Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1877-04-06
April Characteristics.


ouiH burroughs III SCIIDAeI iot ACII.
Ap il, at its best, is the tenderest
Of tender salads. Its type is the first
spear of grass. The senses-Sight,
hearing, snell-are as hungry for its
delicate and almost spiritual tokens
as the cattle are for the first bite OF
lis fields. How it touches one and
makes him both glad and sad! The
voices OF the arriving birds, the mi
grating fowls, the clouds OF pigeons
sweeping across the sky or filling
the woods, the cltin horn Of the first
honey bee venturing abroad in the
middle of the day, the clear piping
OF the little frogs in the m .rshes at
sundown, the campfire in the sugar
bush, the smoke seen at;lr rising over
the trees, the tingc Of green that
comes SO suddenly on the sunny
knolls and slopes, the full translu-
cent streams,-the waxing and warm-
ing sun,-how these things and 9TH
ers like them are noted by the eager
eye and ear! April is my natal
month. and | am bora again into
new delights and new surprises at
each return OF it. Its name has an
indescribable charm to me. Its two
syl!ables are like the calls OF the first
blrds-l:kc that of the PhoGbe-bird,
or OF the meadow-lark. Its very
SHOWS arc fertilizing, and are called
the poor mans manure.
Then its odors! l am thrilled by
its fresh and indescribable odors-
the perfume of The bursting sod, of
the quickcned roots and rootlets, of
the mold under the leaves, Of the
fresh t'urrows. No other month has
odors like 1t. The west wind the
other day came fraught with q per
flme that was to the sense of smell
what wild and delicate strain of
music is to the ear. 1t was almost
transcendental. | walked across the
hill with my nose in the air, taking
i, in. 1t lasted for two days. i'm
agined it came from the willows of
distant swamp, whose catkins We're
atfording the bees their first pollen,
Or did it come from much farther
from beyond the horizon, the accum-
ulated breath of innumcrable farms
and budding forests? The main
characteristic of these April odors is
their uncloving freshness. They are
not sweet, they are oftener bitter,
they are penetrating and lyrical. l
know well the odors of May and
June, of the world Of meadows and
orchards bursting into bloom, but
they are not 50 inetfable and imma-
terial and SO stimulating to the sense
as the incense of April.
II X
One characteristic April feature,
and one that delights me very much,
is the perfect emerald OF the spring
runs while the fields are yet brown
and scre,-strips and patches of the
most vivid velvet green on the slopes
and in the valleys. How the eye
grazes thele and is filled and refresh
ed! | had forgotten what Il marked
feature this was until recently rode
in an open wagon tor three days
/ through Il mountainous, pastoral
country, remarkable for its fine
springs. Those delicious green
patches are yet in my eye. The
! fountains flowed with May. Where
no springs occurred, tn re were hints
and suggestions of springs about the
fields and by the roadside i'll the
treshened grass-sometimes over
flowing space in the form of an ac-
tual fountain. The water did not
quite get to the surface in such
places, but sent its influence.