Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1883-01-03
from the ".Sthmu !So2tfh.v

MONTGOMERY, Ala, Dec. 30, so.
EDITOR REPUBLCAN:-It really looks
as il our winter was nearly over with.
We called yesterday upon Judge Bruce,
of the U. S. Court, and, in showing us
around his premises, we saw that he had
already planted his Irish potatoes and
that his onions and lettuce, planted in
October, were about large enough for the
table. The grass is looking very green,
the birds that left us a few weeks ago
are beginning to return and everything
indicates the approach of spring. Occa-
sionally cold blast comes sweeping down
from the North and soon we hear that,
with you, the murcury has fallen to zero
or lower 1t usually is very rainy here
at the Christmas season but this year the
weather has been beautiful | never
saw more perfect summer day than the
Sunday before Christmas and Christmas
eve was one Of the loveliest of moonlight
evenings. AS we came home from church
scarcely a star was visible and the great
slvery moon seemed to have taken almost
entire possession of the heavens. To US
who have always lived in cold country
there is strange fascination about these
warm, beautiful days in mid-winter. /
find myself constantly thinking of the
time when it is to freeze up and the
whole earth become cold and stiff and
covered with snow, but still the warm days
come and 80 and the farmer and gardner
work right along, just as if it were April
or May. I am beginning to catch some
glimpses of what this country was before
the war and what it will be again when
the new order of things has really begun
to bear fruit. A few days ago I went
with a company of friends into the coun-
try after Christmas green's. We passed
over what in the days Of slavery, were
large and prosperous cotton plantations,
but now, for the most part, without fences
and buildings and having the appear
ance of land that has never seen the pillow.
This might all be under cultivation were
the owners of it willing to sell it in forty
and eighty acre lots but, generally, one
has to buy the whole plantation, often
of thousand acres or more, or none ]
have rarely seen more beautiful land than
much of this is. The prairies of Dakota
will hear no comparison with it for gen.
eral farming. In Dakota you are without
timber and water. Here you have an
abundance of beautiful spring brooks
and streams forming excellent water
powers, with large tracts of timberot every
variety. The forests, here, both in sum.
mer and winter are more beautiful than
at the North. They have, now, much Of
New England look, although SURPRISING
even this in many respects. Here we
have the brilliant colors of the maple
mingled with the duller tints of the oaks
and elm, together with the varying shades
of green in.the cedar and different kinds
of pine, and the large, vanished leaf o.
the magnolia. Their, to add still greater
variety and beauty in detail, there il
everywhere found the holly, with its lea
of peculiar green and its vermillion dyeC
berry, an infinite variety of vines anc
ferns, clinging to the branches anc
trunks of the trees, and most beautiful
of all, fine, lavender colored moss hang
ing in heavy festoons from branch t.
branch and from tree to tree. [ cal
scarcely conceive of anything more, beau
tiful than Southern forest in winter time
and yet, so many of the trees bear sucl
rich and fragrant blossoms, that l cal
readily believe that the beauty of.winte
insignificant compared with that o