New-York daily tribune., 1858-03-05
ALETTEP ON A COLD TOPIC.
Correspondence o. The N. Y. Tribune.

Central New.York, Feb. ~, lS5s.}
The Winter months are over, according to the ams-
nsc but AT least one more all probability, is before
us A more correct spportionment for our climate
would assign April and May TO Spring, October and
November to Autumn and leave four months 10 Sum-
mer and as many to Winter, thus bringing the middle
of that pale season where farmers experience usually
locates it. at the ist of February. This considered
the halfway point from grass to grass, in conc.
dence with an old saw which, by its form OF date, must
be Of transatlantic origin:
"Hsf your fodder and half your hss MI"
Save til sitter Condemns day"
This year barns are well supplied, and our stock 10
likely to be well fed throughout, unless We realize
an unuaua degree the evils of what il termed avey
cold. late, back ard Spring. l do not know how
often have heard this erumbling formula OF words
from weary farmers, whose hay was most out and
whose cattle on short allowance were hungrily rsmp'
inc about the barnyard or looking dsconsoatey over
tle fences at the cherries fields, which storm after
storm whitened day after day -Shile the starting Of
grass and beginning of Springs work seemed Ia'
definitely postponed on account Of the westher
"Livs horse and you'll get grass is consolatory
saving but one becomes tired Of ts repetition after the
middle of April.
February fll-dyke' is a country name for the
month which has passed so comfortably in moist and
melting England but little deserved here, for our
waters are bound in their frmest and ghtest suit Of
icy armor Our beautiful lake of twelve hundred
acres which has shown for nearly three months a. .
white unbroken plain among half wooded slopes, hass
covering of ice more than foot in thickness, and in
stead of dancing sailboats seds heavily loaded with
sawlogs and cordwood cross lie fiat eIpanse. Occsr
sionally however, even in Winter it is made subsef'
Went TO purposes of amusement, when ring Of nile
in circuit is marked out from its center by cedar bushes
and rural fast try their trottsrs around the
| level course. have seen hundred sleighs end
probably fifteen hundred people densely congregsted
such OCCASION the ice not yielding n the slightest
degree under this two hundred tuns of burden Viewed
from the adjacent hills, such gathering was CURIOUS
| sight; resembling swarm of ants a white plate,
hudded into dense crowd for time, then, at the
starting Of the horses suddenly spreading over the cir
Gle to head the competitors and msik their gait they
dashed around it. These Winter amusements were
considered by of rather profane character a.
savoring of the ireputed practice of horse-rscing
and the resemblance could not be denied but harm
has come of them hitherto. If rural population is
not virtuous that Of some ideal villages and i'm
agnary parishes is at least honester than that which
swarms about the Summer race-course; and whatever
tendencies TO mischief exist, pretty well repressed
where the fingers could hardly note betting book
and the pea-andtbimbe man in necessary mittens
would be harmless as the proverbia cat in gloveso
The uniform cold aud snow Of our ordinary Winters
allow us but few opportunities for skating, psstime
for which better opportunities exist in more incon-
st ant climates where fresh film Of water is spread By
every thaw, and by the succeeding frost recopgess1
into CLASSY ce Occasionally, however, our lake il
beautifully frozen, afordng field which at once ban
ishes from the skaters mind all thoughts of gymnStic
graces and skilfu ev0lutions, and lures him at
to strike boldly of for miles on miles, / have seen i
this Winter, one dark mirror framed in its snowy hills
so perfectly clear that stranger could not decide
whether il was a surface Of ice or merely unIipped
water. At such times our junior population s active
enough, and their exertons result in general preva-
lence of sti joints and lame legs among the boys on
shore-and among who not boys any longer
too. We have coasted the shores on skates before
now when the ice was clear as to be hardly veble
and though so thin as to wave and crack beneath VS.
yet safe for, o. all boys know new oe is tough and
elastic. Crossing the deep water, we could zee moth
ing below except dark shadow in the blank spses
under foot but along the shelving shores, every sunken
log and stick, every tuf of weed every pebble and
shell were distinctly visible on the bottom. As our
struggling party darted along, skimmng across bays
and around points like flock Of waterfowl we found
many things Of absorbing interest to urchns Of our
years Often we surprised unlucky muskra. gliding
Under the ice on diminishing expedition, and 80
heightened and bewildered him that he lost his
presence of mind, forgot the way to bis bole 10
the bank, ,traDgled and drowned, and trumphanty
hshed out through opening broken in the for tho
purpose Sometimes we captured ducb, wounded by
The last shooter, and debared from seeking other and
uDfrozen waters; or belnted and chilled believer"
the padde.footed grebe called; and in default Of
such game we found interest enough visiting the To-
calities OF Summer adventure. Such were the old
teeterpg-log' sswyer Like tree-trunk hall fos,ing
in eight feet of water at the bathing place ever since
the memory of generation, to reach and ride which
was the first effort Of juvenile swimmers; or the
Island, which was simply stony shoal, rising amid
deep water to within three feet of the surface or the
big stump, which is the broken end of an erect pine
trunk, the but of which is anchored in the mud forty
feet below, aud which has stood in the midst of the
lake since the whites first knew it, or the Winter
green Point where short land expedition usu-
ally made IN quest Of that aromatic plant; the Mar
rows and the lly-patches along the "black-asi
swamp on the west shore, Svorie locality for Sam
mer pckerel fishing.
Now that three or four generat Jns Of youngsters
tave succeeded us, we yet embrace the oceasorai
Opportunity 20 revisit with steel on iooh 10 longer ~