River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1905-08-17
A Letter From j. w. VIM.

Greysville, Tenn, July so, 1905.
Mr.. Editor: Thinking my wander
ings might be of interest to friends
at home l take the liberty 10 write
you and them through the JOURNAL
If you consider this effusion wor-
/ thy of publics ton.
We left home July 10. intending
to take the steamer for ST. Louis
and thence go by rail to Ullin, in
southwestern Illinois, better known
! as Egypt. We were disappointed
in this arrangement, as the boat was
not to leave St. Paul until Wednes-
day evening. Consequently we
went by rail. We left Prescott
Tuesday at 1888 and arrived at St.
Louis at 1880 Wednesday. Were
! detained three hours by two wrecks
on tracks, and as we had to wait
three hours in ST. Louis we occupi-
ed this time in visit to the Shaw's
Botanical Gardens, which we'll paid
us. And l would advise my friends
who come to St. Louis to visit these
gardens. Here one can see plants
peculiar TO every quarter of the
earth. We left St. Louis for Cairo,
arriving there at s p. m. Thinking
to show the Cairo people a few of
the acrobatic feats of Wisconsin
took a header" down a flight of
stairs of sixteen steps and landed
all right on my head, at the bottom,
but sustained broken finger and
badly sprained knee. AS conse-
quence have been acting in the ca
pacity of quadruped when loco
motion was necessary. In the jour-
ney down the river there was
nothing on the left but bluffs, and
water on the right. A great deal of
the way the water was up to the car
trucks. In and around Ullin the
soil is very rich, producing in some
kinds of vegetation three crops in
season, such as strawberries, corn
and grass. This land sells at from
S. to $35 an acre. A good farm of
12O acres, with comfortable house
and we'll, Is acres cleared and in
crop, go acres deadened, was offered
me at $40 an acre-a bargain. 1t
will be worth $50 an acre inside of
10 years.
There is a spoke, basket and
box factory in the village. There
is also large stone quarry worked
here, the projectors employing 160
hands, mostly negroes. The pro-
duct of these is shipped to all points
in the country and as far as Chica-
go.
The fruit crop is not abundant
this year, owing to frosts. Espet
cially is this so throughout Tennes-
see. The sides of the mountains
are dotted with young orchards of
apple, pear, peach, plum and cher
ry trees-in fact every kind of fruit,
which seems to thrive. The soil is
poor, full of hard heads, which are
so abundant cannot see how they
can pillow the ground. The fact is
they do not pillow in the sense we do
in Wisconsin-they just stir the
ground up little. This is the way
they start an orchard: The large
timber is chopped and the
brush burned. A man takes sack
of peach stones or apple or pear
seeds, and with sharp stick
punches hole in the ground large
enough for the seed which he in
serts, going oyer the whole field
in this way, and then leaves Nature
] 10 do the rest. In year or two he
will commence roofing around them
and in three years they commence
to bear fruit and in five years he is
a rich man.
We are thirty miles from Chatta-
nooga. Railway trains pass here
every half hour. Yesterday we Wis
tied Lookout Mountain from the top
of which we could see the states of
Virginia, North and South Carolina
and Alabama. | Think this is
the point Gen. Sherman signalled
to Gen. Corse to hold the fort, or
it may be the point where Satan
stood and tempted the Savior. We
contemplate visiting Chattanooga
tomorrow.
July 81 we left Graysville with a
team and wagon, seven of us, for
Chattanooga. The drive with the
exception of the first two miles was
over fine turnpike road, the hills
cut down and the hollows filled.
This road for 35 miles is the finest
| have ever travelled. Stopped at