272 



Appendix 



winter wraps seem pleasant. The route skirts the Gulf coast for many niiles^. 

 at times l^eini; built on iiilin.y; over shallow sloughs and broad inlets, then 

 rushing through tall reeds and swamp-grass, or, perchance, whisking througli 

 a dense forest of seini-tropical trees, whose boughs were pendant with Span- 

 ish or funeral moss and mistletoe, then gliding past a pine forest pf tall and 

 slender stems and whitened trunks, showing that the turpentine gatherer 

 had been among them, compelling them to pay tribute to his commercial 

 greed, now giving us a glimpse of an orange orchard, a vineyard of Scupp- 

 ernong grapes, or a view of the Gulf, with her white-winged commerce. 



The flora of this region was all strange and new to us. There were acres 

 and acres covered with a dwarf jialm, or palmetto, as the citizens call it, with 

 its broad and fan-.<hajied foliage, contrasting beautifully with the slender 

 needles of the long-leafed pine. 



There are a few nice villages and pleasure resorts along this line, but a 

 large proportion of the route is through dark and impenetrable swamps 

 scarcely elevated above tide water. 



As we approach ^Mobile we leave the coast with its salt marshes and strange 

 vegetiition and strike out through the turpentine orchards, live oaks and mag- 

 nolias, with here and there a village or farm house, with its inevitable sur- 

 roun<lingsof Scupiiornong grapes, orange and fig trees, broad spreading live 

 oaks and magnolias. 



AT M015ILE 



A retinue of carriages await our arrival, provided by the railroads, to drive 

 us through ami around the city. We were driven for miles over shell roads, 

 and through truck gardens of vast extent, where hundreds if not thousands 

 of acres of cabbage and other early vegetables stood ready for the harvest 

 and for the hungry thousands far away to the northward. This business of 

 truck farming, as it is here denominated, is new in this region. But a few 

 years ago cotton was supposed to be king. A7»/7 Qibbtge now holds the 

 scei)ter ; and, just here lies the secret of the groat interest the railroads of the 

 South are taking in a visit of Northern horticulturists. I see by a recent 

 report, that the "garden truck,'' shipped norlliwnrd from Mobile county 

 growers during the last year, returned the handsome prolit of 8270,<HH). 



Some three miles back of the city oxxv party was very jileasantly enter- 

 tained, at the residence of ^frs. Augusta J. Wilson, nee Augusta J. Evans, the 

 justly esteemed Southern authoress. After spending a half hour in rambling 

 through the grounds of this beautiful Southern home, in the shade of wide 

 spreading live oaks and majestic magnolias, and admiring the gorgeous array 

 of roses, hybiscus, and camelias, which here thrive in the open air and grow 

 to the proportions of respectable trees, we were invited by Mr. and jNIrs. 

 Wil.son to the house, which is built after tiie true Southern style of architect- 

 ure, large :ind roomy, with wide verandas and a hall extending through the 

 middle. Here Mr. and Mrs. Wilson were i)er.sonally introduced t(.) the niem- 

 ber.«i of our party, and with that ease and grace for which the South has ever 

 been noted, had a pleasant word and a smile for each. 



