a fearful dra..k to this place. He himself is a most usless man only to look after sheep and even that he wants a propter [?]. We are obliged to keep a cook here when his wife ought to do the work when she lives by it but instead neigher of the two were ever brought up to work and I do not see but in the end of the year you could or Alex could get a man simple to do full as well as him for less pay. The idia of £70 a year and the keep of a family where everything is on the scale is fearful but my dear D I have done a good deal in my small way to put down expences. Little things will amount up to great ones in time. The potatoes and peas I planted are very well. The wheat crop is also doing very well but the fruit apple and peach which cost us nothing but the labour is doing beautiful. The willows and a few gums the same. I have no less than 30 apple trees in bloom and peaches bloom 60 native trees I have also planted, nios, etc. O my dear D I wish I was in this