The weekly Arizona miner., 1878-03-08

TIE MAu. LETTIxGs.-The Enterprise o yesterday published what purported to b'
 the award of contracts for carrying fhe mail l in Arizona for the next tour years, which If i should prove to be true will be deadene
 on all hope for efficient service The ide:
 of running daily from here to Dos PsImas each way, for the contemptable sum of f$20.
 900, in any sort of respectable conyeyance
 is simply preposterous and the other route
 are mentioned at correspondingly low fig
 ures, indicating clearly, that netwithstand | ing all the talk about straw bids not bein:
 recognized this time, they have some hov or other managed to creep in, and Arizoni
 is lIkeiy. to be cursed with poorly paid
 and as poorly performed mail service. | o. J. Salisbury is an old stager, and it i most likely that the figures are wrong in fh,
 case of his contract from Prescott 10 Do Palmas. He knows too well what it costs ti
 run stages three hundred miles, daily eacl
 way, to take it for trife, unless he hal
 been deceived as to the character of tn, country, price of feed, and probable amount of travel
 The curse of low prices for mail services always falls as heavily on the country through which the line runs as 1t docs on the contractors themselves. A poorly paid stage company is obliged to be mean with station keepers, grain and hay raisers, pas sengers, and everybody with whom they dc business.
 FROM DATECREEK.-Jim 0neal, of Date Greek, ;s in town to-day, and don't give s very rosy account of the way in which hi. sheep have wintered. Last season was SC very dry that the feed was wretchedly short in the fall, so that the sheep were thin to be gin the winter, which was by all odds, the coldest that he has ever seen in that coun. try. The consequence has been that many sheep have died for want of flesh to proteci them from being chilled to death.
 Now, however, since the late rains have wet the ground, and the weather has mod. erated, the grass has sprung up beautifully and stock of all kinds, are thriving, kicking up their heels, and growing fat.
 Capt Frink, of San Bernardino Valley introduced breed of fine horses at Marti- neg, and Date Greeks two years ago. Jim has several of the colts. Capt. Frink Black, and others, have number, and Jim thinks if Yavapai county should get up $ fair this fall, that part of the country would get away with all the horse premiums.
 By the way, why can't we get up Coun- ty Fairl Several stock-raisers on the Har- dyviIle road, including Wilder and Hutchi- son, have fine stock. So have the farmers and stock-raisers of Verde Peoples, Skull Williamson, Walnut Creek, Walnut Grove and Agua Fria valleys, as well as those in San Francisco and Bill Williams mountains Philip Hull could show many good horses Ashurst, Smith, and others could exhibit fine sheep, and Crowell might harness up a few elk and drive in a drove of wild tur- keys.
 PLANTS FROM THE SWISS ALPs.--Dan Hatz has received from his mother, in Swift zerland, from whom he appears to have in herited a love for plants and flowers, a pot of roots and bulbs of rare varieties peculiar to the Alps, and being fearful that he might not give them the exact treatment they re- quire, he took the precaution to divide with Mrs. Judge Brooks, who has great skill in the management of flowers. Under her treatment the young plants are already up and growing vigorously. We saw them yesterday, and thought "how like Rip Van Wrinkle, they must feel, if plants ever feel at all, to have gone to sleep last Fall in far off Switzerland, and to wake up on the first of March in tropical Arizona.' Mrs. B. is as fond of her young Switzer pets as if they were endowed with memory and the power of speech to talk to her or the great noun tains that divide the heritage of the Pope from the oldest republic on earth. It is an interesting botanical study to note the de yelopment of these plants, so far removed and in climate so different from that of the land of their nativity.
 James R. Keene, telegraphs from N. Y., Feby. 27, to the San Francisco Bulletin to distribute 2,500, on his account among the churches of the city. and the Protestant Relief Committee, for the suffering poor.
 Germany regards the appointment of Bayard Taylor. as Minister from the United States as confering honor alike on Germany and the United States. The National Zeitung says it will strengthen the al- ready strong ties between the two Countries
 The New Mexico Legislature has passed bill, granting railroad rights and privi leges, such as did Arizona. 1t will proba- bly meet the same fate that is certain to come to the Arizona act on the same sub ject.-[Tucson Star.
 Los Angelenos pretend to believe that if the rains do not stop pretty soon in the hills around Los Angeles, the sheep will get lost in the high grass and alfilerilla, and get so scattered that they never can be collected again. If so, we shall be sorry for the sheep.
 Gosper and Lount aresetting up their we'll boring machine to-day at the residence of c. c. Bean on Alarcon street, where they have engaged to bore their first well put up their first wind mill, etc.
 Itappears that the vicar ol Heydood, North will not allow the unbaptised to be buried under eight or nine o'clock at night even in winter. The spot in the church. yarp where such persons are inferred is. known as Hell Corner