We went on shore to Two stone Farm Houses on Beekman Manor in the County of Duchess, the Men were absent & the Women and children could speak no other Language than Low Dutch, our Skipper was Interpreter. One of these Tenants for Life or a very Long Term or for Lives (uncertain which) pays 20 Bushels of Wheat in Kind for 97 Acres of cleared Land & Liberty to get Wood for necessary Uses anv where in the Manor -- 12 Eggs sold here for six pence, Butter i4d per pound and 2 shad cost 6d. One Woman was very neat & the Iron Hoops of her Pails scowered bright, the Houses are mean. We saw one Piece of good Meadow which is scarce here away, the Wheat was very much thrown out, the Aspect of the Farms rough and hilly like all the rest and the Soil a stiff clay. One Woman had Twelve good countenanced Boys and Girls all clad in Homespun both Linen and Woolen, here was a Two wheeled Plow drawn by 3 horses abreast, a Scythe with a short, crooked Handle and a Kind of Hook both

A Voyage up the Hudson in 1769 351 used to cut down Grain, for the Sickle is not much known in Albany County or in this Part of Duchess. 9th We arose in the Morng. opposite to a large Brick House on the East Side belonging to Mr. Livingston's Father to Robert R. Livingston the Judge, in the Lower Manor of Livingston. Albany County now on either Hand, & sloping Hills here and there covered with Grain like all the rest we we have seen, much thrown out by the Frost of last Winter. Landing on the West Shore we found a Number of People fishing with a Sein, they caught plenty of Shad and Herring and use Canoes altogether having long, neat and strong Ropes made by the People themselves of Elm Bark.