Letter 5
Date: June 8,
1868
Sender: Harmen Jan te
Selle (Wisconsin)
Addressee: Mrs.
Dela te Selle-ten Damme (mother)
Derk Willem te Selle
Town Holland (Wisconsin)
June 8, 1868
Highly regarded Mother
and Brothers with your wives and children. We let you know that we are all well
and healthy yet, and we hope to hear the same about you. If it were otherwise it
would make us heavy-hearted. But brother, what is the reason why you have not
written us a letter? I wrote you last October and have not yet received an
answer.
I don’t
think that you have forgotten us altogether, or are you afraid that it might
bring too much expense. No, Brother, do not be afraid of that , because I would
rather have you write three or four times a year than only once, because if we
have to pay a few cents for it, it doesn’t
make us any poorer. Therefore, write as soon as possible, then I will know that
you have received it. I will no longer let this delay me, but will inform you
about this and that.
As to the circumstances
here I will first let you know that we have received a new young daughter on
April 21. Wife and child are well and healthy. Her name is Dela... named after
mother. That name, here in America is Dillije. So I invite you to come on August
1st to the children-meal.
Now I will also write
you a few lines about nature (the climate). From the first of May it was very
dry and cold here, so the grain, now up, has not made much progress. The grain
stands well on the ground, even though it is not growing. So I believe that if
we get warm weather and rain there will be some growth. So I think we will get a
nice little pile of seed, because we have sowed 5 acres of wheat and 2 acres of
rye more than we did last year.
We have also sowed 23 acres of
wheat. To your standards that means 57 Schepelzaad
Beyond that we have 4 acres of oats, 2 acres of peas, also ryecorn (roggekoren)
and buckwheat. So we have about 40 acres under cultivation. You will say that
is 100 Schepelzaad. How can you work all that? For that, you would need four or
five hired men here, but that goes better here than there by you. Here you don’t
have to mow sods like you have to do. As soon as the crop is off the land, then
the work is mostly done in the winter, because in the summer the animals do not
come in the barn. Then the manure is brought on the land, and the plowing begins
immediately until it begins to freeze. While there is work, the land stays lying
until spring when the time comes to sow. Then one goes over it with a
cultivator. There are nine or eleven blades which are five and five quarters to
an inch and a half... four‑sided.
One hitches either two
horses or two oxen to it, according to what one has. With that, the land is made
loose, then sowed, and afterwards dragged. So you can easily realize that we don’t
need as many people here as over there.
But in the harvest it is
busy here. If we needed as many people (as much help) here as over there, there
would be no profit, since one has to pay a hired man from 100 to 140 dollars,
and the day workers a dollar to a dollar and a half. We have made very little
money yet this year. We sold wheat and hay for about $100. But that is not all
profit, because the $80 daily wages and $100 for the hired man is subtracted.
That's a lot.
Wheat is rather
expensive here and costs $2 a bushel and sometimes more then $2 a bushel. Rye is
about $1 a bushel here, oats 74 cents, buckwheat $1, potatoes 50 cents a bushel,
butter 25 cents a pound, eggs 1 cent each.
Cattle are still quite
high... cows 30 to 40 dollars, and good, heavy work‑oxen $130 to $140 a pair.
Here they go 2 and 2 in a yoke. So, one cannot buy them here otherwise than in a
pair. We bought a yoke of oxen yet this spring for 130 dollars. So this year we
worked with 2 teams of oxen, and broke up some new land. One cannot do that with
horses.
I gave you above the
price of cattle, but I didn’t
write about horses. You may think that they are worth no money here, but
definitely they are presently worth some money! They cost from $150 to $200 and
a young foal (veulen‑filly) of three months old brings $40 to $50. We bought a
young filly for $40, and some days ago, we had ourselves a colt from a horse.
So, I believe if they stay well, they will become a good team.
Yes, beloved, what more
shall I write. I could write you a little about the climate (lugtgesteldheid).
lt is very healthy here, even as healthy as over there, but there are times when
it is not so healthy. Sometimes the winter can be very cold, and the westwind
can be very strong. No person can then stay outside.
In the summer it can be
burning hot...much hotter than over there. It's because at midday the sun is
much more directly overhead. Also we are at a much higher altitude, so the sun
can become much stronger, but the summer is not as long here as it is there.
Also the crops can ripen more quickly, so one hardly knows where it will go. In
the summer, the days here are much shorter, and in the winter much longer than
by you. I don't understand how everything works. Also in the summer we have
heavy thunderstorms.
Here I must end with the
pen but not with the heart. Have the greetings from all of us, also J H and his
wife.
H. J. te Selle
Posted at New York the
13th ‑ received June 28, 1868
.Explanation
:
"Schepel" (a
bushel) is:
1.
an old measure of
volume, originally one quarter hectoliter and therefore it differed per
region; on introducing the metric system it was fixed on a standard of 10
liters.
2.
an old land measure; in
the Dutch provinces of Drenthe and Gelderland also called "schepelgezaai"
and "schepelzaad" (a bushel's sowing) indicating the area of land that can
be sown with one bushel of rye; e.g. the Gelderland schepel equals 1450 m²,
whereas the Drenthe schepel measures 833 m².
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