Aunt Mabel or Aunt K. K.'s last letters, but I will as soon as I can. With love to them all, and sincerest thanks to yourself for your extreme kindness, I am your very affectionate nephew, TO HIS MOTHER. Shore Lake Farm, June 29, 1882.-Business, business, business! Going on rapidly. Down to Winnipeg two weeks ago. Saw Palmer, who is getting on well; luggage not arrived yet. I bought another team for the following reason: my present team is not nearly strong enough for the excessively hard work of breaking with a 14-inch plough in scrub, and Jessie has one of the strongest, healthiest, and prettiest bay foals Bill and Jack, my you ever saw. I hope both Jessie and Queenie will have foals next year. new team, are two bright bays, very big and strong, and run along with the 14-inch breaker as if it were a plaything. Our working hours through breaking have been—3, a.m. ; breakfast, 3.30 to 9.30, breaking; 9.30 to 10.30, chores and dinner; 10.30 to 4, sleep; 4 to 5.30, tea; chores 5.30 to 10.30, breaking. The reason for this is the bull-dogs (horse-flies, I think, in England) are so thick and annoying, that the horses go nearly mad in the day. The mosquitoes are bad at night, but that can't be helped; last night they were like a cloud of dust, and made a noise like a swarm of bees, into one's nose and ears, and biting like fury. However, the grass is getting long now, so breaking will soon be over. I shall have twenty acres broken-not so much as I intended, but I could not hire any one. The scrub is too hard for stray comers to get out. As a matter of curiosity, I went, when in Winni |