Flora of Mich'igiUi. Study at Michigan 9 



beautitul spring weather. . . . The l.irni lutlicr has bought is somewhat 

 stony on the front part ol it, more so than he knew for, he buying it in 

 the winter, but this can be endured. [I]t must be endured. [0]thervvise 

 I hke it quite well. [I]t is pleasant, I think, the river running by our door 

 about an arrow's flight distance away, the banks lined with trees. [T]he 

 land rises from the river into a liill, part of whicii is covered with trees 

 behind the house. [T]he farm has about 150 young fruit trees, say six 

 years or so old. [T]hc woods are mostly Oak, though there arc Walnuts — 

 Black Walnut, Sweet Walnut, Bitter Walnut — Beeches [and] a very few 

 Red Elm. 



Maple River was neither deep nor wide. In the spring the 

 overflow of its banks would cover large land areas. But its valley 

 was beautiful, and he learned to love it as much, if not more than, 

 the countryside around Gilberts Mills, New York. 



Immediately after uncrating their furniture and settling their 

 home, Hrwin went to work woodchopping and picking up stones. 

 On April 14 they manured and plowed their garden. Ten days 

 later he and his father went into the nearby village Hubbardston 

 and purchased a cow and another plow. All that spring and 

 summer he helped his parents with the farm work and house- 

 hold chores. They harvested hay, corn, beans, apples, potatoes, 

 and other garden truck. They cut acres of clover for seed and 

 reaped a good financial return per bushel. They threshed buck- 

 wheat, sawed wood, sold oats, killed hogs, hunted for wild game 

 including turkeys, gathered hazel nuts and, all in all, their profit 

 that year seemed to vindicate the wisdom of casting their lot in a 

 frontier state. 



Erwin was affectionate by nature and he longed for the loved 

 ones left at Gilberts Mills. Soon after arriving in Michigan he had 

 begun to write letters to friends and relatives, and by April 16 

 there was a prospect of answers. He read botany part of the day 

 and in the late afternoon walked through a wet drizzling snow- 

 storm to Hubbardston after the mail. As he trudged along the 

 icy and snow-covered road to town, his spirits were buoyant for 

 he was happy in the thought that, regardless of the years of hard 

 work before them, his family had a good home and " a good farm 

 as far as soil [was] concerned." Many persons would have been 

 discouraged because of the land's stoniness and stumpiness. The 

 sizable mortgage on the farm could have occasioned misgivings 

 for the future, even despair. He, however, was always happy 



