board; and in harvest and haying I am to have 6_s_. or 7_s_. a day and my board.  We get wheat for 7_s_. per bushel, of our money; that is about 3_s_. 7_d_. of your money; meat is about 3_d_. per pound; butter from 5_d_. to 6_d_.; sugar about the same as in England; shoes and clothes about the same as it is with you; tea is from 2_s_. 6_d_. 3_s_. 6_d_. of your money; tobacco is about 9_d_. per pound, of your money; good whisky about 1_s_. 1_d_. per gallon; that is 2_s_. of your money.

Hudson State, New York, July 6, 1828.

I must tell you a little what friends we met with when we landed in to Hudson; such friends as we never found in England; but it was chiefly from that people that love and fear God.  We had so much meat brought us, that we could not eat while it was good; a whole quarter of a calf at once; so we had two or three quarters in a little time, and seven stone of beef.  One old gentleman came and brought us a wagon load of wood, and two chucks of bacon; some sent flour, some bread, some cheese, some soap, some candles, some chairs, some bedsteads.  One class-leader sent us 3_s_. worth of tin ware and many other things.  The flowers are much here as yours; provision is not very cheap; flour is 1_s_. 7_d_. a gallon of this money, about 10_d_. of yours; butter is 1_s_., your money 6_d_.; meat from 2_d_. to 6_d_., yours 1_d_. to 3_d_.; sugar 10_d_. to 1_s_. yours 5_d_. and 6_d_.  Tell father I wish I could send him nine or ten pound of tobacco; for it is 1_s_. a pound; I chaws rarely.

Constantia, Dec. 2, 1828.

Dear Children,

I now write for the third time since I left old England.  I wrote a letter, dated October 8th; and finding that it would have four weeks to lay, I was afraid you would not have it; and as I told you I would write the truth, if I was forced to beg my bread from door to door, so I now proceed.  Dear children, I write to let you know that we are all in good health, excepting your mother; and she is now just put to bed of another son, and she is as well as can be expected.  And now as it respects what I have got in America:  I have got 12-1/2 acres of land, about half improved, and the rest in the state of nature, and two cows of my own.  We can buy good land for 18_s_. per acre; but buying of land is not one quarter part, for the land is as full of trees as your woods are of stubs; and they are from four to ten rods long, and from one to five feet through them.  You may buy land here from 18_s_. to 9_l_. in English money; and it will bring from 20 to 40 bushels of wheat per acre, and corn from 20 to 50 bushels per acre, and rye from 20 to 40 ditto.  You may buy beef for 1-3/4_d_. per pound; and mutton the same; Irish butter 7_d_. per pound; cheese 3_d_.; tea 4_s_. 6_d_.; sugar 7_d_. per pound; candles 7_d_.; soap 7_d_.; and wheat 4_s_. 6_d_. per bushel; corn and rye 2_s_. per bushel.  And I get 2_s_. 4_d_. a day and my board; and have as much meat to eat, three times a day, as I like to eat.  But clothing is dear; shoes 8_s_.; half boots 16_s_.; calico from 8_d_. to 1_s_. 4_d_.; stockings 2_s_. 9_d_. to 3_s_. 6_d_.; flannel 4_s_. per yard; superfine cloth from 4_s_. 6_d_. to 1_l_.; now all this is counted in English money.  We get 4_s_. per day in summer, and our board; and if you count the difference of the money, you will soon find it out; 8_s_. in our money is 4_s_. 6_d_. in your money.