Arvine Wales letter to Arvine C. Wales, September 3, 1845

              D-430-13
page 1

   Dear Son
        Yours of 29th came to hand last monday giving an acct of your arrival at Cincinnatta. On Fryday night Last we had a gentle rain through the night & a slight shower through the day of Sat. and last Eve. A heavy shower & again in the night another & threagthning rain today. Mother & Lydia Ann & Charley are fixing to go to Middlebury to day. I cannot gell whether the rain will help the corn or not. the grass starts instanter & should the frosts hold off it will help out the fodder. You having left but little more than a week & the weather having been brot I have hardly any thing to wright.  Last week we commenced hauling Muck out of the swamp. We started a ditch 6 feet wide at the East end at commencement it was about 2 1/2 feet think & as we drove in it increased to 10 feet about 6 feet was mass & four feet below was more solid with a slight mixture of sand under that blue clay 8 feet thick & below the blue clay Sand which was hard & compact of sharp grit in that strata. I bored only a few in clay in the sandy part near 8 feet from the surface