Mr. McQuesten,
Dear Sir,

You will wonder why I have not written before this. The fact is having no good news to write, I delayed. You may have heard of the difficulty that we have experienced in getting crops thrashed.¹ Owing to the heavy straw thrashers did not make great headway and there was a scarcity of machines besides. Mr. Burton had promised to do ours, but he kept us waiting until we got tired. Then we got Paget to come in at the eleventh hour, but it proved more than the twelfth. He came by Bone's, Steven's and then to us. He was to thrash yours & Gordon's first, on a Saturday afternoon, then come over & do the rest of ours. But he came late to my place and with leaking flues & a broken separator. They fixed both on Sunday at my place, and began on Monday but flues leaked again. However on Tuesday night, we had 1889 bushels of wheat and 336 of oats done.

Next morning we had 9 inches of snow, and his men would not work any longer, so he pulled out and left us with 45 acres in stooks. We fell to and shook out the dry snow and stacked all yours included, we then helped Bradshaw to stack 110 acres, Brown 80 acres & Humphrey 35 acres. I, Bob & Gordon worked all the time, and on some fearful days we got Mr. Wilson to come over to thrash, but he w'd not do ours first. He thrashed for Glover & Bradshaw & then offered to sell the outfit to us. I was going to buy it at $3500. And I went into Harris with my first load of wheat intending to make the bargain coming back. When I arrived, Brown & Humphrey had bought the outfit and had actually begun to thrash at Bowen's. They got Bowen's finished but weather got so cold & grain too tough that no headway could be made, so Humphrey has left thrashing until spring.

I think Humphrey is inclined to thrash for us in spring but I don't care very much as we will have to get an outfit of our own sooner or later. We have yours in two big secure stacks and 6 stacks on Gordon's. As we will get it done in good time, it won't suffer & will make good seed, & I almost think wheat will be one dollar per bushel then. Yours should yield well, as the sheaves felt very heavy.

I know that you will feel disappointed, but I could not do better. I hope eventually that you will benefit by the delay in getting a better price.

Yours sincerely

Andrew Glendinning

The Season's Greetings

¹ Mr. Glendinning was at least partly responsible for looking after the farm while Calvin was attending Knox College in Toronto. For links concerning Calvin's farmland, see W8239.