42 FRUIT RANCHING. 



To say that the company had constructed its plant 

 at both falls is not quite accurate. The works at the 

 Lower Falls were, indeed, completed; but they had 

 been discarded in favour of a more up-to-date and 

 more powerful equipment at the Upper Falls, and 

 this latter was not yet fully completed. Seventy 

 men were still at work putting the finishing touches to 

 the constructional works, although the plant was run- 

 ning and supplying power. 



These men, too, came to buy eggs and milk, and 

 some of them, who were married, and lived in shacks 

 (rough wooden huts) or tents, wanted butter also. 

 Our butter we sold for 40 cents (Is. 8d.) per lb., our 

 milk for 10 cents per quart, and our eggs for 40 cents 

 (Is. 8d.) to 70 cents (2s. lid.) per dozen. Maggie, 

 my wife, soon began to wax rich. 



In the meantime I had been joined by two men 

 from England — one, a married man, an experienced 

 gardener; the other, a single man, was to look after 

 the live stock and cultivate the land. 



I am sorry to say I cannot commend cows as 

 valuable assistants on a fruit ranch — that is to say, on 

 a ranch where the fences are incomplete. Our first 

 experience of the sort of assistance cows render was 

 in connection with young cabbage plants. Almost 

 the first thing we did after settling on our new 

 possessions was to sow some cabbage seed, so that 

 we might have early cabbages for market. Now, 

 there was not far from the house a little pocket of 

 useful garden ground, well hidden, and at a distance 

 from the cow-tracks, so that we never dreamed of our 

 young cabbages and cauliflowers, our lettuce and 

 radishes, being in any jeopardy. Nor were they, all 



