50 The Wilson Bulletin.— No. 43. 



lected places have in many instances grown up in low pines, 

 and briars, making, in some spots, almost impenetrable 

 thickets. The remaining fourth includes the village of 

 Kirkwood, a little place containing about four hundred peo- 

 ple. Kirkwood is built upon what was once a farm, a beau- 

 tiful place of one hundred and fifty acres. About ten years 

 ago the land was purchased by a syndicate, which, after 

 projecting a trolley line through it from Atlanta to Deca- 

 tur, a distance of six miles, divided it into lots and sold the 

 greater portion of it to persons, the most of whom were 

 doing business in Atlanta. Upon this place is a passing 

 remnant of a Cherokee rose hedge, that once grew the en- 

 tire length of one side of the farm, whose white mantle of 

 flowers added grandeur to the already beautiful landscape. 



Here and there over the land where homes have not been 

 built, a few scattered clumps of this old hedge can still be 

 seen. The pits or seeds ripen late in the fall, and make a 

 plentiful supply of food for the song sparrow, while the 

 hedge itself lends a ready shelter against storm and danger. 



There are no high elevations, or deep ravines in the tract, 

 but the general "lay" of the land would be called hilly and 

 rolling. The forest trees include oak, pine, hickory, yellow 

 poplar, chestnut, blackgum, elm, ash, wild cherry, sassafras, 

 water-oak, beech, swamp or red maple, and red-bud, crab- 

 apple, sourwood, and holly are found, but not very plenti- 

 fully. The blossoms of the crab-apple and sourwood are 

 much sought after by bees, from which they gather a fine 

 article of honey; the first blossoms early in the spring, the 

 last late in the fall. In the swamps and on the edges of 

 ditches grow a tangle of wild grapes, alder, elder, sumach, 

 and bamboo; the whole being enlivened by the many tints 

 of the flowers of the wild azalea. The soil is a sandy loam 

 upon a stiff subsoil. There are no farms immediately with- 

 in the tract, though there are plenty of persons in DeKalb 

 county who make farming a business, cotton and corn being 

 not only the principal, but the most profitable production. 

 Wheat, rye, oats, and barley are cultivated to a limited ex- 



