Letters from you and from mother (& papers) received this morning. Paper (Mr. Brooks’ death) from John, and his Valedictory Oration from Kingsbury, yesterday.

I am obliged to write in considerable haste.

The proposed arrangement for vacation is satisfactory to me. I shall expect you then, if nothing interferes, the 29th of August. You would like to visit Plank Road and Oneida Lake, perhaps. And John would want to spend one day mineralizing hereabouts. I don’t suppose you would enjoy yourself here much—at home.

I will suggest nothing more in regard to the Fall at present.

Mr. Randall’s invitation is not of the greatest consequence. I should (if I did) visit him rather as an act of friendship than for other advantage or pleasure.

In regard to the winter—if you should find a seashore farm, that would make some difference. Otherwise, I don’t know but Mr. Norton’s would be the best place. Wherever I am I shall study more than I work a good deal. If it was not for trespassing altogether too strong on Mr. Geddes’ hospitality and kindness, I should not probably desire a better place than this, because I could study and cultivate mental powers to such advantage here. You forgot, perhaps, that I have had some experience of winter Farming—at Cheshire.

The death of Old ’Miah will throw a beautiful farm into market I suppose—in Cheshire. For inland farming I should not want a prettier place but for its proximity to Sleepy David and the rest of the kit of borrowing and pettifying neighbors. It would require a considerable capital to get it underweigh perhaps.

The greatest objection to the Sachem’s Head Farm is its smallness and perhaps its bleakness. Probably not over 40 acres would be in tillage at a time—hardly enough. If there were 70 acres of wood and pasture to the back of it, there would be a good deal such a farm as I want. I should think it was priced too high. If there is a good deal of land—pasture, as I understand you—a good deal of it certainly is rock, and some sterile—stunted wood I think growing on it. Altogether—nearly as high—considering position, as Morris’s.

Considering Morris’s is just the place you want, seems to me it is queer you don’t take the trouble in course of a year and a half to see, examine, and value it. Perhaps the old fellow would sell it cheap, if he had a chance. Townsend says he thinks he would. I have thought a good deal about that Sachem’s Head place without knowing it was for sale. (So I have [260]of ’Miah’s.) There is no fruit there I suppose & perhaps no soil for it. I should like to hear more about it.

There is the prettiest ground for a ferme ornée in that place of ’Miah’s I ever saw almost—a beautiful nook under the mountain—or dell—with a fine large trout brook running through it. A quarter of a mile from David’s, half a mile from the railroad canal. The farm has been miserably cultivated by the old miserly tyrant that has gone to his account, but there is by nature excellent land and every convenience and beauty desirable.

Of course Uncle Owen won’t go by here without calling. If he and Fanny will be kind enough to stop here overnight, which will be convenient, I shall be glad to see them and Geddes won’t be sorry, to say the least. Let me know, if possible, when to expect them—whether they will want their “baggage carried up,” &c. The cars stop for supper at Syracuse and will (if requested) land here one quarter hour after. Our house is on the hill South-west opposite the 5 mile post. Must be seen a little before that though.

Mr. Geddes has been quite unwell: dyspepsia, &c, cross as a saw—horse. Tuesday I went with him and James over the Plank Road to Brewerton at the outlet of Oneida Lake. There is a good house there and it is used as a watering place. There is very fine sport fishing. I caught some fine Oswego bass, chub, and perch and saw my first cat-fish.

Do you recollect the little pleasure steamboat, perhaps 30 feet long, that came into Sachem’s Head in her first trial trip from Bridgeport—one day about eight or ten years ago? The “Dream” she was then. She came into Fort Brewerton while I was there. Her principal business is towing. The lake is the largest sheet of fresh water I was ever on. Larger than I had supposed. Can’t see across it—some thirty miles—length.

The agent for Fitzgerald’s Mills has been putting up one here yesterday & today. It seems to do very well, except the bolting is not perfect. Cost 75 dollars. Will probably grind 4 bushels wheat in an hour. Does not compare for cob grinding with Pitt’s—the one we have. That will grind a bushel of long clean ears in four minutes! Our man ground 20 bushels, as they came, last Friday forenoon after 8 o’clock.

I meant before to have suggested to you to plough & fence off a piece of ground at the lot and plant with [. . .] &c. (If there is any good any where near Hartford). It could save much time or expense on a farm for me.

My corn is dreadful. I think of having a surgical operation performed on it, cutting out all [. . .] and taking off the skin opposite, binding the toes together, so they will grow—one.

I have got my terrier. The finest pup you ever saw. I call him “Pepper” (5 weeks old).

We have the best physician in the country living with us (as much as anywhere) now. His name is Healy—an eccentric, kind-hearted, deaf, [261]cigar-smoking old cock—that goes about doing good without asking for a fee. He never eats meat, has an independent fortune, is always where you don’t expect to find him, and never where you do. He nurses more than he prescribes and his patients have the greatest faith in him.

I don’t get the Monthly Journal of Agriculture.

Do you take the Horticulturist?

I am about writing Uncle Law—and shall write mother, John, George Bissell, & Charley Brace as soon as I get time. I have about a week of my Journal to write up now. Captain Smith from Texas will probably be here in course of a week for a day or two.

A gentleman from Mississippi dined with us today.