In the autumn the council issued an order “that every freeman [at the Sandhook] should enclose his plantation, and watch his cattle that they did no damage to others, on penalty of punishment.” Orders for the clearing of certain lands were likewise given to the freemen. “The field at Fort Christina was ploughed, and manure was brought upon it.... The land across Christina River [opposite the fort, called the low-land], was cleared and sown with wheat” by some freemen, who were to have one-third of the crop for their labor. Horses and oxen were taken to the Sandhook for the ploughing and cultivation of certain farms, which had been forfeited to the company by Dutch colonists. In October, November and December “the new freemen were ordered to clear their lands at various places, for the purpose of planting maize in the coming spring; and several fields at Sandhook, at Fort Christina and up at the [Christina] River were cleared and sown for the benefit of the company with the grain which Mr. Lord had brought in.... A pair of young oxen belonging to the company was assigned to Måns Månsson, the Finn, who had rented a farm at Upland.... Some old freemen were also ordered to help with their oxen, so that sufficient land was cleared for the sowing of about sixty to seventy bushels (about seventy to eighty acres), part of it being sown with wheat, the other part to be planted with maize in the spring. Various kinds of fruit trees were also planted in the autumn both by Rising and the freemen.” Director Rising had received a grant of land in the colony large enough for the settlement of twenty to thirty peasants; but it was located at Fort Trinity, “somewhat remote from Christina, so that he could not superintend it daily,” and he therefore requested a grant on Timber Island instead of it. He did not wait for an answer from Sweden, but proceeded to clear it off at his own expense with the assistance of the officers and servants. Then he “caused a house with two stories to be built thereon and a dwelling as well as a cellar below it.” The mill-dam and mill were repaired, and towards the end of October Rising went up to Naaman’s Kill “in company with several good men,” where he found “a serviceable little waterfall for a sawmill.” Such a mill, able to supply the needs of the country and produce lumber for export, had been planned by Printz. Now it could be erected, as saw-blades had been imported on the _Örn_; but the director decided to wait until the following spring. A great calamity threatened the colony in the fall. A fire broke out in Christina one night, endangering the entire fort; but it was fortunately extinguished without loss of property or life. A little later a storm of tremendous velocity accompanied by “an exceptionally high flood” damaged Fort Trinity, “washing away the wall up to the palisades.”