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. Naturally the
Canadian cattle are very hardy, and when taken moderate care of, endure
the severest winters 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 and inserting turpentine, pepper, or other
heating substances.

When a new comer 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 purpose 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, yclept "Bang." You remember
the passage,--for Bloomfield is your countryman as well as mine,--it
begins:

"Unrivalled stands thy county cheese, O Giles," &c.

I have dwelt on the dairy information; as I know you were 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, and
attended with but little labour; on old farms it requires more. The
earth is just raised with a broad hoe, and three or four corns dropped
in with a pumpkin-seed, in about every third or fourth hole, and in
every alternate row; the seed are set several feet apart. The pumpkins
and the corn grow very amicably together, th