May 3, 1916
My dear Mother,
I got a couple of letters from home during the week.
Mrs Myers sent me some reading matter. That was nice of her, wasn’t it.
The people here just finished putt in their crops and they are growing nicely. They sow much heavier than we do and they come up very quickly like hedges. The soil is soppy wet, 14” deep. I’ve been down that far looking for a shell that didn’t explode and stopped when I came to water. In the little paddocks the grass is a couple of feet high- everything in blossom. The place looks lovely. They get the greatest wheat yield in the world about here. There is not room for a big paddock but every space that is not built on is cropped. All the trees have been planted in rows and are pruned each season for wood.
I have been in the trenches for three sessions.
There are a couple of McCormick reaper and binders near our line and there are single furrow plows everywhere.
I am to get a trip to England next week on furlough. There are not a great many original men in the battalion and we are getting a holiday in any part of England we like – with a railway pass that will take us anywhere so the next letter you get will probably be written there. I have a couple of addresses to go to there that Aunt Grace gave me. We got the english papers one day old here so we are well off for news.
I think the Irish rebels want shooting very badly.
I saw 115 big shells drop round one of our guns recently. Some did not explode and I lowered an ordinary shovel down the hole. It made 12” to water. How much further it went I do not know. They make a very violent explosion when they go off.
Best love to all, Stid
