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I usually go from home each alternate week about Tuesday and get home about next week Thursday. I go by Mrs. Riders and Widdow Philbrooks it is 80 miles from her to my camps, I drive a horse and [unclear] this winter a very comfortable affair The prices of all produce continue high. hay $18. at Milo, beans 2.00 corn $1.00, pork $25 flour $6, lard 14 cts butter 20 cts. labor is very high when we have usually paid $15 we are paying 18 to 20 lumber is also looking up and I think will overlook every thing else in this market The coming [unclear], people are putting on very high heeled boots, they will probably get so high that a little jostle may upset them. You have made some enquiring about the cost & expense of running a steam mill. of the cost I cannot tell, as I have never made any calculations, to run my mill or rather engine 2 saws & one machine it costs about $2.75 per day. I can saw of boards about 7000 ft per 12 hours and 5 am shingles on 7 laths, I have paid this year $1.17 1/2 per thousand feet for having my lumber sawed besides running the engine. I have sawed mostly my own logs/ have sawed about 300,000 ft by the thousand at 2 3/8$) I paid $1260. for the mill and have made out of the operation about $2200. logs are taken at the Old Town boom sawed by water and run here for about $2.50 per {unclear] whether money can be made by it I do not know but presume they can, the advantages of the steam mill are that you can saw at all times of [unclear] and saw small lots of lumber to order at paying prices, The steamboat folks are preparing for the accommodation of the public next summer fares will probably be very low. petitions are now in circulation for five new boats, one of half a million - also for