to those that are obliged to send wheat to the town to be
ground, is a serious evil; this will soon be remedied, to the joy of the
whole neighbourhood.

You do not know how important these improvements are, and what effect
they have in raising the spirits of the emigrant, besides enhancing the
value of his property in no trifling degree. We have already experienced
the benefit of being near the saw-mill, as it not only enables us to
build at a smaller expense, but enables us to exchange logs for sawn
lumber. The great pine-trees which, under other circumstances, would be
an encumbrance and drawback to clearing the land, prove a most
profitable crop when cleared off in the form of saw-logs, which is
easily done where they are near the water; the logs are sawn to a
certain length, and dragged by oxen, during the winter, when the ground
is hard, to the lake's edge; when the ice breaks up, the logs float down
with the current and enter the mill-race; I have seen the lake opposite
to our windows covered with these floating timbers, voyaging down to the
saw-mill.

How valuable would the great oaks and gigantic pines be on an estate in
England; while here they are as little thought of as saplings would be
at home. Some years hence the timbers that are now burned up will be
regretted. Yet it is impossible to preserve them; they would prove a
great encumbrance to the farmer. The oaks are desirable for splitting,
as they make the most durable fences; pine, cedar, and white ash are
also used for rail-cuts; maple and dry beech are the best sorts of wood
for fires: white ash burns well. In making ley for soap, care is taken
to use none but the ashes of hard wood, as oak, ash, maple, beech; any
of the resinous trees are bad for the purpose, and the ley will not
mingle with the fat. In boiling, to the great mortification of the
uninitiated soap-boiler, who, by being made acquainted with this simple
fact, might have been spared much useless trouble and waste of material,
after months of careful saving.

An American settler's wife told me this, and bade me be careful not to
make use of any of the pine-wood ashes in running the ley. And here I
must observe, that of all people the Yankees, as they are termed, are
the most industrious and ingenious; they are never at a loss for an
expedient: if one thing fails them they adopt another, with a quickness
of thought that surprises me, while to them it seems only a matter of
course. They see