^^ 
 
 %. 
 
 y'ff-wii'y^^ « 
 
 
 Was organized for the purpose of promoting Immigration, by 
 reliable publications, making kno'wn the Resources, Advantages 
 and Capabilities of the above named States. The Company has 
 no^v on hand for free distribution, Books, Pamphlets and Maps, 
 descriptive and statistical, giving detailed information of the 
 State of Texas, Arkansas, or "Western Louisiana, ^vhich will be 
 sent, postage prepaid, to all persons applying to 
 
 B. G. DUVAL, Secretary, 
 
 Austir / Texas. 
 
 J. R.f VICTOR, Eastern Ma^ager^ 
 
 ' No. 243 Broadway, New 
 
 WM. W. LANG, ¥r>esiden 
 
 Leadenhall House, Leaden 
 London. 
 
 
 York. 
 
 nd. 
 
^ 
 
 / 
 
Sou1:VvYreb-t€.Tn \\Ti m'\gr ^■t\ on t-am panu, ft\A.c.t\n,Ta>c. 
 
 A PAPER 
 
 ON THE 
 
 Resources and Capabilities 
 
 OF 
 
 i ^^ 
 
 READ Bf 
 BEFORE TflE 
 
 iRMER'S CLUB OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE, COOPER UNION, 
 
 New York, March 8th, 1881. 
 »DGE, Prksident. B. H MARTIN Becketary. 
 
 EXTJR^CT from: THE ]Vri]f>n:JXES. 
 
 .1 of Dr. Lambert, a vote of thanks was unanimousl}' tendered Col. Lang 
 and valuable paper on the Capabilities of Texas, and he was requested to 
 deposit in the Archives of the Institute and for publication.' 
 
 'WHICH IS APPENDED A BRIEF SUMMARY 
 
 OF- THE 
 
 of tlie Slate a: a M for Inpk 
 
SlUl^U^ 
 
A PAPER 
 
 READ BY COL. LANG, OF TEXAS, 
 
 BEFORE THE 
 
 Farmers' Club, Cooper Union, New York City. 
 
 In response to your courteous invitation, 
 Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am 
 here to say a few words witli regard to the 
 natural resources and capabilities of Texas. 
 it affords me no little pleasure, to stand in 
 this presence — before the oldest and most in- 
 fluential of American agricultural societies. 
 A society which is a part of that larger and 
 more catholic organization for the promotion 
 of all learning, art and science — the American 
 Institute. An institute which numbers 
 among its Presidents the name of that pure- 
 minded, large-hearted, sterling journalist and 
 philanthropist, Horace Greeley 
 
 Let me warn you in advance that my deal- 
 ing to-day will not be with either elegant 
 description or poetic imagery, but with hard 
 facts and dry figures — facts and figures neces- 
 sary to the comprehension of that mighty 
 movement of population, which is now flow- 
 ing southwestward. 
 
 It is diflScult by the mere statement of square 
 miles by the hundred thousand and acres by 
 the hundred million to convey any just idea 
 of the State which forms my theme this after- 
 noon. It is only when we compare her with 
 other States and nationalities that the mind 
 rises to some appreciation of her magnitude, 
 of her immense capabilities and of the glor- 
 ious future that awaits the development of 
 her limitless resources. 
 
 When I tell you that Texas contains 274,356 
 square miles, or 175,587,840 acres, I make a 
 very prosaic statement, which carries with it 
 very little appreciation of the actual fact that 
 this State of Texas is as large as six such States 
 as New York. In acres and square miles the 
 Empire State of the South is six times the 
 magnitude of the Empire State of the North. 
 
 Place Maine, New Hampshire, Massachu- 
 setts, Rhode Island, Vermont, Connecticut, 
 New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 'Dela- 
 ware, Ohio and Illinois close together, and 
 the territory of Texas will cover and overlap 
 them all 6,000 square miles. 
 
 Should we divide Texas in the middle, the 
 one-half will equal Great Britain and Ireland. 
 
 Massachusetts supports a population of 186 
 to the square mile; were Texas populated in 
 the same ratio her census would be 51,030,316, 
 which is equal to that of the whole United 
 States. 
 
 As we look a little further we shall see that 
 if cold, bleak, rocky Massachusetts can sus- 
 tain a population of 186 to the square mile, 
 Texas, with her genial climate, her fertile 
 soils and varied productions can do much 
 more. 
 
 As indicative of the rapidity with which 
 her population is increasing I give the fol- 
 lowing: 
 
 In 1820 ihe population was 20,000 
 
 . "1830 '' " " 35,000 
 
 " 1840 " " " 60,000 
 
 " 1850 " " " 212,592 
 
 " 1860 " " " 601,039 
 
 " 1870 " " " 818.579 
 
 '' 1880 " '» " ... 1,592 574 
 
 Texas contains about 9 degrees of longitude 
 and 8 degrees of latitude, but her peculiar 
 surface configuration gives her a much more 
 varied power of production. All the produc- 
 tions of the Temperate Zone, and many of the 
 Torrid, flourish in Texas — cotton, all'the ce- 
 reals and grasses, rice, sugar, tobacco, oranges, 
 bananas, olives, guava. Texas produces, with 
 almost equal ease, all the grains and meats 
 that support life — the cotton and wool which 
 clothe it — the fruits that, like those of Eden, 
 are pleasant to the taste — and the tea and the 
 silk, which are its luxuries. 
 
 In 1850 the production of wheat was less 
 than 50,000 bushels, and he who should have 
 predicted its successful culture, in any save 
 the counties of the extreme North, would 
 have been regarded as a wild visionary. Yet, 
 in 1878 the wheat crop was 4,000,000 bushds, 
 and its production is now only limited by- 
 market facilities. It ripens a month earlier 
 than the wheat of more Northern States. In 
 Centennial Year the first sack of Texas flour 
 reached Galveston May 18th. It was sold at 
 auction for a handsome sum and sent to the 
 Emperor of Brazil ; while the price bought 
 many sacks for the orphans in the Asylum. 
 
 Texas wheat weighs from 62 to 68 pounds 
 the measured, bushel, and flour made from it 
 passes the tropics without danger of fermen- 
 tation or souring. The balance of our trade 
 in favor of Brazil is about thirty-five millions. 
 Every dollar of which might be saved by in- 
 creasing the production of Texas wheat and 
 the exportation of Texas flour to pay for Rio 
 coffee. A careful estimate shows that Texas 
 can produce sixty-four millions of bushels, 
 or one eighth of the entire wheat crop of the 
 United States, without interfering with her 
 other crops 
 
 The total acreage of the nine principal crops 
 of the United States — corn, wheat, oats, barley, 
 rye, buckwheat, hay, potatoes and cotton — 
 is 143,178,393 acres. Texas could produce 
 all these and have a surplus of 32,309,447 
 acres for other purposes. She could not only 
 contain all the population of the United 
 States, but she could raise all the principal 
 crops for home consumption and foreign ex- 
 port which they produce. 
 
TEXAS; HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES 
 
 This is what Texas might do. Let us see 
 what it is that she does do. 
 
 Returns from sixty-eight shippmg points 
 give the following aggregate results of Texas 
 produce. While these figures do not reach 
 the entire produ(;tion, they indicate its mag- 
 nitude. 
 
 Cot on, 951,093 bales Value, $38,043,720 
 
 Cattle, 502,190 head " 8,241.903 
 
 Horses, 37.8(50 " 473,250 
 
 Wool, 14,.568, 920 pounds " 2,91:^,784 
 
 Hides, 28.104,065 " 2,8lO,406 
 
 Lumber and s r gles '* 1,349,691 
 
 Wheat, 2,500,000 bushels.... " 2.375 000 
 
 Cotton .s ed and oil cake " 506,063 
 
 Suga ■ and molasses " 433,960 
 
 Miscellaneous products " 672,^64 
 
 $57,829/141 
 
 These figures are for 1878; none later are 
 available. 
 
 I think the State can rival Louisiana in the 
 production of sugar — South Carolina in rice, 
 and can produce as many oranges as Florida, 
 as much tobacco as Virginia and as much 
 hemp as Kentuckv or Missouri. 
 
 We produced in 1878, 951,093 bales of Cot- 
 ton valued at $38,048,720. The world con- 
 sumes about 12,000,000 bales annually, which 
 Texas could grow on 19,000 square miles, 
 or if Texas were to turn her attention to 
 it, she could grow as much cotton as four- 
 teen worlds like this consume. 
 
 She can produce six million bales, which 
 is half the world's consumption without in- 
 terfering Avitli her other crops. 
 
 The cattle interest ranks next after cotton. 
 The Commissioner of Agriculture reports the 
 number of cattle in Texas at 4,464,000 with a 
 money value of 39.640,320. The number of 
 cattle driven north over the trail was 257,431, 
 which estimated at $13 each would have a 
 money value of $3,846,603. The number of 
 cattle shipped by rail was 244,765 head; these 
 are valued at $20 each or $4,885,300, making 
 the total number of cattle sold 502,176, with 
 a money value of $8,241,903. 
 
 Illinois is the only State which leads Texas 
 in the number of Horses. Texas has 963.900 
 horses valued at $21,331,107. During 1878, 
 37,860 were driven north, these are valued at 
 $12.50, or a total of $473,250. It will be seen 
 that Texas horses do not command so high a 
 price as the blooded stock which makes fast 
 time in the Park, yet these same mustangs 
 are not without many good qualities. They 
 are generally half breeds of the pure mustang 
 or wild horse, which itself came from gentle 
 stock, having been introduced by the Spani- 
 ards into Mexico, and turned loose to return 
 to a state of nature. They are of Audalusian 
 blood, which was more (^r less Arabic. Noth 
 ing can equal their power of endurance, and 
 although they are small, a good mustang will 
 carry his rider fifty miles every day for a 
 week, and require no better fare than he can 
 
 father when staked out at night with a forty 
 oot lariat. The Broncho stallions, which 
 were exhibited in the circus some few yeais 
 j\go attracting greatattention by their beautiful \ 
 forms and surprising intelligence, were fine i 
 mustangs. Where they came from I know | 
 not, but all Texans who saw them recognized i 
 
 the mustang in every form and feature. The 
 mustang has a tendency to color — parti-col- 
 ored specimens are found in every drove; 
 with us the}^ are called calico or paint ponies. 
 A few years since a northern lady set the 
 fashion of driving these fancy-colored ponies 
 to her park phaeton. An enterprising Van 
 kee went to Western Texas, gathered up a 
 drove of select specimens at a cost of about 
 $25 each, brought them north, trimmed, 
 trained and matched them, when they readily 
 sold at from $500 to $800 the pair. Nothing 
 but limited demand prevents such business 
 from being very profitable. Texas is inferior 
 to no country on earth for the splendid rear- 
 ing and breeding of horses, and there is none 
 in which horses are more free from disease. 
 The high rolling lands and hard surface gives 
 cup to the hoof and rigidity to the muscles. 
 
 With equal breed she can produce speci- 
 mens that will rival the finest Arabian blood. 
 
 In 1860 Texas contained only 753,365 sheep; 
 ten years latter these had decreased to 714,351; 
 yet in 1879 she had advanced to the rank of 
 the second wool-growing State, and had 
 5,148,400 sheep valued at $9,730,476. Cali- 
 fornia which alone leads her has 7,646,800 
 sheep. In 1879 her wool clip was 14,568,920 
 pounds, valued at $2,913,784. 
 
 Notwithstanding the immense number of 
 CattU sold on the hoof, the hides of those 
 slaughtered amount to 28,104,065 pounds, 
 with a money value of $2,810,406. I may 
 mention incidentally that all Texas abounds 
 with tanning materials, and every one of 
 these hides might be profitably made into 
 leather. There are a number of tanneries in 
 various portions of the State, all of which' 
 make excellent leather. The confederacy es- 
 tablished tanneries in Texas, and a large por- 
 tion of their army was supplied from them. 
 In the last report of the Commissioner of 
 Agriculture you will see an engraving and 
 description of the Canatgre, a plant of Texas, 
 which has been long used for tanning skins, 
 both by white men and Indians. The root 
 contains twenty-three per cent, of tannic acid. 
 Our live Oak and mesquite are veiy rich in 
 the tanning principle, and besides these forest 
 trees we have an abundance of sumac. 
 
 "We claim that the most extensive and val- 
 uable pine, cypress, and live-oak forest now 
 remaining uncut in North America is to be 
 found in Eastern Texas and Western Louis- 
 iana. Its value consists in its large yield per 
 acre, the magnificent proportions of the trees, 
 the quality of the timber, and its accessibility 
 to the ever increasing markets on the wide 
 prairies, stretching hundreds of miles to the 
 westward, and to the Gulf ports for shipment 
 to the markets of the world The yellow-pine 
 lands of Southern Mississippi, Alabama, 
 Florida and Georgia have been drawn upon 
 heavily to supply the markets of the Eastern 
 States and the ship-yards of England and 
 Scotland for many years past; and the few 
 tracts of valuable timber now remaining un 
 culled are generally far removed from trans- 
 portation advantages, and command a large 
 price. 
 
TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 The yellow-pine of the South is increasing 
 in demand, and becoming niore valuable each 
 succeeding year, for the further reason that 
 the white pine forests of the Northern States 
 and Canada are fast becoming exhausted. 
 
 The extent of the pine territory in the 
 Northern States and Canada has been largely 
 over-estimated, and its thin belts have been 
 pierced through and through at many points 
 by our brawny lumbermen in the different 
 States. And the Canadian statesmen, who 
 for many years talked of their unbroken for- 
 ests of pine, reaching away back for hundreds 
 of miles towards Hudson's Bay and the Polar 
 Sea, have within the past year seen almost 
 the last of their profitable "lumber limits" 
 or blocks sold out. The choppers have 
 reached the line of the scrubby white birch 
 and balsam; and, with their axes upon their 
 shoulders, they have been obliged to turn 
 back to find new fields to conquer. Where 
 will they go now ? We will tell them : Come 
 with us to Texas, and we will show you, in 
 the eastern portion of our State, a little tract 
 of primeval forest not yet culled out, about 
 the size of the State of New York. 
 
 The trees are sound and thrifty, and rise 
 often to the altitude of 150 and 175 feet; and 
 often without a single crook or limb on the 
 first 100 feet. The sap does not average more 
 than 13^ inches, which is a great advantage 
 over the pine of other districts. 
 
 In Southeastern Texas there are 14 counties, 
 aggregating an area of 11,493 square miles. 
 This area is divided as follows : Coast prair- 
 ies, 2520 square miles; miscellaneous timber, 
 embracing white, overcup, Spanish red and 
 black oak, beech, maple, elm, ash of three 
 varieties, magnolia, black walnut, red cedar, 
 black, yellow and white cypress, gum and 
 various species of bay, an area of 3974 square 
 miles; short leaf and hammock pine an area 
 of 983 square miles; long leaf yellow pine, 
 4466 square miles. 
 
 This tree is the true turpentine producing 
 pine, and in the course of time a large pro 
 portion of the naval stores of the world will 
 be drawn from Eastern Texas. The annual 
 production of lumber is estimated at 160 mill- 
 ion feet with a money value of $1,349,691, 
 
 I have said nothing of the other forest trees 
 of Texas. We have oak, walnut, hickory, 
 pecan, mulberry, bois de arc, which is un- 
 equalled for wagon and carriage building, 
 the magnolia, and many others. No man, 
 who has not seen the oleander and magnolias 
 of Texas in full bloom. can appreciate the 
 hight of grandeur to which floriculture can 
 rise. The magnolia growing Heavenward 
 near to a hundred feet produces thousands of 
 flowers, each of which rivals in beauty the 
 solitary blossom of the Victoi'ia Regina. 
 While there is nothing so gorgeous as the 
 oleander, not the sickly shrub of your North- 
 ern conservatories, but the tall growing tree, 
 all covered with blossoms of sunset hue. 
 
 Mrs. Mary Holly, an accomplished Ken- 
 tucky lady, who visited and wrote of Texas 
 in 1837, when it was almost a wilderness, 
 thus describes a Texas prairie: 
 
 " It is impossible to imagine the beauty of 
 a Texas prairie when in the vernal season; 
 its rich luxuriant herbage, adorned with 
 many thousand flowers, of every size and 
 hue, seems to realize the vision of a terres- 
 trial paradise. The delicate, gay and gaudy 
 are intermingled in delightful confusion, and 
 these fanciful bouquets of fairy nature form 
 tenfold charms when associated with the ver- 
 dant carpet of grass which modestly mantles 
 around. 
 
 "One feels that Omnipotence had conse- 
 crated in the bosom of nature and under 
 Heaven's wide canopy, a glorious temple in 
 which to receive the praise and adoration of 
 the grateful beholder, and cold indeed must 
 be the soul from which no homage could here 
 be elicited. Methinks the veriest infidel 
 would have been constrained to bow and 
 worship. " 
 
 Texas prairies have contributed the Verbena 
 to the store of floral beauties which adorn the 
 gardens of the world. Here is its natural 
 home. 
 
 Our statistics of Sugar are not so satisfac- 
 tory as we coiild desire, because no figures 
 have been collated since 1878, which was a 
 very unfortunate year, the late rains having 
 almost ruined the crops. For this, however, 
 we have accurate figures — 5,664 hogsheads of 
 sugar, 12,244 barrels of molasses of money 
 value $433,960. Our sugar lands are equal 
 in extent and productiveness to those of 
 Louisiana. 
 
 At the last published reports there were six 
 Cotton Seed Oil mills in the Statt. It is be- 
 lieved that several others have been since 
 constructed. The products of those six were 
 valued at $506,063. It is but a few years 
 since cotton seed had any market value. It 
 was thrown away as waste. There is ample 
 and profitable employment for twenty mills. 
 
 Another source of large profit which is 
 awaiting development is the pecan. The 
 gathering of this delicious nut being usually 
 done by boys, it may be denominated a minor 
 industry, yet it is an amazingly profitable 
 one. The nut always commands a ready 
 sale, the demand being greater than the sup- 
 ply. There is many an acre of land to be 
 bought for a dollar which if planted with 
 pecans would in ten years bring a hundred 
 dollars. Pecans are purchased by the store- 
 keepers at from $1.50 to $2.00 per bushel. 
 There are no figures showing the amount of 
 this industry, but that it is considerable is 
 evidenced by the fact that San Antonio ships 
 a half a million pounds of this favorite nut, 
 and hundreds of thousands of bushels rot ol. 
 the ground or are eaten by the hogs. 
 
 One of the popular delusions regarding 
 Texas is that no apples grow there — that it 
 is not a fruit-growing country. This is a 
 great error. Nearly all the fruits of both the 
 Torrid and Temperate Zones flourish abun- 
 dantly. Apples, pears, peaches, grapes, the 
 berries, the banana, the orange and the olive 
 all do well. Of apples, Texas exhibits speci 
 mens fine as any. Of Summer appies. we 
 have in perfection the Red Astrachan, Red 
 
8 
 
 TEPAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES 
 
 June, Julian, Summer Queen, Early Harvest, 
 and Duchess of Oldenburg. Our Autumn 
 apples are the Carolina ureening, Taunton, 
 Topp's Fa\^orite, Buncomb and Carter's Blue. 
 For Wmter use, the Romanite, Yates, Steven- 
 son's Winter, Pryor's Red, Maverick (one of 
 our ow^n children), Ben Davis, Canon Pear- 
 main and Hacket's Sweet. 
 
 Peaches are remarkably healthy in Texas 
 and are productix'ie. Of these, the leading 
 profitable kinds for market, in theorcler 
 of ripening, from May 25, forward to 
 November, are — Alexander, Wilder, Hale's 
 Early, Yellow St. John, Harrison's Early, 
 Mountain Rose, Amelia, large Early York, 
 Early Crawford, Reeve's Favorite, Thurber, 
 Oldmixon, Free and Cling, Crawford's Late, 
 Stump the World, Columbia, Steadley, Pic- 
 quet's Late, Nelson Cling, Salway and Lady 
 Parham. 
 
 Texas is truly the paradise of the grape. 
 With the exc*^ption of a few varieties predis- 
 posed to rot, all kinds hava gone beyond our 
 expectations. Even the foreign varieties. 
 Golden Chasselas, and several others of that 
 class, have borne fine fruit for two or three 
 years in open air But the Champion, Dela- 
 ware, Martha, Elvira, Goethe, Brighton, 
 Black Eagle, Wilder, Salem and Triumph 
 have all done finely. Ives and Concord pro- 
 duce enormous crops and sell cheaply — from 
 three to ten cents a pound, w^hile the better 
 grapes bring often as high as twenty-five to 
 forty cents. The Champion, on account of 
 its great earliness. in Northern Texas, twenty- 
 five cents a pound. 
 
 One grape — the Triumph — deserves more 
 than a passing notice. It has now grown 
 luxuriantly six years, bearing heavy crops of 
 the largest of bunches — some weighing a 
 pound and a half — the berries, maturing per- 
 fectly, attaining the excellence of the Golden 
 Chasselas, whick it much resembles, except 
 being much larger in bunch. It astonishes 
 all who see it, and sells at fancy prices, even 
 when the market is glutted with common 
 kinds. Here we have the excellence of the 
 foreign with the vigor of the native. 
 
 On^Galveston Island, Mr. Stringfellon has 
 grown grapes that remind one of the miracul- 
 ous pictures seen in old family Bibles, where 
 Caleb and Joshua return from "spying out 
 the land," swinging between them on a pole 
 a bunch of grapes as large as a cask of wine. 
 
 Strawberries are perfectly successful. Wil- 
 son, Charles Downing, Sharpless, Miner's 
 Prolific, Crescent, Cumberland and Captain 
 Jack, have proven successful 
 
 COAL. 
 
 The presence of coal in the various locali- 
 ties, and of more or less valuable quality, has 
 been long known, but in the absence of rail- 
 roads in tlie districts where the better quali- 
 ties have been found, these deposits, their 
 extent and definite value, are yet unknown 
 from want of transportation that would ren- 
 der mining profitable. Quite recently, on the 
 lines of the Texas & Pacific and Central Rail- 
 roads, coal of excellent quality has been 
 
 found, and supplies in part the fuel for those 
 roads. At a great many points in nearly 
 every section of the State, and upon the banks 
 of nearly evejy large stream, coal crops out, 
 and is used by country blacksmiths in their 
 forges, and at some points for fuel. On the 
 Trinity, Brazos, Colorado, Guadalupe and 
 Rio Grande and their tributaries, croppings 
 of anthracite and tertiary coal of the cannel 
 variety are found. From the lower Rio 
 Grande, where large beds are believed to 
 exist, it is found at intervals all the way to 
 the northeastern corner of the State, and it 
 is supposed forms a continuous deposit the 
 whole distance. It is highly probable that in 
 the vicinity of the iron fields of Rusk, where 
 the State proposes to develope the iron ores, 
 found in such great abundance, the coal al- 
 ready found will ultimately be proven valu- 
 able in the furnace for making iron. But as 
 a thoroughly reliable scientific research has 
 not been^made by the State, the value of our 
 coal beds may be merely suppositious. 
 
 The Texas Trunk Railway passes through 
 a coal field 200 miles long. The American 
 Almanac estimates the Texas coal fields at 
 20,000 square miles. Only three States pos- 
 sessing a larger area. 
 
 There is an abundant supply of copper in 
 Archer, Wichata, Wilbarger, B-aylor, Haskell, 
 Stonewall and other counties. It is nearly a 
 pure sulphate, yielding 72.45 pure metal. 
 
 It is found on the hillsides near the sur- 
 face. ^ Four persons took out 6,000 pounds, 
 yielding 76 per cent, of copper in ten hours. 
 
 Lead and Silver are very abundant in the 
 western portion of the State. In some locali- 
 ties the yield has been 20 ounces of pure sil- 
 ver to the ton. 
 
 Salt is manufactured on the Texas & Pacific 
 Railroad, near Mineola; near the crossing of 
 the Trinity River by the International Rail- 
 road, in Llano County, and various other 
 points, from saline springs and wells. Also 
 in southwestern Texas large salt lakes are 
 found, as well as in El Paso County, from 
 which very large quantities of salt are taken, 
 the manufacture being by evaporation pro- 
 duced by sunheat. The most important of 
 these, and supposed to be inexhaustible, are 
 the El Paso salt lakes. A large section of 
 country in Texas, and of the Mexican State 
 of Chihuahua, derive salt for all purposes 
 from these lakes. It will be remembered that 
 a few years since the possession of these 
 salines caused a disturbance between the 
 Mexicans and Americans, which was for a 
 while dignified by the title of an Internation- 
 al dispute. 
 
 The production of salt in these lakes by the 
 deposit from evaporation is constant and 
 rapid in this dry region, and in quantities 
 which must be very remunerative, when the 
 railways being extended through that coun- 
 try are completed. 
 
 Iron abounds in the mountainous districts 
 of the upper Colorado and tributaries m Bur- 
 net, San Saba, Llano, Lam|)assas and Mason 
 counties, and is less abundant in various lo- 
 calities in other western counties. It is also 
 
TEXAS. HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 abundant in eastern Texas, in Bowie, Cass, 
 Marion, Harrison, Rusk, Cherokee and other 
 counties In Marion and Cass counties iron 
 works have been successfully established, 
 and limited experiments made in other east 
 ern counties at a time, however, when tr^ns 
 portation was so costly that the ventures were 
 not successful. The Keilyville iron works, 
 in operation some fifteen years, have been 
 profitable, and latterly are being enlarged 
 and will probably at no distant time prove 
 the source of immense Avealth and the rapid 
 development of that section of country. At 
 Rusk, in Cherokee County, immense deposits 
 of iron (hematite and limonite) are found, and 
 the State, with the intention of developing 
 and utilizing this great source of wealth, has 
 established the east Texas penitentiary at that 
 point. 
 
 The cost of producing a ton of iron at the 
 Kelly works is estimated at $7.06. Gypsum 
 is found in every portion of the State. A 
 quarter million barrels could be shipped north 
 every year if there was sufficient capital to 
 develope the industry. 
 
 At the base of the mountains, which cross 
 Texas from the southwest to northeast, there 
 is a series of springs, beginning in Boll county, 
 of magnificent character, extending, at inter- 
 vals, to San Antonio, giving rise to the Lam- 
 pasas, Salado San Marcos, San Antonio, San 
 Pedro, Comal, Gruadaloupe and other rivers, 
 which afford an abundance of water power. 
 At the head of some of them, as the San Mar- 
 cos, the spring gushes from the rock and at 
 once forms a river large enough to float a 
 steamboat. There is scarcely one of these 
 streams which does not furnish power enough 
 to turn all the spindles of Lowell — and this 
 power can be used every day of the year. 
 The time will yet come when Texas will con- 
 tain scores of manufacturing towns, nestling 
 with all their busy activities, beside the most 
 beautiful rivers of the world. The water 
 power of the San Antonio river may be given 
 as an example. Within a straight line dis- 
 tance of four miles the fall is 107.6 feet. The 
 river itself within the same distance is more 
 than three times that length. The volume of 
 water is 16,149 cubic feet per minute — equival- 
 ent to 303^ horse power for each foot of fall. 
 We are frequently asked why it is that with 
 all this power going to waste, and an abun- 
 dance of raw material on the ground, we do 
 not establish manufactories. Our journalis 
 tic friends read us many a lecture, in which 
 they tell us that factories will prove our sal- 
 vation, and enforce the duty of establishing 
 them with much eloquence. Readers of 
 David Copperfield will remember Micawber's 
 excellent reason for not engaging in the coal 
 trade. It requires capital to establish fac- 
 tories, and all the capital we have is required 
 to till our fields and move our crops. 
 
 One great advantage that would result from 
 the establishment of cotton factories in the 
 south would be the superior quality of the 
 production. It is well known that the staple 
 of cotton suffers greatly in the compress. 
 The late Hiram Close, of Galveston, an old 
 
 machinist and careful thinker, demonstrated 
 that Texas cotton could be spun and sent to 
 New Enghind much cheaper than it could be 
 sent in the bale. It may be observed that 
 Southern mills have no competitors in the 
 quality of their products. That which we 
 do manufacture is as good as the best. The 
 4-4 domestics produced by Southern mills are 
 fully equal to Indian Head and \\'auchesetts. 
 A mill at Waco, Texas, produces the best 
 seamless bags, for the price, in the I nitcd 
 States. 
 
 It may not be amiss to give briefly the rea- 
 son why Southern cotton goods, which are 
 manufactured direct from tlie lint as it comes 
 from the gin, are superior to those made from 
 the same cotton after it has been compressed. 
 The most important factor in determining the 
 quality of cotton is the length of the staple 
 When cotton is compressed, it is subjected to 
 such immense pressure that all the fibres are 
 interlaced and formed into a solid body. 
 The method of preparing cotton from the 
 bale for the carding machine, is to first pass 
 it through the opener — by which the fibres 
 are to a certain extent separated, and thereby 
 many of them broken. It is then passed 
 twice through the beater and the lap machine. 
 Each machine having two or more beaters, 
 which are straight bars of steel, revolving at 
 2,000 revolutions per minute around an axle 
 to which they are attached, and striking the 
 cotton which is pushed up to them over the 
 edge of a steel plate, and no timed that the 
 staple of cotton gets three blows in every 
 one-sixteenth of an inch in the length of the 
 fiber from each beater, or twelve blows on 
 every one-sixteenth of an inch altogether This 
 is done to break up the leaf and beat out the 
 dust. Of course it breaks the larger part of 
 the fibres. The slightest examination of lint 
 cotton as it comes from the gin, and the same 
 as it comes from the lap machine, will show 
 the injury that has been done. There is a 
 machine by which the cotton is delivered di- 
 rect on the lap machine roller without being 
 touched ; it is therefore at its best estate and 
 uninjured. This is the chief reason for the 
 superior quality of Southern cotton fabrics. 
 
 I read you an extract from the Baltimore 
 Sun of last week : 
 
 " The first manufactory of translucent por- 
 celain in the United States has recently been 
 established in JSIew Orleans, by Mr. Eugene 
 Surgi, who has engaged the services of Mr. 
 d'Estampes, formerly director of a porcelain, 
 factory at Vierzan, France. The latter had 
 already started the business in New Orleans 
 in a small way, but was importing his kaolin 
 from France, being ignorant that kaolin of the 
 requisite quality could be obtained in this 
 country. The firm of capitalists who took 
 over the business of Mr. d'Estampes, for the 
 purpose of conducting it on a large scale, 
 caused a search to be made for the proper 
 kind of kaolin, and ultimately found it in 
 Robertson County, Texas, on the line of the 
 Houston & Texas Central Railroad." . 
 
 But time will not permit me to even suggest 
 the multitude of resources and industries 
 
10 
 
 TEXAS. HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 which are awaiting development in that Em- 
 pire State, whicli lies beside the blue waters 
 of the Mexican Gulf. 
 
 HEALTH. 
 
 I think there is not a State in the Union 
 which, as a whole, conipaies in health with 
 Texas. Whilst on our bottom lands, subject 
 to overflow, we have chills, yet the great body 
 of the State is admirably drained ; a very large 
 portion of it high rolling prairie, blessed in the 
 summer with the gulf breeze, and in the win- 
 ter by the norther'which sweeps malaria clear 
 away. So far from regarding the norther as a 
 curse, I esteem it a blessing. Pulmonary dis- 
 eases are scarcel}' known, and Avith proper 
 safeguards, I see no reason why yellow^ fever 
 should ever prevail throughout the State, al- 
 though of course it may occasionally reach 
 our coast front; but it is a notable fact that 
 during the two years in which yellow fever 
 raged east of the Mississippi, we had not one 
 case iH Texas. 
 
 Permit me to conclude this already too much 
 extended paper with the suggestion that in the 
 year 1879, with all the advantages of careful 
 
 culture, cheap labor and improved ni.-ichinery, 
 the average cash value of the principal crops 
 per acre in New York, $14.15, while in Texas, 
 with all the manifold disadvantages of new 
 homes, crude culture, and the inability to pur- 
 chase machinery, the average cash value of 
 the crops was $i4.69. These figures are fnmi 
 the last report of the United States Statistician. 
 But if we should assume that Texas is no more 
 fruitful than New York, the amount of wealth 
 which will accrue to the nation from her de- 
 velopment amounts to an almo.«rt incredible 
 sum. New York produced in the year 1878, 
 $356,142,502 of agricultural products; the six 
 times 2:reater area of Texas would yield $1 - 
 536,855,612. 
 
 Here, Mr. President, lies in a compact mass 
 the richest natural resources and blessings 
 which kind Heaven has vouchsafed to any 
 portion of our great country, and, as a 
 patriotic duty, I invoke the science and aid 
 of your honored organization in subduing and 
 developing them to the needs of man and the 
 enrichment of our national wealth 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 This pamphlet is one of several, published by the South-western Immigration Com- 
 pany for gratuitous distribution among those who are considering the wisdom of leaving 
 their old homes and establishing themselves in some locality, where their opportunities 
 for comfort and competency will be enhanced. It is manifestly proper that the reader 
 should be informed of the Company which addresses him and the work it seeks to accom- 
 plish. Briefly, then, the South-western Immigration Company is an association composed 
 of individuals and railway companies interested in peopling the south western portion of 
 the United States, or, to speak more precisely, the States of Texas and Arkansas— the 
 southern portion of Missouri, and the western portion of Louisiana. Its general office is 
 located at Austin, Texas, with subordinate oflScesatNew York, and other centres of popu- 
 lation. Hon. Wm. W. Lang, late Master of the Texas State Grange, is President, and 
 B. G. Duval, Esq., of Austin, Secretary. It has for its sole purpose the dissemination of 
 information relative to the section of the country indicated. It neither sells land nor re- 
 commends purchases. Its object is to settle the country with an industrious, thrifty and 
 enterprising population, which will develop its resources, make it wealthy and populous. 
 Its publications will be truthful statements of trhe natural and other resources of the 
 several localities mentioned. No means will be spared to gather accurate information 
 and truthfully recite it. At the New York Office, 243 Broadway, which is in charge of 
 J. N. Victor, Esq., there will be maintained au extensive and interesting display of soils, 
 crops, timber, fruits, minerals and other productions of the section represented. 
 
 All who feel an interest in the matter of immigration are invited to address any of the 
 officers or agents of the Company for books, maps, or such special information as they 
 may desire, which will be furnished without charge. 
 
 And if any are in doubt as to the standing, integrity or competency of the Company, 
 they are invited to address inquiry to the Governors of either of the States named, or 
 other persons, whose official position will entitle their statements to belief. 
 
SOUTH-WESTERN IMMIGRATION CO, 
 
 THE PLAN AND PURPOSE OF ITS ORGANIZATION. 
 
 The South-western Immigration Company 
 is an organization for the purpose of advanc- 
 ing immigration into the south-west portion of 
 the United States, comprising the States of 
 Arl<:ansas and Texas, together with so much 
 of Missouri as Ues south of the Missouri River, 
 and of Louisiana as is west of the Mississippi, 
 This section of country is homogeneous in its 
 character, and held together by a common in- 
 terest. It forms, so to speak, a distinct sec- 
 tion of the country, and the prosperity of one 
 portion of it is the prosperity of all. 
 
 The organization was the outgrowth of a 
 conviction among certain railroad corporations 
 that the cause of immigration (so necessary to 
 make these great entei'prises rapidly remuner- 
 ative) could only be effectually subserved by 
 united action. Previous to this time the rail- 
 ways had expended large sums of money in 
 seperate efforts to encourage immigration in- 
 to the sections in which tliey were specially 
 interested. Enterprises of this sort, where 
 sf If-interest is manifestly the motive power, 
 are looked upon with suspicion by strangers. 
 Hence they were not found to be effective. 
 The people of Texas had incorporated into 
 their constitution a provision that no money 
 should be expended for the purpose of bring- 
 ing immigrants into the State. This was not 
 frotft any indifference to immigration, but be 
 cause Texas is an economical debt-paying 
 State, and it had been observed that in some 
 States much taxation had been caused by* im- 
 migration and other bureaus, all of which 
 were forbidden, from that prudence which 
 guards every avenue to the public treasury 
 against extravagant expenditure. So it came 
 about that railway enterprise undertook at its 
 own expense what in other portions of the 
 country has been effected at large cost to the 
 people of the States. The following railway 
 companies are members of the corporation 
 known as the South-western Immigration 
 Company: Missouri Pacific, St. Louis, Iron 
 Mountain & Southern, International & Great 
 Northern, Missouri, Kansas & Texas, Texas 
 & Pacific, New Orleans & Pacific, Gulf, Colo- 
 rado & Santa Fee, and Dallas & Wichita Kail- 
 ways. 
 
 In announcing the formation of the Com- 
 pany, the President used the following au- 
 thoritive language: 
 
 " The South-western Immigration Company 
 is not a land agency. It has no interest in 
 lands, and will acquire none. It is separate 
 and distinct from the land departments of the 
 railroad companies. They will conduct their 
 land business in their own way. Tlie means 
 they have furnished to this company are to be 
 used for the common good. The object of 
 this company is 1o people the South-west — to 
 fill up vast unoccupied spaces, so that the rich 
 
 stores of wealth that now lie locked in the 
 bosom of the earth, may be made subservient 
 to the uses of man ; to increase commerce ; to 
 double transportation; to establish industries 
 that will manufacture raw products into use- 
 ful fabrics, and, in short, to put this section 
 on the advance ground of civilization. To 
 this end we labor. The railroads have gener- 
 ously placed a large sum of money at the com- 
 pany's disposal, to be expended in the accom- 
 plishment of this object. Their conduct in 
 this deserves the good feeling of a grateful 
 public, and solicits its support in a work so 
 praiseworthy. The inauguration of this com- 
 pany, being a voluntary offering for the pub- 
 lic good, I feel at liberty to call upon the peo- 
 ple of the country for gratuitous assistance, 
 and, therefore, urge them, in their several 
 counties, to form immigration or agricultural 
 societies to aid in the collection of such statis- 
 tical information regarding crops, stock-rais- 
 ing, commerce, transportation, etc., together 
 with such descriptive matter as will set forth 
 the advantages of their respective counties as 
 fit homes for immigrants. In this w^e want 
 nothing but truthful statements, without ex- 
 aggeration or fanciful painting. Overdrawn 
 descriptions, reaching far beyond reality, can 
 do no good ; but, on the contrary, will disap- 
 point the new settler who has been led hither 
 by them, and in the end cause dissatisfaction, 
 discontent, and hinder immigration to that 
 section. 
 
 ' ' When such societies are formed and prop- 
 erly organized, they are requested to furnish 
 this office with name and postoffice address. 
 Upon reporting to this office, the company 
 will furnish blanks and formulated questions, 
 to enable them to collect such information as 
 may be of value in a systematic way. 
 
 " I further submit to the public the pro- 
 priety of erecting a suitable building at the 
 important railroad connections, where an im- 
 migrant's liome may be kept, furnishing im- 
 migrants with shelter and reasonable comfort 
 at a low rate, until a location or employment 
 may be obtained. " 
 
 The people recognise the fact that this work 
 is to yield no immediate and direct return of 
 money, but that in the development of the 
 country and in its settlement the indirect re- 
 turns will be an ample compensation for all 
 they bestow. It is the aim of the company 
 to furnish reliable information of the advan- 
 tages of the country. It will liave no trades 
 to make with immigrants,and makes no charges 
 against them for whatever services it will ren- 
 der them. All inquiries respecting country, 
 lands, laws, etc., will be promptly answered 
 from the most reliable sources of information 
 at its command. Correspondence is respect- 
 fully solicited. 
 
INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT OF THE GENERAL 
 
 ADVANTAGES OF THE STATE AS A 
 
 FIELD FOR IMMIGRANTS. 
 
 The State of Texas offers inducements to 
 immigrants which cannot be surpassed in 
 many respects, and are rarely equalled by any 
 other country on this continent. These com- 
 prise excellence of climate, soil and water, 
 agricultural, grazing and commercial advan- 
 tages, and educational facilities; and in addi- 
 tion to all these, cheap lands. The settler who 
 comes into this State now, has not necessarily 
 to undergo the hardships of pioneer life, as 
 was formerly the case. He can, if his inclina- 
 tions point that way, still find large areas of 
 uncultivated pasture lands in the extreme 
 west and north-west, where his flocks and 
 herds may roam at will, but at least one-third 
 of the territory of the State is about as well 
 populated as many of the States east of the 
 Mississippi River. Mills, gins, stores, schools 
 and churches are met with almost everywhere, 
 and opportunities for social intercourse are at 
 the command of even those m the most 
 sparsely settled neighborhoods. But a glance 
 at the accompanying map will show what an 
 enormous extent of fertile and productive land 
 is still open to settlement. Within a few 
 years past, the country west of longitude 98°, 
 was the home alone of the Indian and an oc- 
 casional hardy frontiersman, who stubbornly 
 disputed his sway. Now the area of popula- 
 tion has pushed westward to the 100th degree 
 of longitude, and even beyond that. But 
 there yet remains the "Panhandle" section, 
 having an area of about 31,000 square miles, 
 which is much more than an average-sized 
 State of the Union, almost entirely unoccupied, 
 and M^hich has been shown by recent surveys, 
 to be in general a very rich and fertile section, 
 well adapted to agricultural purposes. South 
 of the "Panhandle" and west of the 100th de- 
 gree of longitude, stretches a vast extent of 
 country, suitable for sheep, horses and cattle, 
 and, along the streams, for agricultural pur- 
 poses. The mineral wealth of a great part of 
 this sparsely settled country, from the limited 
 examinations so far made, is believed to be 
 very great, and to promise, in the near future, 
 a fine field for the pioneer prospector. 
 
 The facilities for travel, and the transporta- 
 tion for produce and supplies over the greater 
 part of the State, are now ample. There are 
 at present in operation over 3,000 miles of 
 railway, five hundred and sixty-five miles of 
 which were completed during the year ending 
 September 1st, 1880. And the extension of 
 these roads in every direction, is being rapidly 
 and energetically pushed. No country on the 
 continent seems to present the same attractions 
 for railroad capital that Texas does, judging 
 from the niimber of new enterprises of this 
 sort that are being inaugurated, and the rapid 
 extension of the lines already in process of 
 construction. 
 
 AH along these lines of road, towns are 
 springing up, and population increasing sufli- 
 cient for the establishment of schools and so- 
 cieties ; and stores, where goods are sold at no 
 
 greater advance of prices than the cost of ad- 
 ditional freight, are found at the railway 
 stations, and here also the farmer finds a 
 ready market for his produce. 
 
 The farmer is invit(id to a country of unsur- 
 passed fertility and health, where upon the 
 same land he can produce the great staples, 
 cotton, wheat, oats, rye, corn, tobacco and 
 sugar; the grazier, to the broad prairies or 
 rolling uplands, where cattle, sheep and liorses, 
 feed the year round on the native grasses ; the 
 artisan and mechanic, to thriving, growing 
 towns, where his skilled labor is in demand at 
 remunerative prices ; the capitalist, to the in- 
 a'lguration of the many industrial and manu- 
 facturing enterprises demanded by a vigorous 
 and growing population. In short, the immi- 
 grant who seeks "natural advantages," can 
 scarcely go amiss for them, and must be hard 
 indeed to please, if in our great diversity of 
 soil, climate and production he can find no 
 spot to suit him for the establishment of a 
 home. 
 
 The design of this chapter, how^ever, is 
 merely to introduce the subject, leaving the 
 several attractions of the State to be especially 
 treated under appropriate headings; but it is 
 not out of place to add here that the utmost 
 care has been observed throughout, in the 
 preparation of these pages, to avoid exaggera- 
 tion. It must be borne in mind that this pam- 
 phlet is not the production of an individual or 
 company interested in the sale of lands, but a 
 publication made solely for the purpose of at- 
 tracting immigration by a truthful aud un- 
 biased statement of facts. But while its object 
 is to set forth the inducements which Texas 
 offers to immigrants, and invite the latter to 
 settle within her borders, those having charge 
 of its publication, fully appreciate that, if 
 mutual benefits are to flow from immigration, 
 new settlers must not be attracted by represen- 
 tations which their future experience will not 
 verify. Should they be deceived they may 
 become dissatisfied, and results may follow 
 alike injurious to themselves and to the State. 
 For this reason it has been deemed of utmost 
 moment that no assertion shall find a place in 
 in these pages unless it is entirely true. 
 
 And just here one word to our own people. 
 The people of Texas cannot be too careful as 
 to the manner in which they receive new com- 
 ers, A civil word, a little politeness, or an act 
 of kindness, costing nothing, may be the 
 means of favorably impressing a stranger, wlio 
 in turn, may be the cause of turning Imndreds 
 of immigrants in this direction. On the other 
 hand, a short, uncivil answer and gruff man- 
 ners will, in a measure, confirm the unfavor- 
 able reports given him b; the enemies of 
 Texas, and he returns or gv^es, disgusted, to 
 other portions of the country and uses his in- 
 fluence against us. It w^ould require an almost 
 superhuman effort of philosophy for persons 
 coming to a strange land where things are 
 found so entirely different from their accus- 
 
14 
 
 TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 tomed surroundings, not to fee] a natural 
 "homesickness," and when to this is added a 
 cold and surly reception, it is not strange that 
 sometimes disgust supervenes; and he who 
 might have been a good citizen and a good 
 neighbor becomes a bitter enemy. We who 
 are "native and to the manner born" know 
 that there is as much hospitality and kindly 
 feeling among the people of Texas as can pos- 
 sibly exist anywhere, and these suggestions 
 are not made with the idea that immigrants 
 coming into the State are likely to receive 
 " a cotd shoulder," but our people should see 
 to it that such persons have extended to them 
 not only the common courtesy due to strangers, 
 but that hearty welcome and active sympathy 
 and assistance that no man appreciates so 
 much as he who finds himself "a stranger in 
 a strange land." 
 
 LOCATION AND AREA OF TEXAS. 
 
 Texas is situated between Latitude 25*^ 50' 
 and 80^ 30' North, and Longitude 93^ 30' and 
 106*^ 40' West ; greatest length from the mouth 
 of the Rio Grande River to the northwest cor- 
 ner, about 825 miles; greatest breadth, along 
 the 32d parallel, about 840 miles. Area 274,- 
 356 square miles. It is bounded north by New 
 Mexico (west of the 103d meridian), the In- 
 dian Territory and Arkansas, the Red River 
 being the dividing line east of the 100th meri- 
 dian ; east by the Indian Territory (north of 
 lat. 34^ 30'), Arkansas and Louisiana, from the 
 last of which it is mostly separated by the Sa- 
 bine River and Lake ; southeast by the Gulf of 
 Mexico; southwest by Mexico, from which it 
 is separated by the Rio Grande; and west by 
 New Mexico. The map which is attached 
 shows its form. As stated, its boundaries en- 
 close an area of 274,356 square miles, or 175,- 
 587,840 acres. An idea of its extent may best 
 be formed, perhaps, by comparing it with 
 other countries; for instance, it has 34,000 
 square miles of area more than the Austrian 
 empire, 62,000 more than the German empire, 
 about "70,000 more than France, is nearly as 
 large as Sweden and Norway together, and 
 twice the size of Great Britain and Ireland, 
 Coming to this side of the Atlantic the com- 
 parison is no less startling. The area of all 
 the Eastern and Middle States, including 
 Maryland and Delaware, is 100,000 square 
 miles less than Texas. It is six times as large 
 as New York, seven times as large as Ohio, 
 four times as large as all New England. The 
 area of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and 
 Michigan, taken togetiier, falls short of that 
 of Texas by some 40,000 square miles, or an- 
 other State as large as Ohio. If you cross the 
 Mississippi you must consolidate Kansas, Ne- 
 braska, Iowa and Minnesota to equal the area 
 of Texas. 
 
 This vast territory is cut up into 226 coun- 
 ties, some of which are in themselves quite 
 equal in size to many of the States. The 
 counties of Tom Green, Presidio and Pecos 
 are each larger than tlie State of Maryland, 
 nearly double the size of Massachusetts, and 
 nearly three times as large as Connecticut. 
 
 The territory of Texas is, in truth, of mag- 
 nificent extent, and the term "Empire State 
 of the Southwest," sometimes used in refer- 
 ence to it, \^ not inaptly applied. 
 
 GENERAL FEATURES OF THE STATE. 
 
 Texas is a vast inclined plane, with a gradual 
 descent from the northern and northwestern 
 boundary to the Gulf of Mexico. The c(;a.st- 
 counties are nearly level for sixty to eighty 
 miles inland; the s^urface then becomes undu- 
 lating, with alternate gradual elevations and 
 depressions, and this feature increases as we 
 proceed toward the northwest, until it becomes 
 hilly and finally mountainous in some of the 
 far western counties. The highest ranges, 
 however, do not attain a greater altitude than 
 5,000 feet. In the coast counties the soil and 
 climate are especially adapted to the culture 
 of sea-island cotton, tobacco, rice, sugar and 
 many semi-tropical fruits and vegetables. 
 Nearly all this level coast country, from the 
 Sabine River on the east to the Rio Grande on 
 the west, is prairie, only broken here and there 
 by "motts" (isolated islands) of timber, or the 
 bottoms of the streams. Over these vast 
 prairies countless thousands of cattle roam and 
 keep fat the year round on the natural pas- 
 turage. 
 
 The eastern portion of the State, or that east 
 of the 96^^ of longitude and north of the 30th 
 parallel of latitude, comprising about forty 
 counties, is heavily timbered, and from this 
 section are drawn nearly all the immense sup- 
 plies of pine lumber required in the prairie 
 portions of the State. The natural resources 
 of this section are varied. In it are vast de- 
 posits of iron ore of excellent quality. Large 
 crops of cotton, corn and other grain are 
 grown in its valleys, and its uplands are noted 
 for the production of fruits and vegetables. 
 It is generally well watered by pure streams 
 and fine springs, and everywhere wells of the 
 best drinking water are found at moderate 
 depths. 
 
 Central and Northern Texas, though gener- 
 ally a rich rolling prairie country, are by no 
 means devoid of sufticient timber for ordinary 
 purposes, its numerous streams being fringed 
 with a large growth of forest trees. It is also 
 traversed by the upper and lower "cross tim- 
 bers," an extensive belt of oak, elm, and of 
 other timber, beginning on Red River, in 
 Crook and Montague counties, and running 
 in a southwestern direction diagonally across, 
 the State, nearly to the Rio Grande. Western 
 and Southwestern Texas are the great pastoral 
 regions of the State. The surface is generally 
 a high rolling tal)le-land, watered by numerous 
 creeks and small streams, but with little tim- 
 ber, except along the streams and on some of 
 the hills and mountain regions of the western 
 part, where forests of cedars, mountain juni- 
 per, oak, etc., exist. 
 
 The luxuriant growth of rich native grasses 
 found in this section renders it pre-eminently 
 a stock-raising country, and as such it is un- 
 excelled by any other portion of the continent. 
 The precious metals and other mineral dei)os 
 its are known to exist in this section of the 
 
TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 15 
 
 State, and it is believed their development 
 will be rapid and successful as the country be- 
 comes more accessible, when the railroads 
 now in process of construction shall have been 
 completed. 
 
 BRIEF HISTORICAL SKETCH 
 Texas Government underwent many rapid 
 changes before its territory became a member 
 of this stable country. Up to the year 1831, 
 Texas was a part of Mexico under the domin- 
 ion of Spanish Viceroys. In that y^ar Mex- 
 ico renounced her allegiance to Spain and 
 established a Regency. After one year's trial 
 the Regency was changed to an Imperial Gov- 
 ernment. Then the Emporer was deposed, 
 and in 1823 a Republican form of government 
 was instituted. This only lasted one year, 
 when it was changed for a Federal system 
 modeled after that'of the United States. This 
 lasted ten years, and in 1838 Santa Anna es- 
 tablished a military despotism. After three 
 years of turbulence and bloodshed in which 
 the Texans fought under the Federal Flag 
 of Mexico, she declared her independence, 
 iind in 1836 Texas became an independent 
 Republic — and in 1845 was voluntarily annex- 
 ed to the United States. Her population at 
 that time could not have exceeded 150,000. 
 By the treaty of annexation Texas retained all 
 her public domain. She sold that which now 
 •constitutes a part of New Mexico to the United 
 - States for ten millions of dollars. With this 
 she paid her debt of five millions — constructed 
 her Capitol — Deaf and Dumb, Blind and Luna- 
 tic Asylums — and endowed her public schools 
 Mith the remainder. ^, 
 
 HOW LAND TITLES ORIGINATE. 
 
 As already stated, Texas reserved by the 
 treaty of annexation all her public domain, 
 amounting to 268,684 square miles, or 171,967, 
 i'M) acres. Thus it was that while she was 
 I he youngest of States she was the most 
 wealthy. 
 
 From the earliest days of the Republic it 
 \ has ever been the policy of Texas to use her 
 public lands for the encouragement of immi- 
 ) gration, the endowment of her school fund, 
 and the building of internal improvements 
 within the Stale. At one time she gave to 
 each immigrant, the head of a family, as much 
 as a league, and labor of laud (4,605 acres); a 
 single man, a third of a league; these were 
 called head-rights. She also gave bounty 
 warrants to men who joined her army, and to 
 men who would mark out wagon-roads, or 
 build mills, bridges, etc. After annexation 
 she passed a law, giving as a subsidy sixteen 
 sections for every mile of railroad built upon 
 certain lines, and in accordance with their 
 charters. Also for removing obstructions and 
 thus making navigable certain rivers. She 
 has also given large grants to the several coun- 
 ties, and to the deaf and dumb, the insane and 
 the blind asylums, as also to the Colleges and 
 the Universities. All grants of land are made 
 by direct act of the legislature, and when 
 coupled with conditions, as in the case of rail- 
 roads, and the conditions complied with fully. 
 
 the Commissioner of the General Larwi Office, 
 located at the capitol of the State, issues a Isgad 
 warrant which says upon its face (in substanoe) 
 
 " that is by virtue of this warrant entitled 
 
 to 840 acres of land, to be taken from any of 
 the unappropriated laud of the State of Texas, 
 the same to be surveyed according to law," 
 and this land warrant, or land certificate, as it 
 is usually called, is the foundation of all the 
 titles in the State. 
 
 Each county has a local land office, with a 
 surveyor, who is a bonded officer of the State. 
 He keeps an accurate map of every survey 
 ever made in his county, and a book in which 
 every set of field notes (metes and bounds) are 
 duly recorded. A party holding a laud war- 
 rant and wishing to locate the same, w^ould 
 apply to one of these county surveyors, and 
 by examining his map can soon tell how 
 much, if any, vacant land still remains in that 
 county; if there was none, or if it did not suit, 
 he would pass from county to county, until a 
 satisfactory tract could be had, and when had, 
 he would turn over his warrant to the sur- 
 veyor, who would file it in his book, and sur- 
 vey off the quantity it called for. After the 
 survey is made, and the field notes recorded, 
 they are sent together with the warrant, to the 
 General Land Office, and a patent is issued, 
 signed by the Commissioner, and by the Gov- 
 ernor of the State, and this patent forms the 
 complete- title. 
 
 Of late years the Legislature in grantiag 
 this land subsidy to railroads and for the im- 
 provement of rivers, made it obi igatoiy upon 
 them or their assigns to take their lands in 
 alternate sections, surveying one for them- 
 selves and one for the State, and plotting both 
 upon the county map. The alternate section, 
 thus surveyed for the State immediately be- 
 comes ''School Land" and is for sale at a mini- 
 mum price of one dollar pei- acre; but where a 
 section contains water or fronts on the same, 
 the minimum price is two dollars per acre. 
 
 No sale can be made of less than 160 acres, 
 unless it be a fractional section of less than 
 that amount. No one person, firm or corpora- 
 tion can purchase more than one sec;tion of 
 arable land or three sections of pasture land 
 within five miles of the geographical center of 
 a county or upon a water front; beyond such 
 limits a sale may be made to one purclii'S(;r of 
 not more than seven sections, if the s; iie is 
 classed as grazing land. When applic; tion i.s 
 made for less than one section, no fra» 'ion of 
 less than 160 acres in a square form shall be 
 left, and no fractional section of less than 320 
 acres shall be divided. 
 
 Where purchasers desire it they need only 
 pay down one twentieth (1-20) part, and the 
 balance in annual payments, for twenty years, 
 with eight per cent, interest, but they have the 
 privilege of paying all cash down if they prefer. 
 
 To purchase from the school land he applies 
 to the county surveyor, who, upon his appli- 
 cation, will survey him off 160 acres or the 
 amount applied for, receive the first payment, 
 and take his note for the balance; and, as .soon 
 as all the payments and interest have been 
 duly paid, a patent will be issued by the State. 
 
16 
 
 TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 "Homesteads may be acquired in any por- 
 tion of the State where vacant land can be 
 found. Each head of a family is entitled to 
 160 acres, and each single person eighteen 
 years of age to eight}- acres, by settling upon, 
 occupying and improving the same for three 
 consecutive years. The applicant must, within 
 thirty days after settling upon the land, tile 
 with the county surveyor a written designation 
 of the land he desires to secure, and must have 
 it surveyed within twelve months from date of 
 such application, and the tield notes and ap- 
 plication forwarded to the General Land 
 Office. When the three years have expired 
 from date of original settlement, proof that the 
 applicant and his assignee, if he has sold, have 
 resided upon and improved the same as re- 
 quired by law, must be tiled in the General 
 Land Otfice. This must be sworn to by the 
 settler and two disinterested witnesses before 
 some officer authorized to administer oaths. 
 Patent will then issue to the original settler or 
 his assignee if proper transfers are filed." 
 
 LAWS. 
 
 The laws of the State are similar to those of 
 the most advanced States of the Union. They 
 give ample and full protection to life and pro- 
 perty, and are rigidly enfoi'ced. The largest 
 liberty of speech and freedom of thought is 
 encouraged and guaranteed ; no proscriptions 
 in religion or politics are tolerated. Every 
 right and privilege is closely guarded in the 
 laws. All forms of religious worship are prac- 
 ticed, and every shade of politics is entertained 
 among the people. The Democratic party is 
 the dominant political sentiment of the State. 
 The next largest political division is the Re- 
 publican parly. In many localities of the 
 State it is in the majority, and the offices are 
 filled by Republicans. The Legislature is 
 composed of Democrats, Republicans, Green- 
 backers (or Nationals) and Independents. The 
 privilege of the ballot is as free to the one as 
 to the other citizen, and all are protected by 
 law in its free and untrammeled exercise. 
 
 Article XII. and Section 15 of the State 
 Constitution reads as follows: 
 
 '• The Legislature shall have power, and it 
 shall be their duty, to protect by law, from 
 forced sale, a certain portion of the property 
 of all heads of families. The homestead of a 
 family, not to exceed two hundred acres of 
 land (not included in a city, town or village), 
 or any city, town or village lot, or lots, not to 
 exceed five thousand dollars in value, at the 
 time of their designation as a homestead, and 
 without reference to the value of any improve- 
 ments thereon, shall not be subject to forced 
 sale for debts, except they be for the purchase 
 thereof, for the taxes thereon, or for labor and 
 materials expended thereon; nor shall the own- 
 er, if a married man, be at liberty to alienate 
 the name, unleHH by the consent of the wife, and 
 m such manner as may be prescribed by law." 
 
 It frequently happens that necessity com- 
 pels one to incur debt, and no matter how 
 well such result may be guarded against in- 
 ability to pay when the debt matures will 
 sometimes be the condiiiou of the mo^t pru- 
 
 dent and honest. Sickness, accident to per- 
 son or property, or other circumstances wholly 
 beyond the control of the individual may bring 
 this about. Under such circumstances it is 
 gratifying to know that the creditor cannot 
 take from his unfortunate debtor the home, 
 nor its furniture and conveniences, nor the 
 food, stock, implements, tools, etc., by means 
 of which the debtor may recover from the 
 effect of his losses. But far greater than this 
 is the consolation of knowing that even should 
 death overtake one, while laboring under such 
 embarrassment, the bereaved widow and chil- 
 dren will still be secure in the possession of 
 their home and its comforts and the means to 
 gain a livelihood. 
 
 PROVISIONS IN THE CONSTITUTION 
 OF THE STATE OF TEXAS. 
 
 1. The legal rate of interest is fixed at eight 
 per cent. , but may be made twelve per cent, 
 by special contract. 
 
 2. All property of the wife, owned or claim- 
 ed by her before marriage, as well as that ac- 
 quired afterward by gift, devise, or descent, 
 shall be her separate property. 
 
 3. The wife's property is exempt from the 
 husband's debts, and all their earnings during 
 marriage are partnership effects. 
 
 4. Provision is made that the qualified vo- 
 ters of any county, justice's precinct, town or 
 city, by a majority vote, may determine 
 whether the sale of intoxicating liquor shall 
 be prohibited within the prescribed limits. 
 
 5. Certain portions of personal property of 
 all persons are protected from forced sale. 
 
 TAXES AND FINANCES. 
 The taxable values of the State are $318,- 
 970,736, against which there is levied an an- 
 nual assessment of forty cents on the one hun- 
 dred dollars for State, and twenty cents for 
 county revenue. The bonded debt of the 
 State is $5,029,920, about three million of 
 which is held by the State for account of 
 special funds. There is also a surplus bal- 
 ance in the treasury of near $600,000. The 
 financial condition of the State and counties- 
 is upon a good basis, and taxation is compara- 
 tively light. Not more than ooe-fourth of the 
 general revenue is set apart by the Constitu- 
 tion for the purpose of sustaining a system of 
 public education. But few of the counties 
 have a bonded debt, and but few have subsi- 
 dized railroads. Most of the counties are free 
 of debt, and reducing the burden of taxation 
 from year to year, as the taxable values in- 
 crease. The people are industrious and pro- 
 gressive. Every industrious, frugal and pru 
 dent man who has settled within the State, 
 and who has followed closely his occupation, 
 and refrained from speculation, has improved 
 his condition, and thousands have grown rich, 
 or have become independent livers. So abun- 
 dant are the elements of wealth that all pru- 
 dent and industrious people succeed. 
 
 ^ EDUCATION. 
 
 Great as are the manifold attractions offer 
 ed by the climate, the soil, and other physical 
 advantages of Texas, none of them equal the^ 
 
 
TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 17 
 
 princely provision which the fathers of the 
 Republic made for the education of the mil- 
 lions of youth who will, in the near future, 
 be numbered among her population. The 
 far sighted statesmanship of those who laid 
 the foundation of the "Lone Star" Republic, 
 provided for the education of generations yet 
 unborn a more generous revenue than is en- 
 joyed by the schools of any State in the Am- 
 erican Union. Nay, more than this; as we 
 read the page on which tkese princely reven- 
 ues are dedicated to education, we shall see 
 that neither Oxford nor Cambridge have such 
 royal endowments as the sages of Texas gave 
 to the University of Texas. 
 
 There is a permanent School Fund of 
 $3,500,000. That of Massachusetts is only 
 two-thirds as large. 
 
 These lands have been set apart for educa- 
 tional purposes : 
 
 For a' university 1,221,400 acres. 
 
 County school domain 2,833,920 
 
 General school domain 50,000 000 " 
 
 Total 54,055,320 
 
 So much for the permanent support of the 
 schools. Let us see what provision is made 
 for their present maintenance, besides the in- 
 terest on the $3,500,000 permanent fund. 
 This is yielding an annual income of more 
 than $200,000, and is increasing from land 
 sales $100,000 a year. 
 
 The constitution sets apart not more than 
 one-fourth the general revenue of the State, 
 and $1 poll tax for the support of common 
 schools. In the year 1880 this amounted to 
 $919,880. Besides this amount, there is the 
 interest on the county school fund, $550,020, 
 being the amount realized and invested by 
 those counties which have sold their lands in 
 whole or in part. In some cities an addition- 
 al local tax is levied for the support of schools. 
 
 So much for the provisions for schools. 
 What is being done with the money that is 
 available now ? 
 
 Of course, in sparsely settled communities 
 the inauguration of schools is difficult. And 
 it is almost impossible to apply any strict 
 system. There must be more or less flexibili- 
 ty. Free schools are maintained in 159 coun- 
 ties. Of these, reports have been received 
 from only 132 counties; yet in these counties 
 there were 4,523 schools. These were attend- 
 ed by 133,667 white children, and by 45,465 
 colored children. In them were employed 
 3,258 white teachers, and 991 colored teach- 
 ers, being a total of 4,249 teachers. 
 
 The State has also established two normal 
 schools, one of which is for the education of 
 colored teachers. At these schools the stu- 
 dents are both educated and boarded without" 
 charge. From these a supply of trained 
 teachers is constantly going to all portions of 
 the State. An agricultural college has been 
 located near Bryan. The State appropriating 
 $200,000 and erecting elegant buildings, in 
 every manner adapted to the uses of a lirst- 
 class college. A full corps of professors has 
 been employed and all the necessary parapher- 
 nalia purchased. Besides alljthis, a bill is now 
 before the Legislature, and has been favorably 
 
 reported by the committee, to endow the col- 
 lege with one million acres of laud. Thus 
 generously does Texas provide for the edu- 
 cation of all classes of her youth ; where is 
 there another State that has done so liberally? 
 The people of Texas are eminently a re- 
 ligious people. There is no State in the 
 Union where church-going facilities are more 
 highly prized, or where a larger proportion 
 of the citizens are members of church organi- 
 zations. About a half million people are the 
 recognized members of a religious denomi 
 natien : 
 
 Baptists 125,000 
 
 Methodist Episcopal 100,000 
 
 Methodist Protestant 2,000 
 
 Prcsby erians 9 000 
 
 Cumberland Presbyterians 4,000 
 
 Disciples of Christ 7,000 
 
 Episcopalians 4,000 
 
 Roman Catholics 150,000 
 
 501,000 
 
 Surely a community in which one third of 
 the population professes direct church affilia- 
 tions cannot be very lawless. 
 
 I have attempted to concisely delineate the 
 capabilities and possibilities of this great 
 State. The enormous productive capacities 
 of the country and the energies of the people, 
 aided by the railway system, will, in the near 
 future, make Texas the richest and grandest 
 State of the American Union. 
 
 »I8 TEXAS A LAND OF LAWLESSNESS? 
 
 Texas is often represented as a rough bor- 
 der country, without organized society and 
 without the characteristics that distinguish an 
 elevated, refined and. progressive people. Ir- 
 responsible immigration agents, whose inter- 
 est often depends upon the number of people 
 they send over certain lines of railroad, de- 
 light to picture her as the home of the des- 
 parado and the abiding place of lawlessness 
 asd crime. No better evidence of their men- 
 dacity need be cited than the extraordinary 
 progress Texas has made within the last 
 decade. The turbulent elements of society 
 can find no congeniality amid a live, active, 
 working and progressive people. Idleness is 
 said to be the fruitful mother of wickedness 
 and crime. The industrious and progressive 
 citizen finds no time for the commission of 
 crime, but delights in the pleasures and vic- 
 tories found along the pathway of progress. 
 While working upward he is contented and 
 pleased with the world and himself. The 
 avenues of crime lead from the haunts of in- 
 dolence as certainly as are the ways of pro- 
 gress traceable to honest, unceasing toil. The 
 rapid march of Texas, in those great industries 
 which bring wealth, contentment and honor 
 to a people, briefly stated, should do more 
 than anything else to convince the thinking 
 mind that she has been most wickedly 
 maligned. 
 
 Her population has increased from 818,579 
 in 1870, to 1,654,480 in 1880, an increase of 
 more than one hundred per cent. The prin- 
 cipal source of this increase is from immigra- 
 tion, and the question might be pertinerflly 
 a^ked here if there is anvthins: in the atmos- 
 
18 
 
 TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 phere and climate of Texas to make these 
 people more lawless and disorderly than in 
 their former homes. They have come from 
 every clime and from under every form of gov- 
 ernment. Accustomed to the stern rule of mon- 
 archy or the gentle power of republicanism, 
 they bring with them their ancient love for 
 well regulated and orderly society which dis- 
 tinguished the countries from which they 
 come. They have found here a government 
 based upon the consent of the people whose 
 laws are the formulated expression of public 
 sentiment. An examination of the Statute 
 Book will vShow that our laws are as rigid in 
 the punishment of crime as those of any other 
 land, and the records of the courts exhibit an 
 almost unfeeling enforcement of the stern re- 
 quirements. What, then, is there to make 
 them more lawless than other people in other 
 countries, or the same people in other coun- 
 tries? The records of histor^^ teach that a 
 people engaged in development have but little 
 time or opportunity for indulging either in 
 the glitter of ostentation or the despicable 
 pursuits of criminal pleasures. It is im- 
 possible that a people who are progressive in 
 wealth, education, and the arts and sciences 
 can be lawless and disorderly, nor can de- 
 pravity or corruption be long tolerated among 
 them. No State in the Union will show 
 more rapid strides in material development 
 and in all the improvements of civilization 
 than Texas. Crushed in her hopes by the 
 total abolition of her labor system, she cast 
 off all regrets and disappointments, and with 
 manly courage commenced anew the race of 
 life; and now mark her onward course. 
 
 In 1870 she occupied a low position in the 
 grade of the States according to their produc 
 tions. Her farms were almost fenceless, and 
 her f ami-houses were but the rude structures 
 of a pioneer people. Her agriculturists prac- 
 tised the rude methods, with the ruder appli- 
 ances of the frontiersman. The log hut has 
 now given way to the cosy farm cottage, or 
 the more pretentious country gentleman's 
 seat, "^rhe farms are well fenced, and primi- 
 tive modes of agriculture have developed into 
 the improved machinery and skilled systems 
 of cultivation practised by the educated hus- 
 bandman. In 1870 the production of cotton 
 was 3r)0,H28 bales, which product was low 
 down on the list of the cotton-producing 
 States. In 1880 she stands at the head of the 
 list, producing fully one fifth of the entire 
 American crop. In 1870 her crop of wool 
 amounted to only 1,251,328 lbs. In 1880 she 
 has grown to the rank of Ihe second wool- 
 producing State of the Union. In beef pro- 
 duction she stands unrivalled. Though cotton 
 raising is a specialty in T(!xas, yet she is press- 
 ing close upon the heels of the great grain- 
 growing States of the West in three of their 
 mo>t important cereal crop.s, corn, wheat and 
 oat.**. The cotton crop has increased 800 per 
 c( nt. and it may be safely estimated that the 
 pioduction of corn, wool, wheat, oats and 
 si%ar has maintained the same relative in- 
 crea8<;. This rapid growth in her great agri 
 
 gration, but it is in part the result of the thrift 
 and enterprise of her people upon the bosom 
 of the most fructifying soil beneath the sun. 
 Nor is it due to the vast extent of area. No 
 other State of the same population can equal 
 her in increase for the same number of years, 
 and no other State of equal population can 
 rival her in the production of thoae great 
 staples of the soil which bring wealth to a 
 people. Truly in agriculture she is growing 
 great and powerful, but her progress is not 
 confined to this department alone. Her com- 
 merce is spreading out and attracting the ob- 
 servation of other countries. In wool, hides, 
 beef, and cotton her exports exceed those of 
 any other State. Galveston is the third cotton 
 port of the Union, and if the channel to her 
 bays were deepened, so as to admit vessels of 
 the heaviest tonnage, she would soon take 
 rank with the first exporting cities of the 
 United States. A tithe of the vast sums an- 
 nually appropriated by Congress for works of 
 trifling local importance, would give Texas a 
 harbor such as her importance demands; but 
 for this neglect her rich products are carried 
 over long and expensive railway lines to find 
 their way to the markets of the world through 
 the ports of other States. 
 . In 1870, the number of completed miles of 
 railroad in the State was 711. In 1880 it was 
 upwards of 3,000, and we can with certainty 
 state that there will be built and equipped 
 more miles of railway in her limits in 1881 
 than in any other State of the American 
 Union. The sagacity of capital, ever on the 
 alert to turn another penny, is pushing these 
 railways out into the regions of the west, 
 where the grass grows unruffled by the foot 
 of civilized man. It knows that these rich 
 soils and genial climate will, in the immedi- 
 ate future, invite the labors of the frugal 
 farmer, and from their productiveness will 
 come the tonnage it covets. Is it not an un- 
 w^arranted assumption to suppose that this 
 vast capital would seek investment in a coun- 
 try where law is disregarded and human 
 rights are ignored? Capital is proverbially 
 cautious, and prefers safety to large profits. 
 Yet we are told that the people of Texas are 
 lawless, and that crime holds "high carnival" 
 in her borders. 
 
 The number of children attending public 
 schools in 1870 was 61,010. In the year 1880, 
 despite the reduction of the scholastic age 
 from six to eighteen, to eight to fourteen, the 
 number of children in attendance upon the 
 public schools was 144,968. This increase 
 points with wonderful elfect to constant im- 
 provement in the system, and to the deter- 
 mination of the people to foster and perfect 
 a system of public education. 
 
 The increase of church membership has 
 kept even pace, if it has rot exceeded that of 
 the other growths of the State. 
 
 Can it be thit a people who are making 
 such rapid strides in all the arts of civiliza- 
 tion are disorderly and brutal, and that per 
 son and property rights are unsafe ? 
 
 We would not be understood as asserting 
 
 cultural productions is not due alone to immi- 1 that there is no crime, no diabolism in Tex 
 
TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 19 
 
 It exists in every country and under every 
 form of government. If there were no crime 
 there would be no necessity of government. 
 It does exist in Texas, and to a much greater 
 extent than we like to see, but that it is more 
 prevalent here than elsewhere, or that it is 
 tolerated here to a greater degree, we most 
 emphatically deny, and point with pride to 
 the speedy march of our people in all that 
 constitutes greatness and good society, as an 
 unerring and irrefragable proof of the un- 
 founded and often repeated charge th^t Texas 
 is a land of lawlessness and crime. A thrifty, 
 industrious and developing people are most 
 apt to frown severely at all disturbances of 
 peace and the order of societ}^ The safety 
 of the earnings of their toil depends upon a 
 proper recognition of human rights and the 
 laws of the government. A people making- 
 such progress as Texas shows, must be patient, 
 laborious' and law-abiding — politicians and 
 interested immigration agents to the contrary 
 notwithstanding. 
 
 The following is an extract from the report 
 of the attorney-general of the State, made 
 December 31, 1880: 
 
 " The exhibit hereto attached among other 
 things will show that between the 30th day of 
 November, 1879, and the first day of Decem- 
 ber, 1880, there were 3,525 indictments, charg- 
 ing felonies, presented in the district courts 
 of the State, and that of the cases tried during 
 that time, tliere were 906 convictions in felony 
 cases. These indictments and convictions 
 were as follows- 
 
 No. Inrtictm'ts No. Convict'ns 
 Presented. had. 
 
 For embezzlement 78 8 
 
 For murder 259 88 
 
 Forrape 44 9 
 
 Forperjiiry 74 5 
 
 For forgery 131 36 
 
 For burglary 204 94 
 
 For arson 23 5 
 
 Forrobbery. 99 18 
 
 For theft 1,758 483 
 
 For other felonies 855 160 
 
 Total 3,525 906 
 
 Dui-ing this same period there were filed in 
 the district courts indictments and informa 
 tioiis charging offenses below the grade of 
 felony to the number of 4,945, while the con 
 victions for misdemeanors in these courts 
 amounted to 309. Tiiis small number of con- 
 victions is owing to the fact that most of the 
 indictments for misdemeanors are sent to the 
 county courts for trial. 
 
 It is evident from these reports that crime 
 is on the decrease in the State. Take, for 
 instance, the following comparative state- 
 ment, showing the last four years, and bear 
 in mind that the reports for 1880 include 
 nearly all the counties, while those for the 
 preceding years do not include a large number 
 of them, as also the fact of the increase of our 
 population during the time. There were pre- 
 sented during these years indictment for 
 -offenses, as follows : — I 
 
 1877. 1878. 1879. 1880. 
 
 For murder .398 549 344 259 
 
 For theft _ 2,260 2,371 2,rj81 1,7-8 
 
 For arson 26 24 19 23 
 
 For perjury 82 90 ',d 74 
 
 Forrape T,:i 53 34 44 
 
 Fo robl)ery 51 49 47 99 
 
 For forgiry 85 256 155 131 
 
 For burglary 175 154 183 -.04 
 
 Total 3,130 3,548 2,942 2,592 
 
 During the same four years the reports 
 show the convictions for these offenses to 
 have been as follows: — 
 
 1877. 1878. 1879. 1880. 
 
 For murder 71 122 115 88 
 
 For theft 471 558 651 483 
 
 For arson 5 7 5 5 
 
 For perjury. 3 1 10 5 
 
 For rape 11 9 16 9 
 
 For roDbery... 13 24 9 18 
 
 For forgery 9 17 19 36 
 
 For burglary 58 (51 &2 94 
 
 Tctal 641 799 907 738 
 
 This array of statistical facts is an un- 
 answerable refutation of these groundles.s 
 charges. Those seeking new homes to belter 
 their condition will find here a hearty wel- 
 come, where their property and persons will 
 b(! as sacredly guarded as in any government 
 of the world, and their energy and industry 
 as liberally rewarded. No country offers a 
 broader field for human labor, and no people 
 appreciate more highly the benefits of good 
 society than the people of Texas. Honesty 
 and industry will be encouraged, and crime 
 will receive the condemnation of an indignant 
 people. 
 
 The following comments on this subject 
 clipped from one of the great New York aail- 
 ies of February 2, 1881, shows how our State, 
 so much abused in this respect, is coming tcr 
 be regarded by fair-minded men : 
 
 "Stalwart journals keep on repeating in 
 1881 the comments upon the lawless condition 
 of Texas which were in order in 1851. As a 
 matter of fact the annual report of the at- 
 torney-general of that State rendered at the 
 close of last year makes an exhibit on this 
 subject which Massachusetts might be glad 
 to emulate. In 1878 there were 549 indict- 
 ments for homicide preferred in Texas. In 
 1879 there were 344. and in 1880 259— being 
 a decline of about 300 in two years, while the 
 population was growing. During the same 
 vears there was a similar percentage of de- 
 crease in thefts— from 2,371 in 1878, to 2,081 
 in 1879 and to 1,758 in 1880; in forgerv, from 
 258 in 1878, to i55 in 1879 and to 131 in 1880; 
 in the aggregate of eight principal felonies 
 from 3,548«inl878, to 2,592 in 1880— while on 
 the other hand the percentage of convictions 
 increased. Our ovk^n City of Churches cannot 
 present so clean a bill as is this showing from 
 Texas. Moreover, in the opinion of the at- 
 torney-general of Texas, the percentage of in- 
 dictments in that State, to the whole number 
 of criminal occiu-ences. is as favorable as any 
 like proportion in any other part of the Union. 
 A generation ago the lettirs G. T. T., moan- 
 ing 'Gone to Texas,'— -indicated in tbe slang 
 of the time the name of a fugitive from jus- 
 tice. They now apply to as prudeiit and 
 
20 
 
 TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 peaceable a coiiimunity of settlers as can be 
 found in any of the older States, or in any of 
 the newer States in which, as in Texas, im- 
 migrants establish themselves upon the ever- 
 spreading network of the railways. 
 
 / AG-RICULTaRE. 
 
 Taking the word agriculture in its widest 
 significjvtion as including the rearing of live 
 stock, as well as the products of the earth, 
 Texas is pre-eminently an agricultural coun- 
 try. AYith her rich and inexhaustible soils, 
 and her genial climate, inviting the farmer to 
 labor the 3ear round in moderation, and not 
 compelling him to hibernate, as it w^ere, for 
 many montlis, 'vvhere is there a field which 
 offers so many attractions to the man w^ho 
 expects to earn his bread by the sweat of his 
 brow ? 
 
 PLANTING SEASON. 
 The mild winters generally admit of corn 
 planting in February, and cotton in March. 
 Wheat is sowm in the fall, and harvested in 
 May, so that flour from new wheat can be de- 
 livered in any of the Northern or Eastern 
 cities fully six wrecks in advance of flour from 
 the older wheat-growing States. Field work 
 can be done at all seasons of the year, and a 
 loss of thirty days from out-door occupations, 
 on account of heat, cold, or rain, in any one 
 year, would be an over-estimate. During the 
 cold, bleak winter months, when nearly all 
 the farmers of the Northern and Eastern 
 States are busy in the effort to keep the cold 
 out and their stock from suffering, by con- 
 stant attention, and feeding out corn, hay and 
 other fodder, gathered during the summer, 
 
 ,the Texas farmer, in winter, enjoys mild, 
 pleasant weather, and his flocks and herds 
 are in good condition, feeding on the prairies 
 or in the timbered bottom lands, well shelter- 
 ed from the northern blasts that constitute 
 the Texas winter, rarely lasting more than 
 five days. 
 
 Crops of Texas compared with the leading 
 agricultural States south and west: 
 
 Yield per Acre of 
 
 
 < 
 ■< 
 ■< 
 < 
 
 13 
 6.3 
 
 o 
 
 1 
 
 O 
 
 11 
 7 
 
 d 
 
 3 
 
 34.9 
 18 
 
 17 8 
 
 35 9 
 66 
 
 1.51 
 
 i 
 < 
 
 5 
 
 Sz; 
 
 32.8 
 16 
 
 14.5 
 
 29 6 
 64 
 
 1.40 
 
 m" 
 O 
 g 
 
 )-) 
 
 27 
 13 6 
 16.2 
 35 9 
 
 67 
 1.49 
 
 < 
 < 
 
 Indian C»ra ... . 
 Wheat 
 
 26 
 16 
 
 18 
 
 37 
 
 84 
 
 1.59 
 
 275 
 
 12 
 7.3 
 
 33.9 
 
 16 3 
 
 Rve 
 
 19 3 
 
 Oats 
 
 potatoes 
 
 16 
 
 102 
 
 1 80 
 
 132 
 
 16 6 
 
 73 
 
 1..54 
 
 164 
 
 16 7 
 
 67 
 
 1.7.i 
 
 i61 
 
 36 
 85 
 
 my 
 
 1 80 
 
 Cotton 
 
 
 We invite a careful examination of the fore- 
 going tabulated statement of the leadmg agri- 
 ctiltural products of Texas, as compared with 
 seren of the principal agricultural States south 
 and west. 
 
 These figures are taken from the report of 
 the United States Department of Agriculture 
 for 1878, wliich is the latest authority obtain 
 able. 
 
 It wmII be observed that in the .staple cereals 
 of Indian Corn, wheat, rye and oats, Texas 
 
 compares favorably with the great grain- 
 growing States, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and 
 Kansas, whi]e»in cotton production she stands 
 pre-eminent, as compared with the principal 
 cotton producing Stares of the South. 
 
 A fact that we desire to impress upon the 
 thinking mind is rendered emphatic by this 
 table, viz., that while the industrious farmer 
 can produce the cereals here to the same extent 
 and with as little labor as anywhere else, vet 
 in Texas these have always been considered a 
 secondary crop, for the reason that the extra- 
 ordinary yield and quality of the cotton pro- 
 duct, render it pre-eminently valuable to the 
 farmer. If the same time, attention and care- 
 ful husbandry were devoted to the cereals 
 here, that distinguish the agriculture of the 
 Western States mentioned above, there is 
 every reason to believe that Texas would far 
 outstrip them. 
 
 The folowing is taken from the Farm and 
 Orchard, an agricultural paper published in 
 Palestine, Texas. 
 
 A small but contented farmer furnishes t^ie 
 Texas Farm and Orchard with the following 
 statement of his crops and the amount of land 
 cultivated by his own labor and that of his 
 wife: 
 
 "Ten acres of cotton, which will give five 
 bales, 1250; 10 acres in corn, 180 bushels, 
 $90; 1 acre of sw^eet potatoes, 300 bushels, 
 $150; I4 acre of goobers, 50 bushels, $100: % 
 acre of grass nuts, 12 bushels, $36; 14 acre of 
 onions. 30 bushels, $60; 1 acre of suiiarcane, 
 100 gallons, $50. His wife raised 150 chick- 
 ens, $30; 50 lbs. butter, $12.50; saved 20 lbs. 
 feathers, worth $10. He sheared 140 lbs. 
 wool, $28; sold four beeves, $48; water- 
 melons, $5, and will make 3000 lbs. pork, 
 worth $180. He also made 40 bushels of 
 wheat for his own use, besides vegetables, etc. 
 Though the yield of each crop per acre is 
 not by any means extraordinary, it demon- 
 strates^ t>he great adaptability of Texas soils 
 and climates to varied agriculture, and how 
 an industrious and frugal farmer may easily 
 increjise his store and provide against tlie ad- 
 versities of poverty. This is only the ordinary 
 result of industry and care upon the farm. 
 Not an item shows above the common produc- 
 tion of the country where Uie fields are care- 
 fully and attentively tilled. It will be ol> 
 served that two of the ordinary and most prof- 
 itable crops are neglected by tliis contented 
 farmer, to- wit oats and fruits. The value of 
 these crops could have been added to with 
 comparatively little additional labo':. In this 
 section and upon these fertile soiis, industry 
 and common prudence are always rewarded 
 with adequate profits. Tlicse are but the 
 usual results of industrious farming. The 
 agriculturist who applies to his acres the proper 
 toil is most certain to receive satisfactory re- 
 turns, and those Avho Ihus strive always find 
 in Texas a genial and contented home. 
 
 COTTON. 
 
 Cotton is new, and will ever continue to be, 
 the special crop of Texas, because her soils 
 and climate are most wonderfully adapted to 
 
TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 21 
 
 its growth and maturity, and because it is one 
 of the most protilable crops of the soil. It 
 requires continuous labor in its production. 
 The preparation of the soil should begin in 
 ♦lanuary, by deep and careful fallowing. In 
 the months of February and March the land 
 IS then thrown up in beds from three to live 
 feet, accordmg to the strength of soil. Plant- 
 ing is usually done by opening the beds or 
 ridges with a small ' 'scooter'' or "bull-tongue" 
 plow; the seed is sown then as regularly as 
 possible, and covered with a harrow or drag. 
 The better plan to cover is to run two furrows 
 with a light turning plow, and afterwards 
 dragging off with a block. The usual mode 
 of cultivation, after the plants have come up, 
 is to run beside the plants with a turning plow 
 as near as possible, with the bar next to the 
 plants, throwing the earth //-om them, then to 
 follow with hoes chopping out the plants, 
 leaving one or two plants standing every foot 
 or foot and a half apart. The earth is then 
 thrown back, taking care not to cover the 
 small plants. The work after this is to keep 
 the land stirred and prevent the growth of 
 noxious weeds and grasses. The plants should 
 be left to stand from two to four feet, accord- 
 ing to the fertility of the land. Cotton should 
 be cultivated, and the land very regularly 
 stirred until the plant begins to open, which 
 is usually in the months of July and August. 
 The picking is done by hand, and is the most 
 expensive part of its production. An aver- 
 age hand can pick about 150 pounds per day. 
 Taki ng the whole picking season , 1 , GOO pounds 
 of seed cotton will make a bale of 500 pounds 
 of lint. The picking season is from the mid- 
 dle of August to the first of January. The 
 ginning and baling is done upon the co-opera- 
 tive system, the owner of the gin charging 
 such a per cent, of the cotton for putting up 
 a bale. The common price is one-twelfth of 
 the cotton. It is sold either at the nearest 
 market town or at some seaport. It is the 
 easiest transported of all products, less liable 
 to damage, and more value can be transported 
 at a less charge than in any other product. 
 The wagon that will bear, and the team that 
 M'ill draw sixty bushels of wheat worth $60, 
 will carry seven bales of cotton worth $350. 
 The cotton may be thrown out to take the 
 weather for weeks without any material dam- 
 age, while the wheat or any other product of 
 the farm would be wholly ruined. 
 
 Like provision crops, cotton must ever be 
 a staple production. Its adaptation to numer- 
 ous uses will always require its production. 
 It is the cheapest material from which cloth- 
 ing can be made. Its demand will increase 
 with the growth of the human family, and its 
 uses will increase in proportion to the cheap- 
 ness of its production and manufacture. 
 Texas is peculiarly blessed in her wonderful 
 adaptability to the growth of this special crop. 
 The yield per acre upon her soil is greater 
 than that of any other State in the Union, and 
 its fibre is longer, more silky, and in all re- 
 spects superior to all other American cottons. 
 It is quoted i^d. higher in the Liverpool mar- 
 ket than other cotton. There is not one per 
 
 cent, of the lands adapted to cotton now un- 
 der cultivation, although the yield the present 
 year will be over a million bales, worth fifty 
 millions' of dollars on the farm. 
 INDIAN CORN. 
 
 Indian corn or maize is a common crop upon 
 every farm. It is not raised in Texas as a 
 market product, cotton and sugar being 
 the special crops of the State. Each farmer 
 aims to raise just corn enough to supply his 
 own need upon his farm. Consequently its 
 cultivation is frequently neglected for other 
 crops considered more profitable. The modes 
 of cultivation are about the same as those 
 practised in other States, with the exception 
 of less care and attention. The average yield 
 per acre is twenty-six bushels. Its weight 
 per bushel is from sixty to sixty-four pounds. 
 In the middle and northern portion of the 
 State it bears a firm solid grain, keeps well, 
 and seldom ever becomes musty. By proper 
 tillage, such as deep plowing, thorough pul- 
 verization and regular cultivation, the yield 
 could be greatly increased. Owing to want 
 of deep water at the Gulf ports, there is no 
 market in Texas for corn, except that which 
 is created by the local demand. If the facili- 
 ties for transportation were adequate, the 
 fecundity of Texas soils in this product would 
 soon make it one of the most important of the 
 marketable crops of the State. It is now only 
 raised for domestic consumption, being the 
 chief feed crop of the farms. The crop of 
 1880 is immense, and the price will not exceed 
 twenty-five cents per bushel, except in a few 
 localities. 
 
 OATS. 
 
 It is only of late years that oats have been 
 generally cultivated. Until the introduction 
 of the red non-rusting oat, it was a precarious 
 crop, and was seldom attempted by the farm- 
 ers of the State. With this new variety it is 
 a certain and prolific crop. The average 
 yield is thirty-seven bushels per acre. It is, 
 however, cultivated now only for home use. 
 Texas oats are of superior qualit3^ and com- 
 mand the highe"^ price in the New Orleans 
 market. LTpon the rich black lands or on the 
 stiff alluvial bottom lands the yield is marvel- 
 lous, often exceeding one hundred bushels 
 per acre. 
 
 SUGAR. 
 
 This important agricultural industry has 
 not attained that position in Texas to which 
 its merits entitle it, taking into consideration 
 the large body of land capable of production 
 with profitable results. It is true that some 
 few planters have devoted to the production 
 of sugar in this State a great deal of attention 
 and a large amount of capital, but the ma 
 jority of persons engaged in this industry ai (? 
 planters on a very small scale, and have but 
 limited means. The larger concerns, how- 
 ever, are from year to year adding to their 
 capacity and ability to produce sugar to a 
 profitable extent, and are demonstrattng fully 
 the value of this crop, when handled upon a 
 substantial basis. What would add more 
 than anything else to the encouragement of 
 
TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 sugar production in Texas, would be the 
 establisiimeut of a sugar refinery and cooper- 
 age somewhere in the State. For the latter 
 industiy the native timbers on the Sabine and 
 Neches rivers offer every inducement for 
 profitable investment, which should be insti- 
 tuted with an idea to cover cooperage for 
 flour production as well as sugar. In this 
 line there could be no question of success; 
 and as to final results in the instituticM of a 
 sugar refinery, the heavy expense incident to 
 transportation and wastage of raw sugar in 
 course of refinement, leaves but little doubt 
 of the value and economy of such an enter- 
 prise. 
 
 The sugar crop of 1878, of which only we 
 have statistics by us, met with serious disaster 
 in a number of instances from excessive rains 
 late in the season, aud other untoward circum- 
 stances. We are prepared to give the exact 
 product of the State in sugar and molasses — 
 with the exception of the amount of molasse^s 
 used direct from the plantations in the up- 
 country — the data being furnished by mercan- 
 tile houses in Houston and Galveston. The 
 figures are exact. The crop of the State was 
 handled by five parties in Houston and eleven 
 parties in Galveston. The Houston merchants 
 handled 2,155 hogsheads sugar and 5,156 bar- 
 rels molasses; the Galveston" merchants 3,209 
 hogsheads sugar and 6,388 barrels molasses. 
 Add to this a shipment of 300 hogsheads sugar 
 and 700 barrels molasses from ludianola to 
 New Orleans, and the total crop of the State 
 reaches 5,664 hogsheads sugar and 12,2-14 bar- 
 rels molasses. The value of sugar aud molas- 
 ses produced in Texas for the year is roundly 
 stated at $433,969. Favorable circumstances 
 and a judicious application of capital in the 
 future will yet make sugar production in this 
 State a matter of far more than ordinary 
 mom.ent. Pressed to its full capacity, sugar 
 production should rank only second to the 
 great staple, cotton itseli. 
 WHEAT. 
 
 This important factor in the composition of 
 crops has not attained that position in Texas 
 lo which its merits entitle it. In the immense 
 prairie region of the State, where the soil and 
 climate are most favorable, wheat is, as yet, 
 ;iri element of production subsidiary to the 
 .■>inj)le crop of cotton. It occupies in the grain- 
 licit of Texas the same position held by corn 
 In llie Northwestern States, where wheat is 
 the principal market crop. The initial period 
 of successful wheat-growing and milling in 
 the State dates back only six years, when an 
 <ibun(iant yield and excellent quality of grain, 
 won for Texas a reputation which stimulated 
 production, and rapidly increased her milling 
 <;apacity. Data from well-informed sources 
 tixe.s the yield of that and subsequent years at- 
 
 BiiHliels. Bushels. 
 
 1875 .3,01)0.01)0 I 1H78 4,000,000 
 
 1876 2,250,0(10 | 1879 2,000,000 
 
 1877... 2,0()0,0(;0 I 1880 1,300,000 
 
 The milling capacity of llie State is in ad- 
 vance of profhietion, and more than ami>le to 
 •supply the population oT the State with flour. 
 The crop of 1879 did not run its mills but IJO 
 
 working days, on two-thirds time. The mar 
 keted crop was 1,737,817 bushels, and the 
 actual consumption, during the 4I4 months 
 was 1,784,206 bushels, requiring an importa- 
 tion of 46,390 bushels from Kansas and Mis- 
 souri. If the mills of the State were run to 
 their maximum capacity for twelve hours per 
 day, they would not only bread the State, but 
 give a surplus of over 500,000 ban-els of flour 
 for exportation, as will be seen by the. annexed 
 tabular statement, derived from authentic 
 sources : 
 
 Location. 
 
 S3» 
 
 ;5o 
 
 5| 
 
 
 0^- 
 
 11^ 
 
 
 
 18 
 15 
 14 
 11 
 8 
 8 
 8 
 8 
 5 
 8 
 6 
 4 
 5 
 5 
 28 
 
 $186,100 
 99,400 
 
 51 
 29 
 
 3,080 
 
 2,985 
 
 2.070 
 
 2,420 
 
 1,635 
 
 1,500 
 
 1,400 
 
 1,445 
 
 985 
 
 1,300 
 
 900 
 
 300 
 
 400 
 
 300 
 
 3,500 
 
 8 
 8 
 8 
 b 
 8 
 8 
 8 
 8 
 8 
 8 
 8 
 
 8 
 8 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 Collin...., 
 
 5 
 
 Ellis 
 
 81,380 22 
 
 5 
 
 Dallas 
 
 102,200 
 41,5(10 
 31,tX)0 
 60,800 
 24,900 
 33,300 
 50,000 
 28,000 
 5,500 
 10,800 
 18,000 
 
 220,300 
 
 30 
 16 
 15 
 19 
 14 
 10 
 13 
 10 
 6 
 8 
 10 
 57 
 
 5 
 
 Kaufman 
 
 Cooke 
 
 5 
 
 Tarrant 
 
 5 
 
 Hill 
 
 4 
 
 Johnson .... 
 
 4 
 
 Parker .. 
 
 Denton 
 
 4 
 4 
 
 Wise 
 
 Montague 
 
 H oud . .... 
 
 3 
 
 Otlier points 
 
 5 
 
 1 149 
 
 $993,180 
 
 310 
 
 24,220 
 
 8 
 
 4^4 
 
 Actual consumption per year, 1,784,207 bushels. 
 Maximum capacity per year, 7,556,640 bushels. 
 
 A review of the crops since 1875 will show 
 the disadvantages with which the %vhe^t- 
 grower had to contend, and the causes whi'cli 
 are operating in retarding production. The 
 crop of 1875 was abundant in yield and super 
 ior in quality, and, as already stated, stimu- 
 lated production and increased the number 
 and capacity of the mills of the State, in- 
 creased acreage was planted in 1876, but, ow- 
 ing to an unfavorable season, the yield was 
 less in aggregate than the previous year, and 
 the quality of the grain inferior. The follow- 
 ing year, 1877, was disastrous, the early wheat 
 being cut short and the late cro^) almost to- 
 tally destroyed by rust. The crop of 1878— 
 the largest ever raised in the State — was 
 ruined in quality during the harvesting period, 
 and the prod; cf, as a crop, was not marketed. 
 In J 879 the acreage was increased slightly, but 
 the crop cut short by drouth. The quality 
 of the grain, however, retrieved the reputation 
 of Texas mills, which had been impaiied by 
 the damaged croj) of the previous yeai-. The 
 crop of tiie current year, reduced in acreage 
 by the severity of tlu; drouth of 1879, which 
 was a bar to "breaking u]) land, was damaged 
 by reason of continuous rains after the harxest 
 season. 
 
 The misfortunes attending the production 
 of wheat during the past five years are charge- 
 able to sniftless cultivation, want of manage- 
 ment in saving the crop after harvest, juid 
 carelessness in^lhe selection of seed, cleaning 
 and grading of the grain. The neglect of these 
 conditions,' indispensable to successful and 
 piofitable wheat growing, is due, as intimated 
 
TEXA.S: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 above, to the over-influence of cotton as a 
 staple ciop, as exhibited below. The tal)le 
 deti-jils the productions oi 1879 in the third 
 con<rressional district, an exceptionally bad 
 
 year for corn and small grain, whijh, in many 
 localities, were totally destroyed by the sever- 
 est drouth experienced in the State in fifteen 
 years : 
 
 
 Tilled 
 
 C 
 
 RX. 
 
 O 
 
 VTS. 
 
 Wheat. 
 
 COTTO.V. 
 
 Tilled 
 
 COUNTrES. 
 
 m 
 
 1879. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Acres. 
 
 Bushels. 
 
 Acres. 
 
 Busiiels. 
 
 •\cres 
 
 Bushels. 
 
 Acres. 
 
 Bales. 
 
 1880. 
 
 Collin 
 
 1.35,901 
 
 53.178 
 
 994.20fi 
 
 11.014 
 
 .333,188 
 
 23.813 
 
 183,610 
 
 47,896 
 
 22.203 
 
 1 67.. 571 
 
 Cooke 
 
 79.78(J 
 
 31,400 
 
 498,400 
 
 5.942 
 
 1J4.782 
 
 9.371 
 
 58,026 
 
 33.0(i7 
 
 16.030 
 
 89.. 500 
 
 Clay 
 
 5iU,9?0 
 
 7,866 
 
 lJ7.99(i 
 
 2,622 
 
 52,440 
 
 2.022 
 
 20,976 
 
 7,866 
 
 3,440 
 
 20 976 
 
 Callahan... 
 
 b,20r) 
 
 3.400 
 
 27.200 
 
 65 
 
 810 
 
 l,24t) 
 
 6.2(10 
 
 500 
 
 125 
 
 8,2.50 
 
 Dallas 
 
 169.03.T 
 
 48,55 
 
 6.55,914 
 
 10.292 
 
 236,442 
 
 28.395 
 
 207.08; 
 
 .51,798 
 
 28,160 
 
 203 808 
 
 Denton. ... 
 
 62.872 
 
 23.=>77 
 
 4t7,963 
 
 7,.5.59 
 
 151,180 
 
 8.160 
 
 65.280 
 
 2 U 76 
 
 1 1 ,320 
 
 62,775 
 
 Ellis 
 
 15«,8^1 
 
 42,960 
 
 581,191 
 
 6,431 
 
 168,490 
 
 19.623 
 
 184.2.^9 
 
 53 8.S5 
 
 19,917 
 
 183,412 
 
 Erarh 
 
 42,476 
 
 12141 
 
 230. t)^ 9 
 
 3,993 
 
 79 H60 
 
 4,201 
 
 37 809 
 
 12,141 
 
 6,030 
 
 32. .^75 
 
 Gravson 
 
 223.277 
 
 54.864 
 
 961.805 
 
 9,729 
 
 184,857 
 
 15,903 
 
 86,182 
 
 40.581 
 
 19.223 
 
 183,412 
 
 Hiir 
 
 82.777 
 
 31.. 523 
 
 324 ()32 
 
 4,485 
 
 137,786 
 
 6,475 
 
 50,680 
 
 37.094 
 
 8.286 
 
 115.036 
 
 Hood 
 
 19,600 
 
 8 500 
 
 127,50(1 
 
 2.. 500 
 
 75.000 
 
 600 
 
 3,211(1 
 
 8.000 
 
 3.800 
 
 25.000 
 
 Johnson.... 
 
 94,620 
 
 35,751 
 
 372,068 
 
 5.194 
 
 131.610 
 
 13,405 
 
 88,724 
 
 40,270 
 
 13,315 
 
 243,665 
 
 Jack 
 
 20,168 
 
 9,813 
 
 147,195 
 
 3,261 
 
 65,220 
 
 3,281 
 
 26,248 
 
 9 813 
 
 4.407 
 
 26,175 
 
 Kaufman.. . 
 
 59..'iO.T 
 
 21,109 
 
 321,235 
 
 3,975 
 
 94.764 
 
 7,8:^0 
 
 62,60) 
 
 23,601 
 
 9466 
 
 75,257 
 
 Montague. . 
 
 26,896 
 
 10.086 
 
 151. V9« 
 
 3,3' 
 
 66,000 
 
 3.424 
 
 27.392 
 
 10,086 
 
 4,068 
 
 26.900 
 
 Parker .... 
 
 56,400 
 
 28,400 
 
 4.6 000 
 
 1,500 
 
 50.000 
 
 5.000 
 
 22.000 
 
 21 ,('00 
 
 1,000 
 
 70,000 
 
 Palo Pinto. 
 
 18,576 
 
 6,966 
 
 104, 4Pn 
 
 2,322 
 
 46.440 
 
 2.322 
 
 18,576 
 
 6 966 
 
 3.330 
 
 18,600 
 
 Rockwall... 
 
 25,381 
 
 9,657 
 
 127,999 
 
 1.224 
 
 34.816 
 
 2 871 
 
 23,732 
 
 8.62r 
 
 3,714 
 
 33,518 
 
 Tarrant. 
 
 65,248 
 
 24,468 
 
 367,02c 
 
 8,156 
 
 163.120 
 
 8,156 
 
 65,248 
 
 24.468 
 
 12,130 
 
 65,2.50 
 
 Wise 
 
 58,552 
 
 21,710 
 
 325,695 
 
 7,500 
 
 150,000 
 
 7,642 
 
 59,136 
 
 21,700 
 
 10,200 
 
 60,575 
 
 Frontier 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Counties. 
 
 51,798 
 
 20,212 
 
 281,562 
 
 10,310 
 
 144,796 
 
 6,629 
 
 48.644 
 
 14.647 
 
 6,158 
 
 52,991 
 
 Total 
 
 1,278,490 
 
 506,131 
 
 7,603,034 
 
 111,374 
 
 2,490,601 
 
 181,453 
 
 1,345,56() 
 
 179,532 203,322 
 
 1,755,047 
 
 To arrive at the acreage in cotton in the 
 grain belt, estimates for Fannin, Lamar, Hunt, 
 Rains, Van Zandt, Navarro, Limestone, Mc- 
 Lennan. Bosque, and other counties not com- 
 prised in the third congressional district, must 
 be added to the above table, which swell the 
 cotton acreage in round figures to 900,000 
 acres, against 250,000 acres in wheat, yielding 
 the crop of 1879. This disparity in quantity 
 of land tilled, militates against the production 
 and quality of the wheat, the time necessary 
 to the proper preparation of land for the grain 
 crop being demanded for and devoted to the 
 gathering of the cotton crop. With a judi- 
 cious distribution of crops, care in the selec- 
 tion of seed, thorough preparation of land, 
 provisions against wet harvesting periods and 
 careful grading, the factors, soil and climate, 
 quality of grain, and an unlimited demand for 
 production, will align Texas, in the near 
 future, with the foremost wheat growing 
 States in the Union. 
 
 The table illustrates the advantages of di- 
 versified crops, and is suggestive of the won- 
 derful capabilities of that portion of the State 
 where the two great staples, cotton and wheat, 
 are grown successfully side by side. The 
 crop result demonstrates the certainty of a 
 fair return in this favored section, under the 
 most adverse season. For instance, Grayson, 
 located on Red River, is ordinarily a prolific 
 ^•nall graiin county, and Hill, located on the 
 Brazos River, reputed to be one of the best 
 cotton counties. An exceptionally bad crop- 
 ping year, instead of being disastrous to the 
 farmer, as would have been the ease had the 
 soil, as elsewhere, been adapted solely to either 
 cotton or wheat, simply transformsthe latter 
 into a wheat county and the former into a cot- 
 ton county. Another feature; is the fact, that 
 
 notwithstanding the short crops of 1879. con- 
 fidence in the capabilities of the land has 
 stimulated an activity in developing farms- in 
 1880— the increased acreage in twenty-two 
 counties heard from being 476,557 acres. 
 
 Texas is so young a State that wheat-grow- 
 ing in it may be considered as yet experimen- 
 tal, and that the experiments have not so far 
 determined what is the best variety to grow. 
 In Southern Texas no man for a long time 
 thought of sowing oats, because the crop was 
 considered certain to be destroyed by rust. 
 Yet at last a variety was found which entirely 
 resists the rust, and now oats are extensively 
 grown in Southern Texas, yielding very large 
 crops. So, a short time ago, no man in Cen- 
 tral Texas much below the latitude of Austin, 
 thought of sowing wheat on account of the 
 rust; but at last the Nicaragua variety turned 
 up, which proved admirably suited to the 
 lower portion of the State, resisting rust and 
 yielding from twenty to forty-five bushels to 
 the acre. It is now considerabl}' grown in 
 those parts, and would be very extensively 
 grown if the Texas millers would procure the 
 right sort of machinery for grinding it. In- 
 stead of doing so, they have discouraged its 
 production. So in North Texas and other 
 portions of the State, the variety best adapted 
 remains yet to be discovered, and no doubt 
 will be discovered soon. 
 
 We will take the liberty of making a sug- 
 gestion on this point, and hope it will be borne 
 in mind. It is a suggestion on a point of great 
 value. The wheat sown in Texas, except the 
 Nicaragua, has all come from the North, from 
 regions whose soil and climatic conditions 
 differ widely from our own. Would it not be 
 better to get it from southern countries whose 
 soil and climatic conditions are very similar 
 
24 
 
 TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 to our own? Does it not look reasonable and 
 natural? It undoubtedly seems so. In Mexico 
 and California they have a climate and soil re- 
 markably akin to ours, and it is a well-known 
 fact that these two countries are renowned for 
 the production of wheat — not only for the quan- 
 tity to the acre, but for the surpassing excell- 
 ence of the article. Does not common sense sug- 
 gest that we should go to those regions to get 
 our seed-wheat, rather than to Illinois and 
 Ohio? Let some of our enterprising agricul- 
 turists try it, and we do not question that they 
 will find themselves largely benefited. 
 
 The wheat of Spain would also be worth 
 attention in this direction. That region has a 
 climate very much like our own, and its wheat 
 stands at the very head of the wheats of the 
 world. The wheat of Mexico was derived 
 from Spain, and the most of that grown in 
 California was derived from Mexico. The 
 wheat so largely imported from Trieste, on 
 the Mediterranean, also deserves attention. 
 
 It is worthy of mention that the wheat of 
 Texas ripens from six weeks to two months in 
 advance of that of the Northwestern States, 
 and that in general it weighs much more to 
 the bushel, and has a much smaller per cent, 
 of moisture. What it lacks in moisture as 
 compared with the Northern wheat, it makes 
 up in solid nutritious elements, It is there- 
 fore a richer wheat than the Northern wheat, 
 and a pound of its flour will make more bread 
 than a pound of Northern flour. It would 
 also bear transportation over the seas, especi- 
 ally through tropical latitudes, much better. 
 No man ever knew a barrel of Texas flour to 
 sour in Texas, though it has been kept in 
 warehouses in Galveston, more than a year, 
 to try it ; while the flour from the North soon 
 sours in the South. Texas should become a 
 very large exporter of flour, particularly to 
 South America and the West Indies. She 
 will become this soon if her wheat industry 
 is only properly fostered and encouraged m- 
 telligently, as it should be. 
 
 As evidence of the value of Nicaragua 
 wheat, which has been so successfully grown 
 wherever tried in Southern and Western 
 Texas, we clip the following from the Waco 
 EKaminer of June 25, 1881 : 
 
 NICARAGUA WHEAT-A BONANZA. 
 
 " From time to time, for several years past, 
 the Examiner has entered a plea in behalf of 
 the Nicaragua as a good wheat, worth, cer 
 tainly, very much more than it brings in mar- 
 ket, if only the mills in this country were pre- 
 pared to grind it. But no less persistently 
 has it been decried, certain millers going to 
 the extreme of asserting that, strictly speak- 
 ing, the Nicaragua is no wheat at all, but a 
 sort of barley, devoid of the flowing or flour- 
 ing property which distinguishes the standard 
 grain of the queen cereal. Though not very 
 well up in such matters, we have, with all 
 due respect, doubted the correctness of this 
 conclusion and have in every way possible en- 
 couraged investigation as to the value of this 
 grain in other markets, notably New Orleans 
 and Liverpool. It is with no little satisfac- 
 
 tion that we now learn after so" long a time 
 and after so many trials and disappointments 
 that the wheat, the Nicaragua, a sample of 
 which was sent, is pronounced by Messrs 
 Hartly, Watson «fc Co., grain merchants, of 
 Liverpool, a good hard wheat, worth in that 
 market $1.30 a bushel. In confirmation of 
 this valuation, we yesterday saw a telegram 
 from a responsible merchant of Houston, 
 stating that he was offered $1.15 a bushel for 
 the Nicaragua, sacked and delivered on board 
 a vessel in New Orleans. The cost of trans- 
 portation added makes $1.80 the Liverpool 
 valuation. If, now, this wheat is worth $1.30 
 in Liverpool, or $1.15*on board a vessel in 
 New Orleans, what is it, rather what ought 
 it to be worth a bushel here in Waco or at 
 other points in the interior ? 
 
 ' ' The cost of transportation from this point 
 is per car-load of 20,000 to 24,000 lbs. to Hous- 
 ton, $40; to Galveston, $50; and to New Or- 
 leans, $80, or in round figures about 24c. a bush- 
 el to New Orleans. Now, with these figures 
 before us, what ought Nicaragua wheat to be 
 worth in this market ? The market price, we 
 believe, is, at Waco and other places gener 
 ally over the State, 40 to 50c. a bushel. Add 
 transportation say 25c. , and the buyer has a 
 profit of 75c. from $1.15, forty cents a bushel ! 
 A bonanza for the buyer certainly, whether 
 very profitable to the producer or not. With 
 these facts before them, however, producers 
 ought to be able to come in for a little share 
 of the profits to be realized on the much de- 
 cried Nicaragua wheat — a crop which of all 
 others succeeds best in Texas, and which if 
 it maintain the price above quoted will prove 
 a veritable bonanza, not to a few buyers only, 
 but to the farming interest of the State." 
 AMBER CANE. 
 
 The earlier experiments in the manufacture 
 of syrup and sugar from the Sorghum cane 
 were unsuccessful to a certain extent in this 
 State, as they were throughout the Union 
 generally. This was mainly owing to the 
 crude and imperfect appliances and machin- 
 ery used in the manufacture of its products. 
 
 A few years since, however, the Amber 
 cane was introduced, and since its introduc- 
 tion the efforts in this branch of industry 
 have resulted in the realization of the most 
 sanguine hopes. 
 
 Proper machinery is being introduced for 
 expressing the juice and manufacturing it, 
 and syrup and sugar of a very superior quali- 
 ty are now made at their own homes by some 
 of our farmers at a very small cost. 
 
 The following extract is clipped from the 
 Austin Statesman of Nov. 5, 1880: 
 
 " Those who have made trial of the Amber 
 cane in Western Texas this year report that 
 the experiment was attended with the most 
 satisfactory results. The Amber cane is ex- 
 cellent for making sugar and molasses, and its 
 cultivation is recommended to every farmer. " 
 
 POTATOES. 
 
 Both sweet and Irish are raised in great 
 abundance. The former grow to perfection 
 in every part of the State, and the latter are 
 
TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 25 
 
 equally fine, but do not keep so well. Irish 
 potatoes ripen very early, and a profitable 
 business is done shipping them to Nortliern 
 markets before the new crop comes in in that 
 section. 
 
 WILD GRASSES. 
 
 Perhaps no country in the world has become 
 more famous than Texas for its wild grasses, 
 which everywhere cover the untilled soil with 
 a sea of the greenest verdure. Of these there 
 are several kinds, the most noted of which are 
 the "mesquite" (pronounced "muskeet') and 
 the "gama." The mesquite is a native of 
 Middle and Western Texas, is very hardy, a 
 rapid growth, and but little affected by dry 
 weather. All kinds of stock are fond of it, 
 and it is very nutritious and fattening, There 
 are two kinds, the "bearded" and "curly," the 
 latter a short curly grass, as its name implies, 
 particularly adapted to sheep and horses. 
 The "gaina" grass delights in dry uplands, 
 and is found in its greatest glory west of the 
 Pecos River and along the upper Rio Grande. 
 These high, drouthy table-lands are covered 
 with a dense growth of "gama" which, al- 
 though it may be brown and sere in appear- 
 ance, is yet green and succulent near its roots 
 in the greatest drouths. Stock of all kinds 
 are exceedingly fond of it, and keep rolling 
 fat upon its succulent leaves even in the driest 
 and coldest winters. 
 
 But little attention has been paid yet in 
 Texas to the cultivated grasses, but many 
 kinds, especially the "Bermuda," do well, and 
 the time is not far distant when the thrifty 
 farmer will find it to his interest to aid nature 
 in this, as in her other desirable products. 
 TOBACCO CULTURE IN TEXAS. 
 
 Previous to the late war tobacco was culti- 
 vated with considerable -success in most of the 
 Southern States, and more especially in Vir- 
 ginia and the Carolinas, and yet a considerable 
 portion of the export supply, before and since 
 the war, has been produced in Connecticut, 
 Ohio, Indiana, and other Northern States, 
 where the climate and soil are far inferior in 
 the growth of that product to that of the 
 Southern States. 
 
 During the past few years, experiments of a 
 most satisfactory character in tobacco growing 
 have been made in many counties in" Texas. 
 These experiments have shown most conclu- 
 sively that the soil in many sections of this 
 State is most admirably adapted to the differ- 
 ent varieties of this staple. It is true that 
 these tests have been made chiefly in the cen- 
 tral counties of the State, yet it is the opinion 
 of experienced tobacco planters m other States, 
 that tobacco can be produced advantageously 
 in nearly every portion of the State, and that 
 Texas is destined in the immediate future to 
 become one of the largest and most excellent 
 tobacco producing States in the Union. There 
 are less dangers to the crop there from early 
 frosts than in Virginia, and the same is true, 
 when protracted droughts are taken into con- 
 sideration. 
 
 FLOWER CULTURE. 
 
 The cultivation of flowers in Texas can 
 
 hardly be called an industry, because they 
 come forth to bud and blossom, a3 the rain 
 comes to water the earth, and the sunlight 
 comes to gladden the morning, and the leaves 
 put forth to yield a grateful shade. It is 
 more of a recreation and pleasuie than an in- 
 dustry to cultivate the flowers in a climate 
 where there is perpetual bloom. Every 
 variety known to a tropical clime is there 
 grown, and the wondrous plumage of the 
 birds of South America has not more beau*;y 
 and combination of colors than the flowers of 
 Texas. They adorn the garden, the home 
 and the prairie, and are everywhere the cheer- 
 ful emblems of a cultured and refined civili- 
 zation. A State, therefore, that adds to its 
 magnificent crops of cotton, grain, vegetables; 
 its vast herds of cattle and horses, and flocks 
 of sheep, the fruits and flowers that enrich 
 and make happy its citizens, justly claims the 
 favorable attention of the world 
 FRUIT CULTURE. 
 
 The original Texans were badly demoral- 
 ized on the subject of fruit-growing, because 
 of the failure of so many untried varieties 
 which must necessarily have to pass the or- 
 deal of a new climate in reaching a success 
 f ul list. Now we plant with confidence many 
 varieties of apples, pears, peaches, plums, 
 grapes and small fruits. 
 
 As soon as experimental tests had settled 
 the orchardist down upon the three May ap- 
 ples, including the Red Astrachan, the Red 
 June and Earl}'^ Harvestf or the month of June ; 
 the Sweet Bough and Horse Apple for July; 
 the August Pippin for August: the Autumn 
 Strawberry for fall, and the Ben Davis and 
 Shockly for winter, we began to see that 
 Texas was an apple country. The foregoing 
 varieties all ripen well in our climate, with- 
 out rot-spot or tan, and are as well developed 
 and possess as fine flavor as if raised in higher 
 latitudes. These kinds are successful any- 
 where above latitude 30*^. 
 
 Pears grow well and bear well here. The 
 trees have been attacked by blight only twice 
 in our whole history. The Bartlett and 
 Duchess came to us so highly recommended 
 that it precludes experiments to a great de- 
 gree with other sorts. We believe there is a 
 better list of pears for Texas than these, al- 
 though the farmer and orchardist are suc- 
 ceeding well with these. 
 
 The peach is a perfect success, and when 
 shown in the markets or exhibitions of the 
 northwest, excites the wonder and admira- 
 tion of those who have always been accus- 
 tomed to the same varieties. As an evidence 
 that Texas possesses natural capabilities in 
 soil and climate for the perfect development 
 of the peach by her hundreds of seedlings, 
 which are overtopping the standard sorts in 
 size, flavor and excellence, a peach now called 
 Senator Reagan, decidedly the best peach 
 every way, in size, beauty and flavor, that 
 has yet been produced, was first grown in 
 Texas on the farm of the Hon. J. H. Reagan, 
 of Anderson count}', and we might point to 
 many remarkable products in the way of 
 peaches in our country, all grown from seed 
 
TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 selected from the fine varieties of the grafted 
 sorts. 
 
 Grapes of varieties which suit our climate, 
 and these only of the species ^Estivalis, are 
 successful and healthy. Some vineyards 
 have reached the age of twenty years, and 
 have not failed in producing good annual 
 crops during the time. 
 
 Grapes of the species ^stivalis are the best 
 American grapes for wines, according to re- 
 ports from highest authorities, and we have 
 at least a dozen kinds of them which suit our 
 country. 
 
 The Lenoir for our coast, tlie McKee for 
 the central territory, and the Herbemont for 
 northern Texas, liave pi-oved perfect successes 
 thus far. 
 
 All plums of the Chickasaw varieties yield 
 certain and profitable crops, and of these the 
 Brill, Wildgoose and Miner take the lead for 
 a succession, and never fail to bear, and are 
 but slightly affected by the curculio. 
 
 Blackberries and straw^berries — the latter, 
 of select varieties — give perfect satisfaction 
 and require no protection in the winter. 
 
 The former is a native fruit, and the intro- 
 duced finer varieties scarcely excel our na- 
 tives. 
 
 Raspberries are cultivated a great deal in 
 Middle, Eastern and Northern Texas. The 
 black-caps are best adapted to our climate. 
 
 We might add that apples, pears, peaches 
 and plums begin to ripen on the tree from the 
 6th to the 20th of May, and continue to ripen 
 to the 25th of November, and all this pro 
 tracted season is filled with abundant varie- 
 ties, so as to keep them all the time on the 
 table or on the way to market. 
 
 The fig attains its greatest perfection in the 
 south and southwestern portions of Texas. 
 No-w^here else is this fruit so luscious and so 
 tempting, the small purple fig fairly bursting 
 open when ripe with its own sweetness. In 
 its season it is a welcome addition to the 
 breakfast table, and at dinner it is not the 
 least attractive portion of the dessert, but no 
 attempt is made to utilize what is not thus 
 used, and the birds aad poultry generally 
 consume the surplus crop. There is no rea- 
 son why it should not be dried and become a 
 valuable article of consumption and export. 
 
 BEES AND HONEY. 
 
 Bees and honey are natural products of 
 Texas. Wild bees are found here in great 
 plenty, and they thrive well when domesti- 
 cated. But very little attention has been paid 
 to this industry, although we hear recently of 
 several instances where bee culture has been 
 very successfully carried on. Still it has not 
 been altogether neglected, for in nearly every 
 neighborhood a few swarms may be found, 
 whicli. however, are generally allowed to take 
 care of themselves. Some are placed in empty 
 barrels, with sticks across them; others in dis- 
 carded goods boxes; others in hollow trees 
 sawed off in sections. The Texas "bee house" 
 is generally a most primitive institution and a 
 "makeshift." They may be seen scattered 
 about promiscuously, in the fence-corners, 
 
 under shade trees, in front 3^ards, back yards, 
 gardens— anywhere about the premises. As 
 to the care which they receive, generally it 
 amounts to about this: they are hived where 
 they swarm, and robbed when the family re- 
 quires honey. 
 
 This business is extremely profitable in 
 many countries and certainly should be in 
 Texas, where flowers bloom every month and 
 during most of the year in the greatest pro- 
 fusion. It is a beautiful occupation, that of 
 rearing bees, and one that can be prosecuted, 
 on quite an extensive scale, with little or no 
 capital. Every family, even of renters, might 
 have a few stands of bees. It is a business in 
 which ladies may pleasantly and profitably en- 
 gage. 
 
 GARDEN VEGETABLES AND MELONS. 
 
 Almost all garden vegetables do well in 
 Texas, although her diversity of soil, climate, 
 etc., is so great that an intelligent adaptation 
 to the peculiarities of the locality must be 
 carefully studied by the successful cultivator. 
 
 Root vegetables grow particularly well and 
 finer potatoes, beets, parsnips, carrots, turnips, 
 radishes, onions, etc. , are not raised anywhere. 
 
 Of melons, both water and musk, we have a 
 greater variety, and they grow to absolute per- 
 fection. Watermelons attain to enormoys 
 proportions, and the cantaloupes of Texas are 
 unrivalled in flavor. Squashes and pumpkins 
 do well and are richly flavored, and no finer 
 tomatoes are grown. No finer beans and peas 
 can be grown than those produced here. 
 WILD FRUITS, NUTS AND BERRIES. 
 
 Texas is blessed with a reasonable share of 
 native products coming under this head, such 
 as plums, persimmons, grapes and black and 
 dew-berries. The "mustang" grape grows 
 everywhere in the river bottoms in great lux- 
 uriance, and from it an excellent quality of red 
 wine is frequently manufactured. The "post- 
 oak" grape, seems to be a modification of the 
 former, andis very plentiful on sandy uplands. 
 Blackberries are very abundant in the eastern 
 part of the State, and dew-berries in the middle 
 and western portions; both of these are too 
 well-known to require description. In Eastern 
 Texas the walnut and the hickory-nut are 
 common, while Middle, Northern, and parti- 
 cularly Western Texas, are the native home of 
 the "pecan," which here grows to its greatest 
 perfection, and which from its "toofhsome- 
 ness" has become famous all the world over 
 and Is yearly exported in large quantities. 
 Statistics on the yield and quantity of this nut 
 annually exported from the State have never 
 been collected, so far as we know, but it is safe 
 to estimate that the pecan tree, without any 
 cultivation, yields an annual revenue of not 
 less tan two million dollars. The nut sells 
 readily, even at points far removed in the in- 
 terior from railroad trausportatior, at from 
 $1.50 to $2.00 per bushel. We are not aware 
 that the tree has been cultivated to any extent, 
 but it is safe to predict that a handsome addi- 
 tion to the product of his farm could, in ten 
 years, be secured by any farmer in Western 
 Texas, who would plant and give a little at^ 
 
TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 27 
 
 tention to a small plantation of this valuable 
 nut. As an evidence of the value of the pecan 
 crop this season we clip the following para- 
 irraph from the Galveston Netns of November 
 5, lJ^80: 
 
 PAYETTE COUNTY. 
 
 "Mr. Dignowitz says, that not more than 
 one-fourth of the cotton produced in tlie vicin- 
 ity of La Grange has been picked. Colored 
 men have abandoned the cotton-fields, and 
 gone to gathering pecans, at which they real- 
 ize about twice as much money as they do 
 picking cotton. The demand for labor is very 
 great," 
 
 GRAPES, WILD AND DOMESTIC. 
 
 Texas is rich in wild grapes. There is no 
 portion of the State except the Staked Plain, 
 . in which they are not found in abundance. 
 Of these perhaps the most important is the 
 Mustang, from its great abundance, wide habi- 
 tat, and sterling wine-making properties. It 
 IS found in nearly every portion of the State, 
 in the valleys of the streams, climbing to the 
 tops of the tallest trees, and often extends out 
 into the forests away from the streams. It is, 
 we believe, confined exclusively to Texas, and 
 among botanists is classed as a vine with itself, 
 being distinct from all other classes of grapes. 
 It is the most vigorous grower of all and none 
 exceed it ia abundant bearing. We have seen 
 the vines sometimes so full of the ripe fruit, 
 that had the leaves been stripped off, they 
 would have presented almost the appearance 
 of a vast solid mass of grapes. The fruit is 
 dark purple or black, nearly half an inch in 
 diameter. The pulp is white or pearly in ap- 
 pearance They are not a table-grape, and re- 
 quire to be eaten with some care in order to 
 be palatable. There is an acrid juice between 
 the pulp and the skin, which when taken in 
 the mouth produces a disagreeable, somewhat 
 stinging and '"puckering" sensation. The skin 
 may be easily stripped off, leaving the pulp 
 still adhering to the stem; and as the acrid 
 juice goes with the skin, they may then be eaten 
 with relish. They are especially refreshing to 
 the traveller on horseback on a warm summer 
 day,, when he stops in the shade to rest, and 
 more likely to be esteemed by liim as a food-grape 
 than by anyone else. Their great merit is in 
 wine making. When well treated it makes a 
 robust wine of stout body, superior in* intoxi- 
 cating properties to any of the French clarets 
 with which we are acquainted. It has a de- 
 cidedly game flavor, and the lines of Long- 
 fekow are not inappropriate : 
 
 " The red Mnstang 
 
 Whoee clusters hang: 
 O'er the waves of the Colorado; 
 
 And the fiery flood 
 
 Of whose purple lilood 
 Has a dash of Spanish bravado." 
 
 Again it may be handled so as to make a 
 mild claret ; and we have tried some made by 
 Col. Ashbel Smith, of Harris county, which 
 had a remarkably rich flavor, distinguishing 
 it from all other wines. The Germans and 
 Bohemians of Western Texas make quanti- 
 ties of it, but mainly for their own use Very 
 little finds its way on the markets. We be- 
 lieve the wild Mustang — "cut throat" as it is 
 
 often called by the Texans — has a big future 
 in it as a wine grape. We want skilled wine- 
 makers to turn its good qualities to account. 
 It has no diseases, and its crops are certain at 
 all seasons. It may, no doubt, be much im- 
 proved by selection and cultivation, as we 
 have often noticed marked differences in the 
 quality of the grapes taken from different 
 vines, some being much better than others in 
 sweetness and juiciness. 
 
 Next in importance probably is the "post- 
 oak grape." It is classed by some botanists 
 as a variety of Vitzs Labrusca, by others as of 
 the Vitis ^divalis; but Dr. ' Buckley, of 
 Texas, considers it a distinct species, and h;is 
 named it Vitis Liucecumi, after Dr. Gid. Lin- 
 cecum, a well known Texas naturalist, now 
 dead. Dr. Buckley is probably right. It is 
 found in most of the post- oak regions in the 
 State, and is a good medium-sized grape, very- 
 palatable and good for wine. It has been do- 
 mesticated to some extent and shows great 
 improvement by cultivation. Dr. Yoakum 
 grows in his extensive nurseries at Larissa, 
 Cherokee county, a grape which he calls 
 " McKee's Ever-bearing," and which is mere- 
 ly the post-oak grape improved by cultiva- 
 tion. It has greatly increased in size, flavor 
 and juiciness, and is considered by him a 
 great acquisition. 
 
 The muscadine or ' ' buUace" is common in 
 Eastern Texas, and is the same as the grape 
 of that name found all over the Southern 
 States. 
 
 In the highland and mountainous districts, 
 the "mountain grape" grows abundantly. 
 Dr. Buckley classes it as a distinct species, 
 calling it Vitis Monticola, but others class it 
 with Vitis Supestris. It is a bluish grape, 
 about the size of buckshot, and covered with 
 a whitish "bloom," very sweet and altogether 
 excellent. It is a great bearer, and not being 
 much of a climber its large bunches are easily 
 gathered. This grape deserves cultivation, 
 which would no doubt add much to its al- 
 ready excellent qualities. It is full of juice 
 and makes a sprightly wine. 
 
 Winter grapes abound along the water- 
 courses of Western Texas, but are very small, 
 black and sour — as they are everywhere else 
 that we have seen them. Vitis Suprestes, very 
 much like the mountain grape, if it be not 
 the same, grows in the same localities. 
 
 Of the cultivated or domestic grapes the 
 Herbemont and Black Spanish are undoub- 
 tedly tke best so far. They are native South- 
 ern grapes of the Vitis .Af^stivalts. They com- 
 bine every excellence except that of size, being 
 about a half inch in diameter. They are 
 equally well adapted to the table and the 
 wine-maker, the Herbemont furnishing a light- 
 colored wine, and the Black Spanish a dark 
 colored. They grow luxuriantly and yield 
 large crops everywhere in Texas, and are sub- 
 ject to no diseases or damaging attack from 
 insects. In these two grapes the Texans have 
 a great gift indeed. The famous "Ei Paso" 
 grapes, from which the Mexicans on the Upper 
 Rio Grande make their celebrated wines and 
 brandies, are but the Herbemont and Black 
 
28 
 
 TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 Spanish under another name. The latter 
 grape no doubt derived the name by which it 
 is known in Texas, from its having apparently 
 been disseminated over the State from that 
 direction. How it happened to be largely cul- 
 tivated in that quarter lirst is one of the unex- 
 plained tilings, but it is probably due to the 
 enterprising Jesuit priests, who some two 
 centuries ago wandered all over the country 
 afoot, and often alone among the Indians. 
 These smgular and devoted people, all of them 
 scholars and naturalists, were quick to find 
 out the good things of nature and to utilize 
 them. They cultivated these grapes first on 
 the Rio Grande, because their nearest "mis- 
 sions" to Texas were first established there. 
 The Herbemont and Black Spanish differ only 
 in color, the first being light-skinned and the 
 latter dark-skinned. Perhaps there may be 
 also a slight advantage in the Herbemont in 
 size of fruit. 
 
 Many vineyards of these grapes are grown 
 in various parts of Texas, and all with entire 
 success. An intelligent German near Houston 
 devotes his entire time to this culture and 
 wine making, and the demand for his wine 
 is greater than he has yet been able to supply. 
 He receives large orders every j^ear for his 
 cuttings from France, and fills them at a re- 
 munerative figure. The French have found 
 out the excellence of the grape, and that, even 
 when transplanted into France, it resists the 
 attack of the destructive 'phylloxera. 
 
 The famous Scuppernong of North Carolina 
 does very well in all the eastern and southern 
 portions of the State east of the Colorado. It 
 is derived from the muscadine or hullace, 
 which is native here. Our horticulturists are 
 introducing it extensively, and it has not failed 
 to respond pleasantly to their efforts. The 
 fruit, we think, is hardly so good as it is on its 
 "native heath" in North Carolina; still it is 
 very sweet and juicy, and makes a good light 
 table wine. It would no doubt, from its 
 ample supply of saccharine matter, make a 
 good brandy. 
 
 The Labruscaus, or the Northern Fox 
 grapes, in their multitudinous varieties, have 
 not yet established themselves in Texas. Our 
 experience and observation are that many, per- 
 haps most of them, do finely for awhile ; they 
 deliver two or three excellent crops, but then 
 they are attacked by the phylloxera, or the 
 mildew or rot, and die. We believe that in 
 Eastern and Southeru Texas it is useless to 
 crow them. In Northern Texas there are many 
 who insist that the Concord especially has es- 
 tablished itself ; but we think it too early yet 
 to claim this. However, if the Northern Fox 
 grapes shall do well anywhere in Texas, it will 
 be in North Texas and the Panhandle. 
 
 And if it be thus with the Northern Fox 
 grapes in Texas, it will probably prove worse 
 with the European grapes, or VUis vinefera, 
 though there are many who, from these ex- 
 periments, express the utmost confidence in 
 the Black Hamburgh, the White Hungarian, 
 and the Golden Chassehis. Dr. M. Perl, of 
 Houston, has a fine vineyard near that city, 
 of the best foreign grapes, which i)roduced 
 
 luxuriant crops last summer — 1880, and he 
 believes they have come to stay, but we fear 
 his experience will be like that of others with 
 the Labruscans, and that he will soon aban- 
 don the foreign grapes for our "natives to 
 the manner born," which are not at all infer 
 ior to them in good qualiti(is. We hope it 
 may not be so. At all events, the enterprise 
 of horticulturists deserves commendation. 
 Most of those w^ho have attempted the culture 
 of the foreign grapes have already abandoned 
 them. If they will succeed anywhere in Tex- 
 as, it will probably be in the valley of the 
 upper Rio Grande. They succeed perfectly in 
 California, and the climate about El Paso is 
 much the Stvme as in that State. 
 
 The difliculty with the European, as with 
 the Labruscan, with us is the phylloxera. 
 This is a small insect like the curculio, but 
 much more destructive. It deposits its eggs 
 in the fruit of the grape, which then falls to 
 the ground. As soon as the grub hatches he 
 leaves the decaying grape, and by instinct 
 finds the root of the vine and buries himself 
 into it, sucking up the vitalizing juices, and 
 the vine dies. No successful remedy has 
 ever been applied to hir^a yet, although the 
 French scientists have done and are still do- 
 ing all in their power to circumvent and de- 
 stroy him. Our native grapes are not attacked 
 by this creature. Not a single instance has 
 ever been known of any of our native South 
 ern grapes being assailed. The reason is that 
 the bark of the roots, and perhaps the trunks 
 themselves, contain a sharply acrid juice 
 which repels and perhaps kills the phylloxera 
 at once„ If he makes the attack he abandons 
 it instantly. At least this is the explanation 
 given by our horticulturists, who are usually 
 practical men of fine intelligence, and no 
 doubt it is the true one. 
 
 And here follows an interesting suggestion, 
 and we hope it will be well considered by our 
 horticulturists. Since the phylloxera does 
 not, dare not, and cannot attack our native 
 Southern grape-vines, may it not prove en 
 tirely practicable to gfow the Northern and 
 European grapes by grafting them upon our 
 native stocks? Why not? It is easy to graft 
 the grape. Let the experiment be tried. It 
 may be that in this way we may naturalize in 
 our country all the choicest grapes of the 
 world. 
 
 We have seen the Herbemont and Black 
 Spanish grafted on the wild Mustang, and pro- 
 ducing just as luxuriantly as if grown upon 
 their own stocks. Major Rowan Green, of 
 Columbus, Colorado county, Texas, tried this 
 for amusement or experiment, and was aston- 
 ished at the success and the ease with which 
 it was accomplished. He has many such 
 vines growing in his yard in that town, offer- 
 ing their luscious fruits every summer at his 
 doors and windows. Any one can see this by 
 visiting his place. And if this can be done 
 with the Herbemont and Black Spanish on the 
 Mustang, why may it not be done with the 
 Labruscans and the foreign varieties? Indeed. 
 Dr. Grant, of the city of Austin, has one such 
 instance in his yard. Last spring (1880), for 
 
TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 experiment or amusement, he grafted a cutting 
 of the Malaga grape upon the wild Mustang, 
 and it has grown over a dozen feet the first 
 season. Perhaps next season it will bear 
 abundantly. Any one can see this who will 
 visit Dr. Grant's yard in Austin. 
 
 But whether such experiments may succeed 
 or fail, we are richly blessed with native grapes 
 in Texas. Perhaps no country is more so; 
 and nothing can be more certain that at some 
 day Texas will be a great producer of wines. 
 We lack nothing to secure this at once, except 
 plenty of people skilled in that industry. 
 
 Capt. John Pope, of the U. S. Army, in a 
 report to Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War, 
 in 1854, speaking of the Rio Grande valley 
 and the grapes, says : ' ' The most valuable 
 feature of the Rio Grande valley is its most 
 •wonderful adaptation to the culture of the 
 grape. It attains here a flavor and richness 
 unknown to any grape I have ever seen in the 
 United States, and is produced, when culti- 
 vated, in the most profuse abundance. An 
 examination of the character and climate of 
 this region exhibits a striking resemblance to 
 those of the south side of Madeira, and it is 
 much to be doubted whether this portion of 
 Texas is at all surpassed in the quality of its 
 grapes even by that favored island. There 
 are comparatively few vineyards in the coun- 
 try, but they produce most abundantly a de- 
 licious grape, and the wine, although very 
 rudely and imperfectly manufactured, and 
 drunk in the same year, and probably within 
 six months after fermentation, is of very fine 
 flavor and of several varieties. I am convinc- 
 ed that one of the most important elements of 
 the future wealth of this country is to be found 
 in its peculiar adaptedness to the manufacture 
 of wine, and it needs, but opportunity and 
 encouragement to confirm the truth of this 
 opinion." 
 
 The grapes which Capt. Pope found so de- 
 licious are the Black Spanish and Herbemont. 
 
 The following is translated from an article 
 in the San Antonio Free Press, whose editor, 
 Mr. Seimmering, is a connoisseur in wines: 
 
 " We would like to ask our farmers and 
 gardeners whether they ever saw in their lives 
 a failure of crop in grapes suitable to our cli- 
 mate ? We know we have frequent failures 
 with the peach and apple, and even the water- 
 mdon sometimes fails, but we never heard of 
 anything of the kind with the grapes. They 
 thrive in good and bad years, and every year 
 the vines are covered with grapes. But while 
 all this is true, the culture of the grape remains 
 a secondary work or mere plaything. So far 
 as we know it has only been practised by a 
 few in good earnest. 1 ne fact cannot be dis- 
 puted that the vines grow here on any soil. 
 One of our fellow-citizens, Mr. Woldert, who 
 lived in San Antonio before the war, but now 
 at Tyler, in Smith county, writes us his ex- 
 perience in the cultivation of the grape-vine, 
 and what he writes is interesting, because his 
 experience places it beyond doubt that Texas 
 cannot be surpassed in grape culture, and that 
 a variety of grapes will grow to perfection on 
 every soil in Texas, if they are only properly 
 
 treated. Mr. Woldert is a practical vintner, 
 which is attested by the fact that he has sent 
 us a dozen bottles of different kinds of wines 
 made by him, as a sample of his production. 
 If this wine were produced in quantities large 
 enough, we should have no further use for 
 imported wines, and could we produce so 
 much that w^e could export it, this branch of 
 industry would be as important to Texas as it 
 is to California. Perhaps some of our readers 
 will be astonished when we communicate what 
 Mr. Woldert has accomplished in grape cul- 
 ture and wine making, and how it has paid 
 him for his diligence. But, however wonder- 
 ful it may appear, it is nevertheless the truth, 
 and can be proved by the people of Smith 
 county. Mr. Woldert writes: 
 
 " The things I communicate are no castles 
 in the air, and if any doubt, they are politely 
 requested to come and take a view and con- 
 vince themselves. In the year 1860 I planted 
 two-year-old Herbemont roots. They are now 
 on stocks six to seven inches in diameter, and 
 have produced during sixteen years, full crops 
 regularly. I never had a failure of crop, and 
 never in Europe or anywhere else have I seen 
 vines so full of grapes as here. My trellises 
 were of uncommon strength, but they broke 
 down from the weight of the grape, and 1 had 
 to support them with forks. These vines can 
 be planted 12 x 13 feet apart, consequently 302 
 plants to the acre. Every vine will produce 
 at least six gallons of wine, which makes 1,812 
 gallons per acre. We will, however, consider 
 that this amount cannot be made by everyone, 
 and on all soils, and will take off one-third. 
 This leaves 1,208 to the acre, which may be 
 depended on under the most unfavorable cir- 
 cumstances. Is it not to be wondered at that 
 this industry has not been commenced long 
 before now and practised on a large scale here? 
 The only difficulty is the want of experienced 
 and skillful immigrants. We see in some of 
 our European papers that a ship loaded with 
 95,844 gallons of wine, worth $85,920, landed 
 lately in Bremen from California; and here 
 lie our vast number of acres idle, and on which 
 the same may be accomplished here as well as 
 there, if we only had the skilful hands to till 
 them and make the wine. 
 
 " The varieties of grapes cultivated by Mr. 
 Woldert are as loUows: The Scuppernong, 
 Herbemont, Catawba, Isabella and Concord. 
 From one vine of the Scuppernong, planted 
 in 1864, he made last year forty-eight gallons 
 of wine. He also makes a very drinkable 
 wine out of wild grapes. Consider this wine 
 worth only fifty cents per gallon ; here is $600 
 per acre, and how much more easy and inter 
 esting is a vineyard than a cotton field '" 
 
 I.IYE STOCK. 
 
 Next to the cultivation of the soil, the rear- 
 ing of live stock is the most important grand 
 division of the industries of the State. This 
 is to be expected, of course, from the richness 
 and abundance of the native grasses and the 
 wide ranges of free pasturage. Her vast 
 prairies, aoundant and luxuriant pasturage, 
 her springs and streams of clear and sparkling 
 
30 
 
 TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 water, and still more her uniform and de- 
 lightful climate, all combine to makr 1 exas 
 excel all other countries in this important in- 
 dustry. "When Die Slate was first pe( pled, 
 her prairies were found covered with enorm- 
 ous herds of bulfalo (l^ison), antelope, deer, 
 and wild horses, which under the intluence 
 of favorable natural environment liad increas- 
 ed to an astonishins: degree. The tiist set- 
 tlers were not slow to take advantage of 
 the capabilities of the country in this respect, 
 as indicated by nature, and fiom the earliest 
 times in Texas, the raising of live stock has 
 been one of the chief and most profitable in- 
 dustries. 
 
 CATTLE. 
 
 A few years since the horned stock of Tex- 
 as was confined to the native breed, and ran 
 wild upon the prairies with little more care 
 than the trouble of branding the calves. 
 Since then a great improvement has taken 
 place in the quality of the stock by mixing it 
 with the finer grades of imported breeds, and 
 this policy is not only found to work a valu- 
 able improvement in the stock itself, but adds 
 greatly to the already large profits of the in- 
 dustry by increasing the quality and price of 
 beeves that are now in so great demand in the 
 eastern markets, and for the new traffic of ex- 
 portation to Europe. 
 
 The rapid increase of population in the 
 State and the consequent enhanced value of 
 land, have to some extent interfered with the 
 operations of the old time "cattle men," 
 •who, perhaps without possessing an acre of 
 the soil, owned thousands of head of fat 
 cattle, and could boast of enormous wealth. 
 They have either been compelled of late years 
 to limit the increase of their stock b}^ free 
 sales, to buy and fence in large tracts of land, 
 or to move their stocks farther west. Even 
 where the latter alternative has been adopted, 
 many have concluded that in the march of 
 progress they will again be interfered with, 
 and are adopting the plan of leasing land in 
 large bodies from the railroad companies for 
 a term of years. By this means, at a small 
 expenditure of cash annually, they control 
 their own ranges, and are not likely to be in- 
 terfered with soon. The current price of 
 rental of these wild grazing lands is about 
 two cents per acre annually, or say $12.80 for 
 a section (one mile square). 
 
 It is not deemed worth while to encumber 
 this publication with individual instances of 
 successful cattle raising in Texas. They 
 could be counted by thousands, and some of 
 them upon a grand scale, like that of Captain 
 Kictiard King, of Santa Gertrudes, about 
 thirty-five miles southwest of Corpus Chrisli. 
 in Nueces county, who coming to this country 
 a poor cabin boy, something over twenty 
 years ago, is now the possessor of an enorm 
 0U8 estate, consisting partly of sixty thousand 
 acres of land under fence, about 50,000 
 horned cattle, 10,000 horses, 20,000 sheep, 
 8.000 goats, etc., etc. 
 
 The following tabulated statement showing 
 the increase from 100 cows, 2 bulls, and 100 
 
 calves, has stood the test of time, and we be- 
 lieve will be rather under than over the mark, 
 always assuming that the business is managed 
 industriously and with good judgment. 
 A TABLE 
 
 SHOWING THE INCREASE FROM 100 COMS. 2 BULLS, ANI>' 
 M) CALVES, FOR A TKRIOU OF TWELVE YEARS. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 t \t .un 
 
 
 o 
 
 O 
 
 
 an 
 > 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 100 
 
 — 
 
 H 
 
 H 
 
 ^ fe 
 
 
 100 
 
 
 
 1st Year 
 
 147 
 
 3 
 
 117 
 
 50 
 
 
 
 
 
 2d •' 
 
 204 
 
 5 
 
 163 
 
 57 
 
 50 
 
 
 
 
 3d " 
 
 284 
 
 8 
 
 227 
 
 81 
 
 87 
 
 50 
 
 
 
 4tli " 
 
 395 
 
 11 
 
 316 
 
 113 
 
 81 
 
 57 
 
 50 
 
 
 5th " 
 
 551' 
 
 14 
 
 440 
 
 158 
 
 113 
 
 81 
 
 57 
 
 50 
 
 6th " 
 
 7tt9 
 
 16 
 
 615 
 
 220 
 
 158 
 
 113 
 
 81 
 
 57 
 
 7th ^' 
 
 1,075 
 
 19 
 
 860 
 
 307 
 
 22(1 
 
 158 
 
 113 81 
 
 8ih " 
 
 1,497 
 
 27 
 
 1.197 
 
 430 
 
 307 
 
 220 
 
 158 113 
 
 9th " 
 
 2.0H5 
 
 37 
 
 1,668 
 
 598 
 
 430 
 
 307 
 
 220 158 
 
 10th " 
 
 2,9001 
 
 56 
 
 2.320 
 
 834 
 
 598 
 
 430 
 
 307 22l) 
 
 nth ♦' 
 
 4.083 
 
 78 
 
 3,-.i66 
 
 1,160 
 
 834 
 
 598 
 
 430 307 
 
 12th " 
 
 5,684 
 
 110 
 
 4,349 
 
 1,633 
 
 1,160 
 
 834 
 
 598 430 
 
 Let us examine the above table carefully, 
 and mark the result at the end of twelve 
 years. The stock would be as follows : 
 
 Milch cows..., 5,684 
 
 Build 110 
 
 Calves 4,349 
 
 Yearlings 1.663 
 
 Two years old . 1,160 
 
 Three years old 834 
 
 Four years old 598 
 
 14,368 
 
 Deduct 20 per cent, for casualties. . . 2,872 
 
 11,496 
 Deduct for strays , 1,496 
 
 10,000 
 Now supposing that you .should wish to 
 settle up the business and realize, mark the 
 results, notwithstanding ihe uncommon. de- 
 ductions I have made: 
 
 Sale of 50 five-year-old beeves at the end of the 
 
 5th year, at $10 $500 
 
 570 
 
 810 
 
 1,130 
 
 1,580 
 
 2,200 
 
 3,070 
 
 4,300 
 
 " 10,000 head of stock cattle at $5 50,000 
 
 $64,160 
 As regards imported cattle of the finer breeds. 
 Jerseys, Alderneys, Durhams, etc., there hav<i 
 been a varied experience in Texas, the general 
 opmion now being that the Durliams thrive 
 best. 
 
 G. W. Elliott, of Mountain View, in the San 
 Antonio E.vpreM, says of his experience with 
 imported cattle: " I arrived here Dec. 8, 1878, 
 with sixty-six head of Durham calves, from 
 five to seven mouths old I put them at once 
 upon my pasture of 1,500 acres, which 1 had 
 fenced several months previous, and had al 
 lowed no stock upon it. I fed them very 
 little — a small amount of wheat bran once a 
 day for a coujile of months. On that, with 
 the grass in the pasture, they went Ihrougii 
 tlie winter in very good condition; the only 
 trouble was the Spanish fever, which they alJ 
 
 57 
 
 6th 
 
 81 
 
 7th 
 
 113 
 
 8th 
 
 158 " 
 
 9th 
 
 220 
 
 10th 
 
 307 " 
 
 11th 
 
 430 
 
 12ih 
 
TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 31 
 
 bad sooner or later. I lost only six of the 
 heifers out of fifty-seven, whilst I lost eight 
 males out of nineteen head with that disease. 
 I can only account for the discrepancy in 
 number of deaths per sex in one way. The 
 heifers are frequently thrown in contact with 
 Texas cattle during the winter, by their being- 
 driven through the pasture the heifers occu- 
 pied, while tiie males were isolated, being in a 
 pasture to themselves. By the first of March 
 all the heifers had gone through the disease, 
 but none of the males had been attacked. In 
 March I changed my males, when they were 
 brought in contact with Texas stock, and in a 
 -short time all were sick, and I lost eight in a 
 few days. Now, as to the causes of death 
 among the Durham, Alderney, Jersey, or any 
 other breed that are brought into this country, 
 I feel confident, if there was no Spanish or 
 native cattle here, that we would have but a 
 very small death-rate from acclimation. I 
 bred in June and July, 1879, twenty of my 
 yearling heifers. Breeding them to the males 
 that 1 brought with me, which were only year- 
 olds past, the following spring I had twenty 
 calves come from those heifers, and every one 
 of them had disease at from fifteen to eighteen 
 days old. I lost five of the calves with it. 
 But I concluded to try it another season. So 
 I bred twenty again — some that had calves, 
 and some that had not been bred before. This 
 spring they all brought calves that were as 
 healthy and grew off as finely as I ever saw 
 them do anywhere, not one of them showing 
 any sign of trouble of any kind. They are 
 about six months old now. and I believe I 
 can show as good a lot of calves as you can 
 find in any cattle growing country from the 
 yearr-old cows, and with less expense than can 
 be found any wnere outside of Texas. I would, 
 therefore, advise those bringing stock from 
 other parts to this country, not to breed them 
 the first year. My cattle have not been housed 
 a day since I came — have been at liberty m my 
 pastures ever since here, and I find I have seen 
 they have grown and lived upon the native 
 ,grasses here just as well as in Missouri. I 
 liave fed them all $50 worth of feed since I 
 <.*ame. l^ast winter they went through the 
 winter on grass in the pasture alone, and were 
 in excellent condition this spring. I have lost 
 but one in two years, and that was a calf of 
 two months which died with blackleg. My 
 .stock are all Durham. I wean the calves at 
 .six months old, and continue to milk the cows 
 until a few weeks before calving again." 
 
 As showing the cost and profit of keeping 
 <3attle in Texas, the Henrietta Journal saya: 
 "The cost of keeping cattle is about $1.50 
 per head, or $1,500 per thou.sand. Four men, 
 witk twelve to sixteen horses, will tend a herd 
 of 1,500. The profits are as follows; Beeves 
 per head, cost $15; running expenses, $1.50; 
 sell at $22, with a profit of 32 per cent. Profit 
 on cov,^s costing $13.50 per head, cost of keep- 
 ing. $1.50 — $15, Increase of caives, 75 per 
 cent. ; worth $5 per head. Net profit 33 per 
 cent. On a mixed herd the beeves sold will 
 pay expenses, and the increase v/ill double it- 
 self in three years. A di^-count is made on a 
 
 herd of 10 per cent, for losses. 1 he profit on 
 a mixed herd is about 20 per cent. It says 
 there is a total of cattle in the Panhandle 
 country of about 129,000 head, and it is fair to 
 calculate that the increase this 3'ear from the 
 present herds will average not less than 50 
 per cent, of the entire number. This will 
 give 50,000 calves; the number that will start 
 this season from the Texas drive will be about 
 30,000 head, and from Colorado 20,000 head. 
 This will leave in the Panhandle for next 
 year's roundups, about 208,000 head, and yet 
 this does not begin to fill up the country, as 
 it is estimated that it will hold about a million 
 head. The present average prices for mixed 
 herds per head are: Texas stock, $13.50; do- 
 mestic stock, $15; beeves alone, $22."' 
 
 But it is needless to enlarge upon this head. 
 Texas and cattle raising, in the estimation of 
 the outside world, are almost synonymous 
 terms. There can be no failure, with ordin- 
 ary intelligence and industry, to the man who 
 has an inclination for the pursuit of this occu- 
 pation, and who will exercise ordinary judg 
 ment in the choice of a location. Horace 
 Greeley stated a literal truth when he said, 
 "It costs no more to raise a four-year-old 
 beef in Texas than it does a Jien in Massa- 
 chusetts." 
 
 SHEEP AND WOOL. 
 
 Next to cattle raising in value and impor- 
 tance in Texas, comes the w^ool-growing inter- 
 est. The growth of this industry in the last 
 decade, but more especially in the last five 
 years, has been extraordinary, and it is yet in 
 its infancy. In 1860 the United States census 
 showed Texas to contain 753,363 sheep. Ten 
 years later, in 1870, only 714,351, showing an 
 actual decrease, which was no doubt owing to 
 the war which raged for four years of that 
 period, and the unsettled state of affairs for 
 several years succeeding its cessation. 
 
 About 1870, however, commenced a re- 
 vival in wool growing. Until now Texas 
 stands second on the ILst of wool-producing 
 States, being only outstripped by California. 
 
 The Boston Commercial Bulletin (an excel- 
 lent authority) of recent date, ^ays: "The 
 United States census of 1880 will give statis- 
 tics of the number of shef^p in the whole 
 country, but will afford means of comparison 
 only with the same enumeration ten years 
 ago; special returns to the Bulletin give the 
 number of sheep in twelve States In 1879, 
 compared with the previous year aci follows: 
 
 Statks. 
 
 1879. 
 
 4,267.261 
 
 4„509,840 
 
 1,182.676 
 
 1,772,312 
 
 846.101 
 
 101,166 
 
 91)6.849 
 
 422, U2l) 
 
 194, .176 
 
 194.9.59 
 
 ;W 1.752 
 
 582.4(iS 
 
 59,331 
 
 1878. 
 
 Oliio 
 
 3,909.604 
 
 3.688.702 
 
 1.060,.=Sb« 
 
 1,670,790 
 
 89:10i6 
 
 189.907 
 
 916.771 
 
 410,.5.51 
 
 186.456 
 
 131,787 
 
 288,2-.'8 
 
 525,613 
 
 • .54,928 
 
 Texas 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 Illinois 
 
 Indiana 
 
 West Virginia 
 
 Miniiet^ota •... .... 
 
 
 Iowa , 
 
 Maasachusetts . 
 
 
 Totnl 
 
 Tncreasi; . . 
 
 15,344.311 
 1.417.369 
 
 13,926,942 
 
33 
 
 TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 The total increase in the twelve States men- 
 tioned (exclusive of Texas) will be seen to be 
 596.281. and in Texas alone 821,138. 
 
 These figures indicate the extraordinary 
 growth of "the industry in the State. And 
 yet the vast area of Texas, specially adapted 
 to sheep raising, has hardly been touched, 
 nnd its expansion and rapid growth is not 
 likely to be checked within the next fifty 
 years. 
 
 In treating this important subject, we can 
 hardly do better than to use the facts collected 
 by Mr. Joh» L. Hayes, secretary of the Na- 
 tional association of wool manufacturers, in 
 his valuable pamphlet entitled "Sheep Hus- 
 bandry in the South," published in 1878: — 
 
 The sheep husbandry of this State is so 
 distinct in its character, from that pursued or 
 feasible in the older States of the South, and 
 is of such high importance, that it demands a 
 separate consideration. The estimated num- 
 ber of sheep in this State, in January, 1878, 
 was 3,674.700. It ranks at present as the 
 third wool-producing State in the Union, 
 altliougli having but about a hundred thousand 
 head less than Oliio, which has 3,788,000, and 
 about half the number of California, which 
 has 6,561,000 head. 
 
 In its adaptation for sheep husbandry on a 
 large ftcale, Texas possesses decided advan- 
 tages over our other Southern States, en- 
 ormous ones over the Northern and Eastern 
 States, and many over California and the 
 trans-Missouri regions. The cheapness of 
 land; its natural fertility; its genial climate 
 and exemption from tempestuous weather, 
 except in the northers, wJoose severity is gener 
 ally much exaggerated; the absence of seasons 
 of continuous drouth, owing to the influence 
 of the Gulf before referred to ; the possession 
 of permanent winter grasses, making the pas- 
 turage perennial — are advantages which will 
 make Texas one of the great wool-producing 
 countries of the world. Dr. Randall said, in 
 1859, of regions of Texas which he had thor- 
 oughly studied : 
 
 "I do not entertain a particle of doubt that 
 wool can be raised more cheaply in those 
 regions than in any other portion of the globe, 
 where good government prevails to make life 
 tolerable and secure, and such property as 
 sheep, safe from frequent and extensive de- 
 predations. In no such portion are lands 
 furnishing perennial pasturage, or the use of 
 such lands, so cheap. In none are general 
 (iircumstances more favorable, the accidental 
 and occasional disadvantages so few." 
 
 Upon its annexation to the United States, in 
 1845, Texas retained, as the most valuable, 
 though then little appreciated relic of the 
 former Mexican proprietors, scattered here 
 and there, flocks of the so-called "native" 
 sheep of Mexico, of which large flocks still 
 abound in that country, and which still fur- 
 nishes an easy .supply of all that are needed. 
 This race, greatly deteriorated by neglect, 
 small in size, and bearing about two j)ounds 
 of coarse wool, is supposed by many to be de- 
 generated merinos. It is now well established 
 that they are descendants from the Chouvro 
 
 race of Spain, even at present distributed in 
 all parts of that kingdom — a race distmguished 
 for its robust temperament, the facility with 
 which it is nourished, and its resistance to 
 hunger and tempestuous seasons. When the 
 animals are properly fed and bred, they ma}- 
 be made to produce a long and very white, 
 though coarse wool, well adapted for carpets. 
 This is the stock which was the orginal foun- 
 dation of the present Texas flocks. " 
 
 We regret that, with all our efforts, we 
 have been unable to obtain condensed, origi- 
 nal statements in regard to the sheep husband- 
 ry of Texas, like those so kindly furnished 
 us by Mr. Peters and Colonel Watts in rela- 
 tion to Georgia and South Carolina. In their 
 absence, we must content ourselves with 
 giving extracts from the Texas correspondents 
 with the Department of Agriculture. Al- 
 though fragmentary in their character, they 
 will perhaps present a more exact picture of 
 the general sheep husbandry of the State than 
 could be given by more elaborate and better 
 arranged statements. 
 
 We give the extracts at hazard, and with- 
 out reference to the geographical position of 
 the counties, or their bearing upon any par- 
 ticular question in sheep husbandry. In or- 
 der to preserve tne piquancy of the state- 
 ments, the exact language of the correspon- 
 dents is given in all cases. The correspon- 
 aents, it will be remembered, are selected by 
 the department from the most intelligent agri- 
 culturists residing in the several counties. 
 
 A correspondent from Palo Pinto county 
 writes : 
 
 "A sheep-raiser for several years says: ' Say 
 for 1,000 head, it will cost $300 for herding; 
 extra help in lambing time, $30; salt, $15; 
 cost of shearing, $50; feed during winter, 
 $200. W^e imagine the Georgia Bureau of 
 Agriculture knows but little about large herds 
 of sheep, as they are grown on prairie grass. 
 They are accustomed to herds of from ten to 
 one hundred. Such flocks are not necessary 
 to be herded, and yield a fine profit. If we 
 make it a specialty, and put 500 to 1.000 in a 
 herd, which is common here, they will not 
 pay so well. The figures made on paper will 
 show them to pay belter than anything else. 
 But a very little experience show the figures 
 quite an error. Small herds here will pay 
 very well, and much better than large, when 
 they are so large as to require a herder." 
 
 Navarro County. — ' I have been engaged," 
 says the correspondent, " in sheep-raising for 
 fourteen years. In this and all the old settled 
 prairie counties, 300 to 400 sheep do well. 
 100 per cent, gross profit is a fair statement. 
 The profit diminishes 10 per cent, per 100 
 head, as you go over 100. My flock has 
 ranged from 300 to 1,000. I put up annually 
 100 pounds of prairie hay and one bushel of 
 cotton seed to the sheep, and have good shel- 
 ter provided." 
 
 Goliad County. — This correspondent, Hon. 
 Prior Lea, the writer has the pleasure of 
 knowing personally to be entitled to great 
 confidence. "Cost and profit of growing 
 wool may be estimated in two ways. Credit- 
 
TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 33 
 
 ing increase of sheep as equal to all cost, the 
 wool would be net profit; and this, at least, 
 is claimed by many persons. Without credit- 
 ing increase for more than enough to main 
 lain the Hock equal to its primitive condition, 
 a practical estimate for cost, considering every 
 kind of item, might be from 10 to 12 cents per 
 pound of unAvashed wool, averaging 17 cents 
 in market. This latter mode gives broad 
 margin for contingencies. " 
 
 Bandera County. — " Cost of keeping sheep, 
 about 25 cents per head; profit, 80 cents to 
 $1, exclusive of increase-" 
 
 Another, same county. — "One flock of 800 
 cost, for the shepherd and salt, $275; net 
 profit including wool and increase, 31 per 
 cent." 
 
 Aransas County. — " Cost of keep, 10 per 
 cent. ; profit, 50 to 60 per cent, on capital. 
 Mr. P's flock averages 50 per cent, of its total 
 value as profit. About 100,000 sheep in the 
 county, mostly improved merinos." 
 
 Burnet County. — "One-half in farms under 
 cultivation; all the rest a complete pasture. I 
 Sheep-raisers say this is the best county they 
 ever saw." 
 
 CaUahan County.— "F\ock of 2,000. Twen- 
 ty cents per head cost. Profit by w^ool, 40 
 cents per head." 
 
 Fort Bend County.— " 250,000 sheep could 
 be raised in this county. One-quarter in cul- 
 tivation. All the rest adapted for sheep pas- 
 ture, yet no sheep w^orth mentioning: all cattle 
 and cotton. At close of war, sheep-raising 
 began to decline, owing to depreciation of 
 price of wool. A reaction has now taken 
 place: extensive pastures are now being en- 
 closed; improved breeds are introduced." 
 
 Kendall Couniy.—"M.r. B. has 1,000 head 
 of sheep. Shears 5,000 pounds 'of wool; at 
 28 cents, $1,400; cost of keep, $325; profit. 
 $1,075." 
 
 Another ; same county. — " A successful 
 sheep-raiser says: 'I commenced with 220 
 ewes, three years ago, and have sold suflicient 
 of the flock to make an increase of 100 per 
 cent, per year average ; and the wool has av- 
 eraged for that time from 75 cents to $1 an- 
 nually." 
 
 Lamm County.— "Mr. S. B. M. has a flock 
 of 1,500 head, let out to a herder on shares; 
 and, therefore, furnishes a pretty fair sample 
 as to profits. He gives the herder one-qnarter 
 of the wool and one-quarter of the annual in- 
 crease, that is, the actual increase. He fur- 
 nishes the salt, sheep dip, etc. The herder 
 pays all other expenses, except shearing; and 
 pays one quarter of this amount. This makes 
 the yifeld to the owner— 
 
 For wool j8<X) 00 
 
 1 be increase of the flock will average 
 800 head; which, at $1.50 per lamb, 
 in spring, makes lambs Sl.iJOO 00 
 
 Deduct from this SI, -WO, 34 to herder, 300 00 
 
 which leaves 
 
 Irora this, tlie leading wool-producing county 
 in the State. 
 
 i One correspondent says: "Sheep husbandry 
 is the leading industry;^ and a higher degree 
 of intelligence is devoted to it than to any 
 
 , other enterprise in the county." 
 
 ! Another says: " I would estimate the cost 
 
 '' of keep and profits on the sheep (Spanish 
 merino) as follows: 
 
 1 f^^o-vear-old ewe cost $5.00. 
 Ur. 
 
 To interest, one year at 12 per cent $0 60 
 
 " cost of feed, lierding, salt, etc 1 00 
 
 ' ' Buck service 40 
 
 ''Insurance 10 
 
 " Shrinkage in value 70 
 
 Total . 
 
 82 80 
 
 By 5J^ lbs. of wool, at 20 cents $1 lO 
 
 '• 75 per cent, of lambs, at $4.00 3 00 
 
 Total $-1 10 
 
 Less cost of keep 2.80 
 
 Per cent, of profit, 25. 
 
 $1 30 
 
 900 00 
 
 Leaving a balance as net profit, on one 
 
 flock, of ... $1700 00 
 
 or about $1.13 per head on the entire flock.'"'' 
 
 Jfueces County.— There are several reports 
 
 "My own flock, now numbering 1,700, 
 started 460 in 1873 (merinos and C'otswold 
 grade), has paid above per cent, of profit, or 
 more." 
 
 ^ Another careful correspondent from the 
 county of Nueces says: "Rams have been im- 
 ported in large numbers. Improvement is al 
 ready far advanced. Flocks are sheltered 
 from Nov. 15th to Feb. 1st, by selecting their 
 range and night camp on the south side of 
 some creek or prairie timber. There is no 
 foot-rot. Semi-annual lambing is generally 
 adopted in this county ; the Februaiy or spring 
 crop being always the most preferable. One 
 set of ewes, lamb in the spring, and another 
 set in the fall. Those who shear the best and 
 most desirable clips of wool handle their sheep 
 <n moderately large flocks of 1,000 to 1,200 
 liead. Provision is only made for select sheep 
 — sucn as rams. Average weight of fleece, 
 live pounds. Average cost of keeping, 25 to 
 ^8 cents. Profit, 72 to 75 cents. Where dip- 
 ping has to be added, the general expenses 
 will be 3 to 4 cents per head. Good tobacco, 
 liberally used, invariably cures the scab; all 
 other preparations have failed in this county. 
 Profits on wool only given, as profits from in- 
 crease are rarely turned into cash. Ewe 
 lambs of high grade sell readily for $2.50 to 
 $4.00 per head. The cost of keeping, where 
 the shepherd cares for only 1,000 sheep, is 
 the cost given; where he cares for 1,500 to 
 2,000, as many do the year round, the real 
 cost is proportiouably less. " 
 
 The number of sheep in this county, ac- 
 cording to the returns of assessors, is 656,000; 
 and the remarkable fact is presented to us, 
 that very nearly the most southerly county of 
 the whole United States is the banner sheep 
 county of the Union. The adjoining county, 
 Starr, has 184,000 sheep. And these two 
 counties have more sheep than the four States 
 of the South— Georgia, South Carolina, Flor- 
 ida, and Louisiana together; or the conjoined 
 States of the North— New Hampshire, Ver 
 
34 
 
 TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 mont, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. 
 
 One of our own correspondents, certified to 
 as one of the oldest and best citizens of Texas, 
 writes us as follows: 
 
 "Waco, NicLellan Co., Texas, Jan. 12, 18'/8. 
 
 "Sir: — I have been directly or iudirectly 
 interested in the wool-growing, in this state aud 
 section, for many 3-ears. The country is rolling 
 prairie land; the soil, black-waxy, and, in sec- 
 tions, quite sandy, and an excellent grazing 
 country. The natural grasses are the sedge and 
 mesquite; of the latter, three varieties; the best, 
 the bearded variety. My flocks have been 
 French and Spanish merinos, mixed; the 
 average product of fleece being six pounds, at 
 an average valuation, for five years, of 25 cts. 
 per pound. This can be produced under 
 favorable circumstances for sixteen cents net 
 cost to the shepherd; but he should have not 
 less than the ten cents profit added, to make 
 a paying investment. If there is no change 
 in our duties, I am confident that there is no 
 more promising industry in the country than 
 wool-growing; but, if we are to have reduced 
 duties, or free wools, the occupation will have 
 to be abandoned. 
 
 "There is no objection to sheep from any 
 .section of the North or West, if free from 
 -disease. For the ordinary wools I would 
 prefer the merino; for mutton or combing 
 wools, a cross of the Cotswold with pure 
 blood merinos. The country is uniformly 
 liealthy for sheep here. In three months of 
 the winter, the sheep should have some feed; 
 say one-third of their consumption. I would 
 say that sixty-five cents a head would cover 
 €very possible contingency or cost in sheep 
 husbandry, per annum, in this section. As 
 I have said, if the farmers are to keep the 
 protection they now have against the pro- 
 r'ucers of foreign wools, there is no more 
 profitable industry that any one who will put 
 his attention to the business can be engaged in. 
 "Yours truly, "W. R. Kellum. 
 
 Another of our own correspondents writes 
 as follows : 
 
 "Houston, Texas, Jan. 9, 1878. 
 
 Dear Sir: — I have had long experience ii) 
 sheep husbandry in the San Joaquin and SantM 
 Barbara country, and also in Los Angeles, 
 •California, I know well Colonel Holiister, 
 Mr. Dibbles, of California, and other promi- 
 nent wool growers there, I was also for a 
 time in Utah; also, in Western Texas, which 
 1 regard as the best country for the industry 
 with which I am acquainted, if life and proper- 
 ty were only secure against Mexican depreda 
 tions. The climate, for man and beast, is 
 unrivalled; the feed, rich and unfailing all 
 the year round. No country I know of could 
 so well sustain the large flocks which, from 
 various causes, are being broken up in Cali- 
 fornia. 
 
 " In a parall(?l drawn north from Laredo to 
 the Indian Territory, there is the best location 
 foi- the industry, in iny judgment, in the 
 
 * Tlicre i8 no longer any complaint on this score. 
 l''iock.s on the Mexican border are now an safe as they 
 «re anywhere. The Mexican and Indian troubles are 
 ■'dead issues."— Ed. 
 
 country. But, until L'ncle Sam will protect 
 us there, the life of the shepherd and his flocks 
 are in constant jeopardy from tlie Mexicans.* 
 These thieves and marauders operate in a re- 
 gularly systematic way; being fitted out and 
 encoui'aged by the wealthy Mexicans living 
 on or near the border, who for years have 
 been at the bottom of all the border troubles, 
 from their desire for annexation to this coun- 
 try. Their purpose is constantly to provoke 
 a war, believing the result will be annexation, 
 when they will then have a stable govern- 
 ment, which they know they never will have 
 under any Mexican leader. . . 
 
 "There are other very fine fields for this in- 
 dustry near Corpus Christi, San Antonio, 
 north and south of Dallas; but the finest sec- 
 tion in this country, in my judgment, must re- 
 main idle, unless, as I have said, the govern- 
 ment will give protection. 
 
 "S. W. Pipkin." 
 
 Statements of Mr. Shaeffer. — After the abov^ 
 notes had been put in press, the writer en- 
 joyed the privilege of several personal inter- 
 views at Washington with Mr. ¥. W. Shaeffer, 
 of San Diago, Duval county, Texas, commend- 
 ed by members of the delegation in Congress 
 from Texas, as the highest authority on sheep- 
 growi^jg in that State. The following notes 
 which this gentleman permitted us to take at 
 these interviews, will serve to give a much 
 more exact idea of the present condition and 
 resources for sheep husbandry in Texas, than 
 the notes before given. 
 
 Our informant, born in Ohio, was early in 
 life engaged in mercantile persuits in the city 
 of New York. Finding them uncongenial, 
 he embarked in sheep husbandry in Texas, a- 
 bout the year 1857, settling in the higher re- 
 gion of the State, north of San Antonio. The 
 foundation of his flocks, which now number 
 15,000 head, was sheop purchased before the 
 war from a brother of General Beiurciiard, 
 supplemented since the war by 1,500 breeding- 
 ewes, obtained from the estates of G. W. Ken- 
 dall, identified with the introduction of im- 
 proved sheep husbandry in Texas 
 
 Finding the climate in the high region 
 where he was first established not as mild as 
 he desired, he purchased lands in the more 
 southerly regions of the Stale, about fifty 
 miles from Corpus Christi, in Nueces county, 
 obtaining gradually about 80,000 acres; the 
 whole of this great tract being enclosed in one 
 vast pasture by a wire fence, which cost up- 
 wards of $ 6,000. Here he found the climate 
 so mild that the sheep thrive absolutely with- 
 out shelter. He regards it as necessary only 
 to keep the sheep fat and in good condition. 
 to enable them to r(!sist without inconvenience 
 the cold wind and rain of that climate. Even 
 the shepherds have no shelter, except such as 
 they may make with iheir blankets; ;tnd no 
 moans of wa lining themselves, but a fire on 
 the open ground. Th(\v sufl:'er no inconveni- 
 ence, however, fron^ this exposure, jmuI are al- 
 ways on hand to take care of their sl.eep. 
 
 The sheei') in this district are. divided into 
 single flocks of from 1, lOOto l,30('in number; 
 
EXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 35 
 
 pounds to the bushel, instead of 82. Througa 
 its introduction the price of oats has been re- 
 duced from about 70 or 75 cents to 22 cents 
 It is sown in November, and fed during the 
 winter, which increases the crop of grain. 
 This variety would be admirably adapted a 
 the Georgia pine lands for a winter forage for 
 sheep. 
 
 Although the original slock upon which Mr. 
 Shaeffer's flocks w-ere engrafted was principal 
 ly the native Mexican sheep, improved b}' 
 merino bucks, the Mexican blood has been so 
 completely eradicated as to show no trace of 
 its exi.'^tence. The native Mexicans would 
 weigh scarcely more than fiom fifty to fifty 
 five j>ounds, gross weight, and produce fleeces 
 of poor wool, weigliTiig about four pounds. 
 The improved sheep of Mr. Shaeffer, average 
 for the whole flock seven pounds of ini washed 
 fine wool. His wethers — or "muttons," to 
 adopt the Texas term — will weigh, at four 
 years old, one hundred pounds, gross weight. 
 These sheep, whicii are of the best improved 
 American merino stock, make excellent mut- 
 ton. The mutton fed upon the mesquite grass 
 never has any of the rankuess or muttony flavor 
 peciiliar to those sheep at the North. A great 
 number are now sent from Nueces and other 
 counties in Texas to St. Louis and Chicago, 
 where they bring good prices. They reach 
 these markets before the Western sheep are 
 sheared and ready for the butcher; and they 
 form an important source of supply for these 
 markets in the spring, coming in like the 
 Southern vegetables to our Northern markets. 
 A notice has recently been published of tlie 
 loading of ten double-decked cars carrying 
 160 animals each, with sheep, at San Antonio, 
 destined for the Chicago market, at a distance 
 of 1,500 miles. One flock of three-year old 
 wethers was sold by Mr. Shaeffer for $3 a 
 head, to a party who pastured them for two 
 years m Texas, receiving their wool for this 
 iperiod; and who sent them to market in New 
 Orleans, at five years old, where their fatness 
 and the excellence of their meat was the sub- 
 ject of general comment. Mr. Webster used 
 Although the grass may be apparently diy j often to say, at his dinner table, that he never 
 during a drouth, after a rain it becomes; per -i knew the secret of maknig ijood mutton until 
 
 usually about 1,100, this being about the num 
 ber which can be advantageously kept togeth- 
 er under the care of one shepherd. The ew es, 
 with their lambs, are kept separate from the 
 dry ewes and the wethers — or mvttons as they 
 are generally called. A thousand or eleven 
 hundred sheep will "herd" or keep nearly to- 
 gether* within a space which the shepherd 
 can easily move around. When driven out on 
 the range from the camping-ground, they are 
 kept constantly moving for a mile or two ; the 
 shepherd continually moving around the flock, 
 which is guided by his voice. They snatch their 
 bites of grass as they go slowly along. They re- 
 turn in the sam'e way, slowly feeding, to the 
 camping ground, generally selected on the 
 southerly side of some creek, or under the 
 shelter of the prairie-timber. In rainy or cold 
 weather the sheep travel much more briskly 
 than in warm. In very hot, dry weather, 
 they often- will not feed by d'ty, making up 
 for it by feeding late in the night Thorough- 
 bred shepherd dogs have been hired, but have 
 been found useless, except to relieve lazy 
 ^shepherds, who can do the necessary guiding- 
 much better than the dog. The flocks, how- 
 ever, are usually attended by cur dpgs, which 
 are useful for frightening away wild animals. 
 These curs, having been suckled when young 
 upon goats, continue to attach themselves to 
 the flock. The shepherd dogs were discard- 
 ed, because it was found that, when they 
 drove the sheep, they caused them to huddle 
 together, thus making a great loss of feeding 
 time. It is of the first importance to keep the 
 animal fat. Its fat condition not only makes 
 t'je fibre strong, but enables the sheep to re- 
 sist the storms and cold. If sheep are fat, 
 they are also better able to endure occasional 
 drouths. All the sustenance in the country 
 in question is supplied by the natural pastur- 
 age, which consists of different varieties of 
 the mesquite grass. A great superiority of 
 'chesi' grasses over the annual grasses of Cali- 
 fornia consists in their being perennial, and 
 having long and stout roots, which cannot be 
 pulled up by the sheep, nor trodden down. 
 
 fectly green in a week or ten days. The ram; 
 it may be observed, except when they range 
 with the ewes, are confined in enclosen pas- 
 tures. They receive in winter extra forage; 
 either cotton-seed (which is considered more 
 nourishing than grain), or, more generally, 
 oats. A new variety of oats has recently been 
 grown in Texas, called the "Anti-rust." This 
 variety has been known to produce as high as 
 one hundred bushels to the acre, weighing 37 
 
 * Mr. Shaeffer gives a satisfactory rea.son for the fact, 
 often stated without explanation, that the English races 
 
 he visited England, where he found that it 
 was age, the best mutton being five years old. 
 While the sheep increase but "little In weight 
 after the third year, the meat constantly in\- 
 proves in quality. It may be readily seen 
 how easy it is to' obtain good mutton where 
 the food' costs absolutely nothing, and almost 
 the only cost of keeping the sheep till full 
 maturity, is the interest of the capital, whil<> 
 the sheep are all the time producing tlierr 
 semi-annual returns of wool. 
 
 'The flocks in this country are kept up by 
 
 of sheep, the Cotswolds, Leicesters, etc., cannot be kept ! ^he constant purchase of regenerators. Thes« 
 111 large docks. The reason he gives is, that the Cots- ., r-ii';f'd in New York Vermoni 
 
 vvold-^vil! not 'herd" or keep together, like the merinos. ^^'*^. "^5^? .'^'^"^^ ^iH^^,^,^" ^^^^ ^",' 2 V !V 
 
 1 toget 
 While feeding, they invariably scatter over a wide do 
 main. A Cotswold, if tired, will lie down, and cannot 
 he driven up by the shepherd; and. when it recovers, is 
 liMble to wander off and join another flock. Mr. Shaef- 
 fer thinks that the Colswold blood should never be in- 
 troduced into large flocks of merino sheep. V^'ithout 
 greater care in breeding than the ordinary flocking-mas- 
 
 and Ohio, by .skilled breeders, who find thi.s 
 much more profitable than growing large 
 numbers of sheep for wool or muttoh. A 
 very large number of Northern rams are soltt 
 in Texas. Mr. Shaeffer has himself purcha>- 
 ter can exercise, they will make the wool of the flocks | ^1^ ^'l^ ^^O at the North, nj^ny of them from 
 uneven, and ultimately ruin them. 1 I>i". Kandall. I here are at piesent five hiai- 
 
36 
 
 TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 dred rams in Corpus Cbristi, all which will be 
 sold at prices ranging from $30 to $50, aiul 
 very choice animals for $100. The Texas 
 sheep husbandry is thus the means of keeping 
 up the most profitable branch of sheep culture 
 at the North— a branch which may be carried 
 on upon the highest-priced lands. The high- 
 priced rams are kept in Texas two or three 
 years, and sold at a less price to persons com- 
 mencing the sheep business with but little 
 capital. 
 
 "It had been the custom for the Texan 
 flock-masters to sell the high-bred rams pro- 
 duced from their own flocks only at the high 
 prices demanded by the Northern breeders. 
 Mr. Shaeffer early saw that he could benefit 
 his country better, and do as well for himself, 
 by changing this system. He found that the 
 young men of his country going into the sheep 
 "business could not pay these high prices and 
 make a living. He therefore reduced the 
 prices of the high-bred rams which he had 
 raised in Texas to from five to ten dollars, and 
 sold a great many more by so doing. This 
 had the effect of greatly extending the im- 
 provement of the flocks in the country. An- 
 other step taken by him w^as important for the 
 development of the country in the direction 
 of sheep-growing. Mr. Shaeffer found that 
 contests were constantly occurring between 
 the cattle-herders and the shepherds. He 
 therefore began gradually to purchase all the 
 lands he required; his example was follov/ed 
 l)y others; and, at present, the greater part of 
 the land in the sheep-region is held in freehold 
 by the respective flock-masters. 
 
 " There has now been so long and extensive 
 an experience in this country as to reduce the 
 methods of the peculiar pastoral sheep-bus- 
 bandry to a well-established system, wiiicli is 
 so simple that it may be easily learned by any 
 intelligent person. The plant required for the 
 business, except the first stock of ewes and 
 rams, is exceedingly small. No buildings are 
 required, if we except the covered platform 
 for shearing. A rude camp is all that is neces- 
 sary for the flock-master, and a wagon with a 
 pair of horses for his supplies; of course he 
 will have a saddle horse. The well-arranged 
 ranche- is an alter luxury, to be earned by the 
 profits of the enterprise. The aim is to have 
 flocks of at least 1,000 or 1,100 head, for each 
 of v.'hich one shepherd — invariably a native 
 Mexican, called a pastore — is required. It is 
 desirable that the proprietor should have at 
 least three flocks of this number. The sepa- 
 rate flocks, each with its shepherd, are so lo- 
 cated that they can be brought at night to a 
 central camp, where the bamerro, or sheep- 
 overseer, also a native Mexican, is established. 
 This overseer is necessary, in all cases, to re- 
 lieve the shepherds in case of accident, and to 
 cook their rations. The haccierros, as a class, 
 are remarkable for their fidelity. The impedi- 
 menta of the camp, if they may be called by 
 this name, consi.st only of tlie rudest cooking- 
 utensils, and tiie stores of provisions, no shel- 
 Icr being required, and the bed of the shep- 
 licrd being a sheepskin. The food or rations 
 of the shepherd are corn for tortillas, or some- 
 
 times, flour, coffee and fresh meat, no pork or 
 bacon being used. The fresh meat is almost 
 invariably "supplied by goats, which are pas- 
 tured with the sheep for this purpose. They 
 cost about a dollar a head. Their flesh is ex- 
 cellent, and preferred by the Mexicans to any 
 other. The quantity of goat's meat which the 
 pastore will consume is enormous; the con- 
 sumption being about one goat a week to the 
 shepherd. 
 
 "The shearing seasons are the busiest times 
 for the Texan flock-master, not only on ac- 
 count of the number of extra hands to be over- 
 looked, but because upon the care exercised 
 at these periods in culling, depends the future 
 character of the flocks; and the tying up of 
 the wool nicely is important for its sale. The 
 shearings take place twice a year. The spring 
 shearing commences about April 15th, and the 
 fall shearing about September 15th. The 
 shearings continue from three to four wrecks, 
 according to the weather. The practice of two 
 shearings a year has been adopted, from the 
 experience that it is most advantageous for 
 the warm climate of Texas. It has been a 
 mooted question, whether there is more profit 
 in shearing twice a year than once. By shear- 
 ing twice, the wool, of course, is shorter; is 
 fitted for only one purpose — that of clothing, 
 and brings a less price per pound. The 
 high prices of wools for combing purposes, 
 for which many of the improved v/ools of 
 Texas, if suffered to grow to their full length, 
 are well adapted, is lost ; and there is the ad- 
 ditional expense of the extra shearing. But, 
 on the other hand, the sheep sheared twice a 
 year are healthier, and keep fatter; and the 
 shearing checks the scab, if there is any ten- 
 dency to this disease. The flock-master gets 
 the money for his wool twice a year, instead 
 of once; an important consideration where the 
 least rate of interest is one per cent, a month. 
 The double shearing is especially advantage- 
 ous to the lambs. By giving them their first 
 shearing in August, to be repeated in the next 
 spring, their health, and grow^th are greatly 
 promoted, and, consequently, the general in- 
 crease of the flock. Mr. Shaeffer believes it 
 would be advantageous to shear the Za?«i« twice, 
 even at the North. Seeing the lambs in the 
 flock of an eminent breeder in Missouri fail- 
 ing, Mr. Schaeffer recommended immediate 
 shearing. The advice was followed and all 
 were saved ; one of these lambs, (a ram) when 
 grown, was afterwards sold for $150. 
 
 The shearing in Texas is all performed by 
 Mexicans, from both sides of the river Rio 
 Grande; many coming in, for this purpose, 
 even from as far as Monterey. They shear 
 by the head ; the usual price being about $3.50 
 per hundred for fine sheep. The shearers 
 average about thirty head a day. The shear- 
 ing is performed on a floor or platform, espe- 
 cially constructed for this purpose. The most 
 careful flock-masters have this floor protected 
 by a roof. The barn floors of the North, it must 
 be remembered, are not known in Texas. 
 In shearing, the Mexicans tie down the sheep 
 upon the floor, usually about ten at a time. 
 This time the flock-master improves for ex- 
 
TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 amining iiis sheep and the character of their 
 tleeces. He selects those which are to be 
 culled out on account of age or defects of 
 fleece, or those which are to be preserved for 
 special uses in breeding; makes the proper 
 marks upon the animals, duly entering them 
 \ipon his sheep-book. The wool from the 
 spring shearing is tied up in fleeces; the fall 
 shearing, being light, is put in sacks without 
 being tied. The packing the wool in sacks, 
 although it cannot be dispensed with, is con- 
 sidered disadvantageous to the grower of the 
 wools, as wool from inferior fleeces, or an 
 inferior part of the body, is liable to be mixed 
 with better wool, and to prejudice the whole 
 lot to the buyer. It is believed that a profit- 
 able enterprise, and one very advantageous to 
 the Texan growers, would be the establish- 
 ment in that country of extensive wool -scour- 
 ing establishments, like those in Belgium and 
 France, ' The facility of obtaining scoured 
 wool would be advantageous to manufacturers 
 with small capital and establishments, and in 
 saving of freight. The sheep in Texas, it 
 must be observed, are never washed. The 
 water is calcareous; and perhaps contains iron, 
 because it makes the wool black. 
 
 Even with the rich pastures of Texas, it is 
 deemed desirable to have at least two acres to 
 every sheep. It is of the first importance 
 that the range should not be overstocked. A 
 much larger range is required than in regular, 
 enclosed pastures, over which the sheep 
 scatter as soon as they are driven to them, while 
 in the open range, under the care of the 
 herder, much of the grass is trodden down by 
 the sheep passing from one point to another 
 in compact flocks, from their sleeping grounds. 
 The proportion of bucks required for the 
 ewes is larger than in the North, as the bucks 
 run with the ewes on the range about five 
 weeks. Three bucks are required for every 
 hundred ewes. The main lambing takes 
 place from February 20th to April 1st. It is 
 an interesting observation in regard to lamb- 
 ing, that it is attended with much less danger 
 and difliculty where the sheep live in the 
 natural state of wild animals, than under a 
 more artificial system. This applies also to 
 the general health of the animals. During the 
 lambing season, in the evening or next morn- 
 ing, after the flock of ewes, with the lambs 
 dropped during the day — say from fifty to 
 one hundred — are driven into the camping- 
 ground, the ewes with the newly dropped 
 lambs are separated from the flock, and 
 suffered to rest until the middle of the day, 
 near the camping-ground. The next day they 
 are moved to another camp-ground, to give 
 place to those which come on that day; the 
 last comers to join those which came on the 
 previous day. This continues until a flock 
 of about 500 ewes and 500 lambs is made up, 
 which is kept separate. It is not safe to 
 calculate, one year with another, that the 
 number of lambs raised will be more than 
 eighty per cent, of the ewes. 
 
 All the ewes which lose their lambs from 
 any cause are turned in with bucks, by the 
 first of June, to lamb in November. 
 
 j Our informant has but little faith in esti" 
 
 I mates of profits, as the circumstances vary so 
 
 I much in the situation of the establishment, 
 
 I and the personal and economical habits of 
 
 the flock-master. He has consented, however, 
 
 to make a statement of the necessary expenses 
 
 and results, with one flock of 1,100 sheep, in 
 
 one year. 
 
 EXPENSES. 
 
 Shepherds and wages at $11 per month and rations $250.00 
 
 Shearing and sundry expenses at shearing-time 77.00 
 
 Dipping for scab, four cents per head 44.00 
 
 Sheep dip for worms 5.00 
 
 Extra labor 20.00 
 
 $396.00 
 Salt is not required near the coast or with mesquite grass. 
 
 RECEIPTS. 
 1,100 sheep, at 5 lbs. per head, equals 5,500 lbs. wool, 
 at 20 cents per poxrnd 20 
 
 Cash receipts $l,100.0e $1,100.00 
 
 80 per cent, increase, 880 head at $3.00 2,640.00 
 
 Less expenses $396.00 
 
 Interest on $5,000 at 12 per cent 600.00 
 
 Rent of place 100.00 
 
 $3,740.00 
 
 $1,096.00 
 
 $2,644.00 
 
 In this Statement, the expenses of the over- 
 seer are not included. One is required in all 
 cases; but one will suffice for three or four 
 flocks. It is best to start with 1,600 head of 
 ewes ; because after lambing they can be 
 divided into three flocks of ewes with their 
 lambs, with an expense of but one baccierro 
 and one camp, and three shepherds. At the 
 end of five months, the lambs are weaned and 
 taken from their mothers. Then, until the 
 next lambing time, which will take place in 
 the succeeding March, the sheep can be well 
 cared for by only two shepherds and one 
 overseer, the ewes being in one flock and the 
 lambs in another. 
 
 The procedure and increase may be illus- 
 trated as follows : 
 
 We will suppose the new flock-master commences 
 
 October, 1876, with ewes 1,600 
 
 March, 1877, the ewes produce 80 per cent, of lambs 1,280 
 
 September, 1877, weans the lambs ; places them in one 
 
 nock, and the ewes in another, making only two flocks. 
 
 March. 1878, there are ewes 1,600 
 
 March, 1878, there are yearlings; one-half ewes, and the 
 
 other half wethers 1,280 
 
 March. 1878, there are lambs as 1877 1,280 
 
 Making 4 flocks: 3 of ewes and lambs, and 1 of yearlings.. 4,160 
 
 October, 1878, there are breeding ewes 1,600 
 
 " " " young ewes 640 
 
 Total to go to ram in October 2,240 
 
 March, 1879, there are wethers, two-years-old 640 
 
 " " " yearlings (ewes and weth^s) 1,280 
 
 " " " breeding ewes 2,240 
 
 '• " lambs 2,240 
 
 October, 1879, there are breeding ewes 2,240 
 
 " " " yearling ewes 640 
 
 Making number of ewes to go to ram 2,880 
 
 March, 1880, there are breeding ewes 2,880 
 
 lambs 2,880 
 
 " " " wethers, three years old 640 
 
 " " " " two " 640 
 
 " " " yearlings, ewes, and wethers 2,240 
 
 Total number, March, 1880 9,280 
 
 Advice to Immigrants. — The adventurer from 
 a distance, seeking to invest in sheep husban- 
 dry in Texas, is advised to proceed directly 
 either to Corpus Christi or San Antonio, from 
 each of which points he can make observa- 
 tions with convenience, and obtain informa- 
 tion as to desirable locations. He should 
 spend three or four months looking around 
 
8S 
 
 TEXAS. HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 for a range. The ewes may be carried from 
 the West or bought in Texas. Mexican ewes 
 can be purchased at 75 cents per head, and 
 improved sheep for from $1.00 to $4.00. 
 Texas-raised rams can be bought for $10, and 
 imported rams for from $30 to $50. It would 
 T)e more safe to rent a tract of land, which he 
 can probably obtain at a very cheap rate — say 
 $100 per year for enough land to feed two 
 flocks of sheep of 1,100 each. As he may not 
 like the business or the locality, it would be 
 more prudent, at first, not to purchase a range. 
 If he is willing to incur greater risks, to se- 
 cure the proprietorship of an extensive range 
 at a moderate price, he may go higher into the 
 country, where the land belongs to the State. 
 A 640 -acre certificate of State land can be 
 bought for about $640, or a certificate of the 
 alternate lands granted to railroads as low as 
 $100.* Generally, the expense to secure a 
 patent, including certificate and cost of sur- 
 veying, would amount to about fifty cents to 
 tlie acre. As two acres are required for a 
 sheep, it will be seen, from the statement of 
 increase before given, that the command of a 
 Aery broad range is required to make the in- 
 crease available; and that, with such a com- 
 mand, there are chances for very large profits. 
 The adventurer, if he has a family, should place 
 them in some of the towns or villages most 
 convenient to his range. His personal pre- 
 sence on his range will be indispensable for 
 his success, and he will find ample occupa- 
 tion. But he can safely trust the Mexican 
 baccierros, when making occasional visits to 
 his family. 
 
 The advantages of Texas for sheep-growing 
 are now attracting persons of experience in 
 Australia, and English and Scotch emigrants 
 with capital. Besides our informant with his 
 15,000 sheep, there are others in Nueces and 
 Duval counties with flocks of ten to twenty 
 thousand head; The Callahan flocks, in Starr 
 county — the proprietor living at Laredo — num- 
 ber 60,000 head. When we see how rapid 
 the increase is, and that there are 80,000,000 
 acres of land still unlocated in Texas, we can 
 see that, if there is no legislation to disturb 
 the wool business of the country, and the 
 Mexican and the Indian depredations are 
 checked, it will not be many years before 
 Texas will rival Australia. Mr. Shaeffer states, 
 as an illustration of the rapidity with which 
 sheep husbandry is advancing in this State, 
 that in 1876 San Antonio received but 600,000 
 pounds of wool, which is sent through Gal- 
 veston. In 1877 she received 2,000,000 pounds. 
 The wool of Nueces and neighboring counties 
 is shipped from Corpus Christi. In 1866 there 
 were shipped only 600,000 pounds. This year 
 there will be shipped 6,500,000 pounds. 
 
 The following statement, illustrative of the 
 profits which may be derived from sheep- 
 growing in Texas, was made to us by Colonel 
 John S Ford, a State senator, and formerly a 
 member of the Congress of Texas, before an- 
 nexation. We give it exactly in the language 
 of Col. Ford, as noted by us and subsequently 
 read to him : 
 
 * Now about half that sura. 
 
 " Dr. Thomas" Kearney, formerly collector 
 of customs of the port of Corpus Christi, and 
 Major James Carr, made, in 1870 or 1873, an 
 investment of $5,000 in sheep husbandry ; 
 bought ranch and buildings about sixty miles 
 northwest from Laredo, Webb county, Texa^. 
 — the land about 13,000 acres, and the sheep 
 well improved. At the end of five years Dr. 
 Kearney sold out his mterest to Carr — that is. 
 one-half interest for $20,000. In August, 1877. 
 Carr refused a $60,000 offer, which he had 
 from William Yotaus, for his sheep ranch with 
 the sheep; the exact facts being that Votaus 
 offered $30,000 in cash, and one of the best 
 improved places on the San Antonio River, 
 which had cost him about $60,000." 
 
 Mr. Shaeffer says that Carr ought to have 
 taken the offer. 
 
 To Texas, more than any other State, do the 
 textile manufacturers of the North look for the 
 supply of their mills. No other State is mak- 
 ing such rapid progress in population, produc- 
 tion and wealth. With an area which exceeds 
 that of the German Empire by about sixty 
 thousand miles: with a capacity to produce 
 almost all the products of the temperate zone ; 
 with sugar lands on the Southern border which 
 could yield double the quantity of sugar and 
 molasses required for our whole consumption, 
 Texas is above all pre-eminent for its resources 
 in textile material. On less than one-half of 
 one per cent, of its area, it produced, in 1875. 
 one-half of all the cotton consumed in the 
 IJnited States, and four per cent, of its area 
 would be capable of producing all the cotton 
 now consumed in Europe and the United 
 States — over six million bales.* Add to thi^ 
 its capacity for wool production, and we have 
 a State without parallel in the extent of its 
 natural resources. 
 
 On the first of January, 1878, the number 
 of sheep were as follows, according to the 
 Department of Agriculture : — 
 
 NUMBER OF SHEEP IN SOUTHERN STATES, 
 JANUARY, 1878. 
 
 States. No. of Sheep. 
 
 Delaware 35,000 
 
 Maryland 151,800 
 
 Virginia 422,000 
 
 North Carolina 490,000 
 
 South Carolina 175,000 
 
 Georgia 382,300 
 
 Florida 56,500 
 
 Alabama 270,000 
 
 Miesisbippi 250,00() 
 
 Lonieiana 125,000 
 
 Texas 3,674,700 
 
 Arkansas 285,000 
 
 Tennessee 850,000 
 
 West Virginia 549,9t)0 
 
 Kentucky 900,000 
 
 Missouri 1,271.000 
 
 Total 9,887,600 
 
 * Report of Mr. Edward Atkinson, on cotton, at the 
 International Exhibition. 
 
TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES 
 
 39 
 
 NUMBER OF SHEEP IN NORTHERN AND 
 WESTERN STATES, JAN. 1878. 
 
 States. No. of Slieep. 
 
 Maine 525,800 
 
 New Hampshire :i39,900 
 
 Vermout 461,400 
 
 Mas>^achusett8 «0,:j00 
 
 Rhode Island 24,500 
 
 Connecticut 92,500 
 
 New York 1,518,100 
 
 NewJ«rsey 128.300 
 
 Pennsylvania I,607,b00 i 
 
 Ohio 3,783,000 I 
 
 Michigan 1.750,000 I 
 
 Indiana 1,092,700 
 
 Illinois 1,258,500 
 
 Wisconsin 1,323,700 I 
 
 Minnesota 300,000 
 
 Iowa. 560,000 ! 
 
 Kani-as 156,000 i 
 
 Nebraska 62,400 [ 
 
 California 6,561,000 
 
 Oregon 1 ,074,600 
 
 Nevada 72.000 
 
 Colorado 600,000 
 
 The Territories 2,600,000 
 
 Total 
 
 .25,852,300 
 
 As example is better than precept, we give 
 wme examples of fortunes made in Texas in 
 ihe sheep business. The following is from 
 Che Galveston News, special edition for Sep- 
 tember 1, 1880: 
 
 •'It may please those of your readers inter- 
 ested in sheep matters, to learn a few facts 
 about the Las Moras rancho, in Menard 
 county, started on a comparatively extensive 
 scale three or four years ago, by Mr. C, a 
 French capitalist. 
 
 ' ' After an examination of the frontier, he 
 pitched upon the waters of the upper San 
 Saba as offering rare advantages for range 
 iind water. He at once, by judicious pur- 
 < liases, secured valuable water privileges, and 
 moved some six thousand sheep, including 
 some forty-live hundred ewes, up there, built 
 large and substantial buildings, farms and 
 })astures, and gave the business the closest 
 ultention. 
 
 The result demonstrates the advantages of 
 Western Texas for this fast growing industry; 
 and .shows what pluck and intelligence, com- 
 bined with capital, can in a short time achieve. 
 
 "After grading up his original stock with 
 the greatest care, he now has some 15,000 sheep, 
 including .some 400 lambs, all in the finest 
 condition, while his clip for this spring runs 
 over 50,000 pounds, and ranks among the very 
 finest in the State for quality. 
 
 "It is rumored that he is so much encour- 
 aged that he has secured the co-operation of 
 active gentlemen and capital, both in this 
 State and abroad, with a view of extending 
 the business and adding cattle-raising to it. 
 
 "With a few more such men among us, 
 Texas will, in a few years, astonish the world 
 by the magnitude of her slieep interests, as 
 she has already done with her cattle and 
 cotton. 
 
 "The above is but one of many hundreds of 
 similar instances in Texas that might be cited. 
 In three or four 3'ears Mr. C.'s flocks have 
 increased 250 per cent., and probably much 
 more than that in value per head, through 
 grading up. JI<' is, therefore, prolcibly about 
 
 500 per cent, better off than he was when he 
 
 started the business, three or four years ago. 
 When it is considered how rapidly sheep in- 
 crease, and that the cost of keeping them in 
 Texas is next to nothing, outside of the hire 
 of herders, such results are not surprisino-. 
 There is no business in which fortunes may be 
 more certainly or rapidly made, and all West 
 Texas has many living proofs of it. During 
 the late war the writer's nearest neighbor, in a 
 West Texas county, was a sheepman, who 
 owned a flock of a thousand head at the 
 beginning of the war, and nothing else what- 
 ever, except a horse or two. He had not a 
 foot of land, or a house to cover his head, but 
 rented a small tract with a shanty on it. 
 There was no accessible market for his wool 
 in those days, so he was compelled to keep 
 his clips on hand. He was very hard up, and 
 waxed very ragged; but what with wild 
 venison, wild turkey and wild trout, with an 
 occasional wether and plenty of corn bread, 
 he managed to keep himself fat and healthy. 
 When the war closed he had his clips of five 
 years, and in the meantime his flocks had in- 
 creased to some nine thousand head. He 
 waked up one morning and found himself 
 rolling in wealth. He sold his fine wool at 
 a high figure, put on broadcloth and silks, 
 visited the cities, turned fool, concluded that 
 he had mistaken his business, sold his fin(! 
 flocks at a high figure, started life afresh as a 
 big merchant in a big city, and in a short time 
 ' busted ' — busted all to pieces, without a 
 copper left to him in the world. Truly the 
 fool and his sheep are easily parted. 
 
 "Another one of the writer's neighbors 
 grew into sudden wealth in the same way. 
 But he did not turn fool and turn merchant. 
 He held on to his sheep, and died a short time 
 ago a very rich man, owning a large real estate. 
 The sheep, under his excellent management, 
 did it all for him. 
 
 "But this business, like any other, requires 
 very close attention to turn out these fine 
 results. Without this sort of attention, close 
 and intelligent, there is no money it. 
 
 "N. A. T." 
 
 The News of a later date has the following 
 from a San Antonio correspondent : 
 
 "Mr. L. McKenzie, born and raised in 
 Texas, and now thirty-five years old, began 
 the sheep business in Maverick county, Aua. 
 1, 1875. He had |740, for which he bought 
 500 head of Mexican ewes. He immediately 
 procured the best merino bucks attainable, 
 and commenced grading his flock. His first 
 year's yield of wool was 1,000 pounds, pure 
 Mexican, for which he received IS^^c. per 
 pound, or $125. This, of course, was not 
 enough to keep his herder, but he liad credit 
 and was economical. In his second year lie 
 had a large number of half-breed sheep, and 
 an increased quantity of wool of an improved 
 quality. This has been continued to the pre 
 sent time, during which he has maintained a 
 family and schooled four children. He has 
 just disposed of his fall clip in this city, and 
 the following is the result of five j'ears in the 
 sheep business: 
 
40 
 
 TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 " Last spring Mr. McKenzie sold his wool 
 at 2i%c. per pound, amounting to $1,560, 
 and the sale of his fall clip just made, which 
 amounted to more wool, brought only 2('3^c, 
 per pound, and netted $1,287. A short time 
 ago he sold 1,000 old ewes, muttons, etc., 
 at $1.50 per head, aggregatmg $1,500. Total 
 amount of wool sold in 1880, $4,347; includ- 
 ing the sheep, $5,847. 
 
 *' During these live years Mr. McKenzie, by 
 close attention to his herds, and always on the 
 alert to take advantage of any trade or busi- 
 ness transaction that presented itself, has ac- 
 cumulated property as follows, and on which 
 he does not owe a dollar: Rancho of 2,560 
 acres of fine land on Palo Blanco, Zavalla 
 county, house, pens, etc., valued at $4,840; 
 3,300 improved sheep at $2, $6,600; 400 head 
 of cattle at $10, $4,000; ten head saddle horses 
 and saddles at $25, $250; 500 goats at $1.50, 
 $750 ; making a grand total as the result of 
 five years' business, adding this year's sales, 
 of $20,787. 
 
 "He has now ten men in his employ, all of 
 whom are Mexicans. His sheep-herders he 
 pays $12 per month, gives them a bushel of 
 corn meal, two goats for meat, 50 cents worth 
 each of sugar and coffee, and 25 cents worth 
 of salt per month. This, a blanket, a sheath- 
 knife, probably an antique gun, a faithful dog 
 for watching, not herding, is the simple-heart- 
 ed Mexican pastora's (shepherd's) outfit. He 
 has no tent or hut, and sleeps with the sheep 
 wherever night overtakes him. Over every 
 three or four pastures is a corporal or overseer, 
 who is required to keep track of the herders' j 
 whereabouts, and see that their wants are sup- 
 plied. There is usually an overseer of the en- 
 tire rancho, who, next to the proprietor, has 
 charge of the business of the rancho. These 
 pastoras are usually very faithful, and are pre- 
 ferred by those who have become accustomed 
 to them to any other nationality. Mr. Mc- 
 Kenzie tells of a man, about forty years old, 
 who has worked for him over four years, and 
 who declares that he will stay with him al- 
 ways. He has been born and raised at the 
 business, and never got more than five dollars 
 per month till he came to Texas and worked 
 for McKenzie. The old man gets a furlough 
 of a few days every six months, when he goes 
 to Eagle Pass, spends all the money due him 
 and what he can get advanced, amounting to 
 about six months' wages, in drinking, gam- 
 bling and having lots of fun, according to his 
 idea of the thing, and then returns to his flock 
 perfectly contented for the next six months. 
 Last year, with the assistance of his faithful 
 dog, he killed over 100 wild-cats and panthers. 
 Herding with these men is a life-time occuj)a- 
 tion; tiie}^ have no hope or wish to do or at- 
 tain anything better, and they acquire a won- 
 derful proficiency. Mr. McKenzie says that 
 the man Pancho, referred to, has the wonder- 
 ful faculty of knowing every sheep in his 
 fiock. Last spring, when his goats had kids, 
 he had to stake out each kid for several days, 
 because they will not follow the dam when 
 very young. He had thus over 150 kids tied 
 to stakes, and when tlu; hot sun came out he 
 
 untied each one of them, carried them to the 
 shade in the sheds, and in the evening return- 
 ed each to its proper stake. This feat was 
 witnessed by Mr. McKenzie, who knew that 
 each kid was at its proper place, because the 
 mother does not only know its young, but re 
 turns to the stake where it was left, and not 
 finding its own offspring refuses to accept a 
 substitute. Not a single instance of refusal 
 occurred; the old Mexican had properly re 
 turned each kid to its stake. 
 
 "Probably few men in West Texas can 
 show a better record than M^ McKenzie, and 
 while not every man has his good fortune, in 
 the five years he never having met a single 
 disas';er, still the sheep business now offers 
 greater attractions than any other in Texas. 
 The opportunities are not all gone, and, in 
 fact, sheep hubandry in Texas is only in its 
 infancy. Many improvements have been in- 
 troduced within the past two or three years, 
 and there is room for many more. Lands are 
 plenty yet, and all it needs is a thorough 
 knowledge of the business and close atten- 
 tion. "Hans Miokle." 
 
 We cannot better conclude this article (al 
 ready extended) than by the reproduction of 
 the following letter from Mr. H. J. Chamber 
 lin, of Bell county (Central), Texas, a man of 
 great experience and success in sheep culture 
 in his section, where more attention is paid to 
 the improvement of the flocks by judicious 
 breeding and careful handling than on the 
 western or southwestern frontier. 
 
 {From Burke's Texas Almanac, 1880.) 
 
 ' ' In again attempting to furnish an article 
 for the Texas Almanac on the subject of wool 
 growing, I am made to look back over a 
 period of nineteen years, when I first engag- 
 ed in this vocation on Texas soil. Then a 
 few stationary herds, mostly of the Mexican 
 stock, made up the sum total of a seemingl}'^ 
 insignificant business. Texas is now regard 
 ed as the second largest wool-growing State 
 in the Union, having nearly or about four 
 millions of sheep, and perhaps before another 
 issue of the Almanac, Texas will rank first in 
 the production of this great staple in the 
 world. 
 
 " Not only has it been proven that Texas is 
 to lead in the quantity of sheep and wool 
 grown, but also in the raising of superior 
 thorough-bred animals, possessing individual 
 merit, surpassing any on the face of the globe 
 for weight of fleece and other desirable 
 qualities. 
 
 "The haphazard, slipshod, penny-wise 
 and-pound-foolish methods of raising sheej) 
 in Texas have yielded to skillful breeders of 
 the very best animals and producers of wool, 
 who know to a certainty that their flocks, 
 bred to thoroughbred stock, possessing re 
 quisite wool growing qualities and vigor of 
 constitution, are to them more valuable than 
 mines of gold, and the care of them as pleas- 
 ant and healthy as any vocation they could 
 undertake. 
 
 "About all of the popular breeds of sheej) 
 known are successfully grown in Texas. The 
 nature of the large, long-woolled breeds, to 
 
TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 41 
 
 gether with the great distance from our 
 mutton markets, has caused them to be but 
 little grown. Some persons have been 
 prejudiced against Merinos by the use of, or 
 attempt to breed, sheep brought into the State 
 and called thoroughbred animals, that were 
 bad grades, not possessing either constitution 
 or other merits ; also, by the purchase of stock 
 in such a pampered condition, that they were 
 better adapted for quiet security in a box, 
 carefully fed, than for use or profit. It is no 
 wonder that sensible persons become disgusted 
 with such stock. The Spanish Merino, or as 
 we generally term them, American Merinos, 
 on account of the great changes wrought upon 
 them since they were imported from Spain to 
 America, some seventy years ago, can be 
 grown in large herds; they are easily con- 
 trolled, excel any sheep in the production of 
 wool, and make very good mutton; hence, 
 they are most grown on Texas ranches. 
 
 "The improved condition of the wool 
 market has given a new impetus to the sheep- 
 growing business. Some men, of course, in 
 their zeal to acquire a fortune without labor 
 or much time, will rush into this business and 
 make a shipwreck of it. 
 
 "During last winter a great many sheep 
 died, and in some instances nearly whole 
 flocks were lost. These sheep generally be- 
 longed to adventurers, above referred to ; were 
 in charge of men not having experience or 
 practical judgment, or, perhaps, had been 
 driven long distances and went into winter in 
 very bad condition. In no instance did I 
 learn of any serious loss among stock well 
 herded, and supplied with such necessary 
 things as are possessed by almost every flock- 
 master. In Central Texas, although the grass 
 cropped from the prairies by the sheep will 
 .sustain them tolerably well, yet experience 
 has taught me that a little grain or cotton seed, 
 principally fed during December and January, 
 is an expense doubly repaid by an increased 
 .jimount of wool, and more valuable lambs the 
 following spring. 
 
 "Abundance of good sheep-grazing lands 
 •can be had convenient to the long lines of 
 railroad that cross and intersect our State, 
 near communities having good society, with 
 -church and school privileges, at from two to 
 five dollars per acre; and further out, in new 
 counticB and aistant from towns, good ranch 
 land can be had in quantities as low as fifty 
 •cents per acre. 
 
 ' ' Upon these millions of acres of unoccupied 
 Hands, nowhere surpassed for stock-raising 
 purposes, we give a welcome hand to all 
 honest emigrants, whether they come to 
 ■invest their capital, or 'by their strong arms 
 <ild us in the development of our great Lone 
 ^tar State, and assure to them the peaceable 
 •enjoyment of ail the good things their capital 
 or labor may procure. 
 
 "■ Bell County, Texas, September 26. 1879." 
 GOATS. 
 
 Many persons believe that there is even a 
 larger profit in raising goats than sheep in 
 Texas. Certain it is, that in everv section, 
 
 but particularly in the west and southwest, 
 this useful little animal thrives and prospers 
 amazingly. Where the horse, the cow, or 
 the sheep will starve, he finds his choicest 
 food, picking from barren hillside or drouthy 
 plain the thorny leaf of the prickly pear, or 
 cropping with apparent satisfaction and com- 
 fort the scantiest herbage. 
 
 To the sheep-raiser in the West, the goat is 
 indispensable, as he furnishes meat to the 
 Mexican herders, who prefer "goat's flesh" 
 to anything else. And a small flock for that 
 purpose is generally kept along with the herd 
 of sheep. None, so far as we know.have devo 
 ted themselves exclusively to goat-raising ii) 
 Texas, but those who have tried it, on anything 
 like an extensive scale, say it pays very hand- 
 somely. A gentleman at Brackett, in Kinney 
 county, told the writer but a short time since, 
 that his flock of about 2,500 goats, which he 
 had been managing several years, had netted 
 him forty per cent, per annum on the invest- 
 ment. 
 
 Whether goat-raising as a business be profit- 
 able or not, nearly every farmer will find a 
 small flock a valuable addition to the economy 
 and pleasure of his living. A beef or a hog 
 cannot always be safely killed, for fear of 
 losing the meat, but the smallest familj'^ can 
 dispose of a kid, and there is nothing better 
 for the table. 
 
 THE ANGORA GOAT. 
 
 In 1849 eight head of these goats were 
 brought to Austin, Texas, by Mr. R. William- 
 son, agent of a Tennesse company. They 
 were then known as the Cashmere Shawl 
 Goat. With these, and the occasional import - 
 tation of others, the goat has become generally 
 distributed through Texas. There is a fine 
 flock at Leon Springs, Bexar Co. 
 
 In October, 1875, Mr. J. W. Dunn, of 
 Corpus Christi, imported a small flock pur- 
 chased from Col. Robert W. Scott, of Frank- 
 fort, Kentucky. After four years' experience, 
 Mr. Dunn says: "I find them to be both 
 healthy and hardy — standing our wet northers 
 better than the common goat. The males 
 will shear about five pounds and the females 
 about three and a-half pounds each. My last 
 spring clip was sold to Messrs. Kitching 
 Brothers, of New York, for seventy cents per 
 pound, for the entire lot. And this, when 
 the best Texas improved wool from sheep 
 sold at eighteen cents. The goat is nearly 
 omnivorous, eatmg almost every shrub, and 
 can live with but little grass. There are in 
 Texas millions of acres of rough, hilly country, 
 admirably adapted to range for goats, and 
 where nothing else could be made to live. 
 The goat is naturally a hardy animal, and free 
 from the diseases so destructive to flocks of 
 sheep. The Angora is a success in California, 
 and, from my experience, I have no hesitation 
 in saying they can be made as profitable in 
 Texas as in California, or even Natalia, their 
 native Asiatic home." 
 
 HORSES AND MULES. 
 
 That Texas is well adapted to the raising 
 of horses and iiiulcs, as well as cattle and 
 
42 
 
 TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 sheep, is amply proved by the fact that, upon 
 the first settlement of the country by Ameri- 
 cans, and for thirty years thereafter, there 
 were more or less wild horses or " mustangs" 
 in all sections, and in the unsettled portions 
 tliey were numbered by hundreds of thousands. 
 The wild horse of Texas sprang from escaped 
 gentle stock, first introduced by the Spaniards 
 in their conquest of Mexico, of which Texas 
 was then an integral part. They were the true 
 Andalusian horse, with more or less Arabic 
 blood, and as beautiful specimens of that 
 noble animal as could be found in the world. 
 
 Our present stock of horses in Texas are 
 grades upon the "mustang" (mostly half- 
 breeds), but with the exception of a little gain 
 in size, improvement in temper and tractability, 
 have no great advantage over the original stock. 
 These half-breeds average about fourteen 
 hands in height, bat are very strong, active 
 and enduring. A good one will carry a man 
 upon his back day after day, from forty to 
 titty miles, and live on grass. Their qualities 
 as saddle animals are unsurpassed, and for the 
 purpose that they are mostly used (driving 
 cattle) they are better adapted than thorough- 
 breds. A Texas pony will carry his rider, in 
 a wild chase after cattle, day after day, with 
 nothing but the prairie grass to subsist on. 
 These ponies are worth from fifteen to fifty 
 dollars, according to size and quality. The 
 average price for a broi?^en animal would 
 probably be thirty dollars. The cost of 
 raising them is but little more than the cost of 
 raising a "beef steer," perhaps no more. 
 They live upon "the range," and only require 
 a little looking after, and an occasional salting 
 to keep them gentle. 
 
 Of late years, however, much attention has 
 been paid to the improvement of horses and 
 mules, and at any of the country fairs first 
 rate specimens of the Texas-bred racer or the 
 trotter can be seen. 
 
 The Texas mule is generally small, but 
 toagh and wiry, and capable of immense 
 endurance. Like his half brother, the "cow- 
 pony," he is admirably adapted to the country 
 and its demands. The price of good, broken 
 Spanish mules, as they are called, will range 
 from forty to seventy dollars. It costs no 
 more to raise them than it does the "cow- 
 pony." 
 
 HOGS. 
 
 Texas is peculiarly adapted to raising hogs, 
 and the success attending this business is 
 leading to a large annual increase. The 
 greater portion of Eastern Texas is well 
 timbered with oak and nut-bearing trees, 
 which furnish abundant food for hogs,, while 
 the large extent of post-oak timber and the 
 "river bottoms" of Central and Southern 
 Texas, supply enormous quantities of the 
 "porker's" favorite food, acorns and pecans. 
 
 Very few men have made the raising of 
 hogs a special business, or acquired wealth at 
 it, for the reason that until very recently we 
 have not had railroad or other facilities for 
 gettmg live hogs to market, and the climate 
 of Texas is loo warm to make the saving of 
 pork on a large scale a certainty. Farnu'i-.s 
 
 can always save meat for their own use and an 
 much for sale, but they must have everything 
 in readiness, so that when a "norther" comes, 
 they can commence killing at once, and make 
 the slaughter " quick and lively," so that the 
 animal heat may be thoroughly expelled 
 before warm weather sets in again. 
 
 The " northers " in the autum are but of 
 short duration, but in January and February 
 they extend sometimes over a period of severa; 
 days, and the watchful farmer will have 
 several opportunities to slaughter with safety 
 as many animals as he is likely to take care of 
 or desire. 
 
 The best range for hogs is open post-oaks, 
 and near a river bottona, where there is an 
 ample supply of pecan trees. This furnishes 
 them an abundance of grass in summer, and 
 nuts and acorns during fall and winter. Hogfe 
 left to themselves soon get wild, and to make 
 the business pay they must either be confined 
 in pastures, or some one must go among them 
 every day or two, aqd call them together, 
 feeding a little corn. A very little will sufiice 
 to keep them gentle. 
 
 Considerable attention has lately been paid 
 to the improvement of the stock, and the 
 "Berkshire," " Chester White" a*jd " Poland 
 China," and other choice breeds are rapidly 
 taking the place of the lank Texas "razor- 
 back." 
 
 With the railroad facilities now at hand for 
 shipping live hogs, considering the cheapness 
 of rearing them, no better opening presents 
 itself to the man of moderate means, than a 
 "hog ranche " in a proper locality. 
 POULTRY. 
 
 Domestic fowls of all kinds do well in 
 Texas, and require but little care or attention. 
 The main thing is to provide an abun(tant 
 range, fresh, clean water, and allow them to 
 live out of doors and roost in the trees. 
 Under these favorable conditions domestic 
 fowls "increase, multiply aud replenish the 
 earth," in Texas, with amazing rapidity. 
 
 GAME AND FISH. 
 
 Texas has long been noted for the vast 
 number and varieties of its game — from the 
 noble buffalo (bison) to the smallest of the 
 feathered tribe. Nowhere else on the Ameri- 
 can continent can the eager sportsman spend 
 his time more pleasantly, whether his favorite 
 weapon be the rifle ©r the shot-gun. Of 
 course liere, as elsewhere, the larger game 
 animals have receded before the march of 
 civilization, but there are still enough left to 
 satisfy the most exacting. 
 
 Among the principal game animals we have 
 the buffalo, big horn (rare), bear, antelope, 
 deer (two varieties), cougar, wild-cat. wolf 
 (three varieties), sqrurrel (three varieties), rac- 
 coon, opossum, rabbit (three varieties), prairie 
 dog, havalina (Mexican hog or "peccary"), 
 and others of les.ser importacce. 
 
 The buffalo {Biao/t, Americatius) is still quite 
 plentiful on the extreme northwestern fron- 
 tier, but he is rapidly disappearing before the 
 destructive Jong-range rifles of the cow-boy 
 and the lumter. Wlien they are known to be 
 
TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 4a 
 
 "down," hunting parties are organized at all 
 the frontier posts, and the work of destruc- 
 tion goes remorselessly on. The buffalo hun- 
 ter lives on the "range" and follows the poor 
 beast with untiring activity, his object being 
 only to secure the hide and tongue. Thou- 
 sands are thus slaughtered every winter. 
 
 The buffalo ranges from the " Panhandle" 
 of Texas to the Pecos River, but is rarely 
 seen west of that stream. 
 
 The black bear ( UrsuM Americanus) is found 
 all over the State wherever the covert is suffi- 
 cient. He is very plentiful among the rugged 
 hills of the west, where the "bear-grass," his 
 favorite food, is abundant. This he tears up, 
 devouring the soft, pulpy mass of which its 
 root consists. 
 
 The big-horn, or Rocky Mountain sheep, 
 has been observed in but one locality, viz. : 
 the Guadalupe Mountains, on the southern 
 boundary of New Mexico. 
 
 Antelope are found everywhere on the west- 
 ern prairies, remote from the thickly settled 
 districts. They go in herds of from ten to 
 five hundred, and are extremely difficult to 
 approach. They are gifted, however, with a 
 most inordinate curiosity, and can frequently 
 be enticed within gun-shot by the concealed 
 hunter throwing up his hat or waving a hand- 
 kerchief. 
 
 Of deer we have the "black-tail" (C. Macea- 
 tis), and the common Virginia deer {G. Vir- 
 ginianus). The first named is not found east 
 of the Pecos River, and not in very great 
 numbers anywhere. They frequent the high, 
 bald mountain ranges, and usually go in small 
 herds. The "Black-tail" is somewhat larger 
 than the common deer. Long and prominent 
 ears and a small black tuft of hair on the tail 
 are its distinguishing features. The Virginia 
 or common red deer is too well known to re- 
 quire any particular description. He is scat- 
 tered all over the State and in many sections 
 is very abundant. On the coast prairies, large 
 herds' of them may still be seen from the win- 
 dows of the passing railwa}'^ carriage. Here, 
 in former years, before the scream of the iron 
 horse startled these peaceful plains, was his 
 favorite feeding ground. The writer remem- 
 bers, on one occasion, twenty-five years ago, 
 on the extensive prairie bordering the coast 
 near Aransas Bay, to have seen countless 
 thousands of deer and several noble herds of 
 the wild horse (mustangs). But there were 
 no long-range rifles in those days, and but few 
 hunters. 
 
 The cougar (Mexican lion) and panther, 
 though not plentiful, are still found in vari- 
 ous portions of the State. They are very 
 timid, except when wounded or starved, when 
 they become formidable. 
 
 Wildcats are plentiful and are usually 
 found in the mountains or heavily timbered 
 river bottoms. They are generally hunted 
 with dogs. 
 
 Of wolves we have three varieties, viz : the 
 Black, Coyote, and Lobo (in the vernacular, 
 "Loafer.") The first named is rare and its 
 pelt is highly prized. Coyotes are very abun- 
 dant on the prairies, and the lonely wayfarer 
 
 who camps out by himself is apt to be render- 
 ed a little nervous by their incessant howling ; 
 but they are great cowards. The Lobo is the 
 largest of the three and looks formidable, but 
 he is as timid as his half-brother, the coyote. 
 Both are great pests to the sheepmen. 
 
 Of squirrels there are the fox, black or cliff, 
 the grey and ground. The cliff squirrel alone 
 is peculiar, living as he does in the rocks and 
 cliffs, and never, so far as the observation of 
 the writer extends, taking to a tree. 
 
 'Coons and 'possums are found everywhere 
 in the greatest abundance, and afford much 
 sport to the boys and * 'cur dogs. " 
 
 One of the distinguishing features of the 
 Texas prairie is the 'mule-eared" or "jackass" 
 rabbit, as he is commonly called — an animal 
 in fact identical with the English hare, with 
 some slight modification, perhaps, induced by 
 difference of habitat. The common "swamp" 
 and "cotton-tail" varieties are found every 
 where. 
 
 Prairie-dogs are found in great numbers 
 west of longitude 99°. 
 
 The Peccary, Havalina, Mexican or wild 
 hog (all local names for the same animal) is 
 found in Southwest Texas and on the sand 
 hills of the Llano Estacado. They go in 
 droves of from hidf a dozen to twenty and 
 are exceedingly belligerent if disturbed. They 
 are not considered very good eating. 
 
 Of foxes we have only the common small 
 grey fox, a very contemptible specimen of his 
 tribe. 
 
 GAME BIRDS. 
 
 At the head of these stands the noble wild 
 turkey {Meleagris gallopato), which is very 
 abundant in many parts of the State, but so 
 well known as to require no special descrip- 
 tion. 
 
 Of the aquatic birds we have the swan 
 {Cygnus Americanus), the Canada and snow 
 goose, and brant {Anser bermcla) ; these begin 
 to arrive about the 10th October, and remain 
 till May 1st. Ducks visit us in vast numbers 
 every winter, and of them we find some 
 twenty varieties, including Teals, Mallard, 
 Canvas-back, Pintail, Black, Wood, Shovel 
 ler, Ringneck, Widgeon, Red-head, Ruffle 
 head. Butter-ball. Scaup, Gadwall, Ruddy 
 and three varieties of Merganser. The coast 
 region of Texas is especially remarkable for 
 the number and variety of the water-fowl that 
 frequent it. Myriads of ducks, geese, swan, 
 plover, snipe and curlew assemble here every 
 winter, and the sportsman can then satiate 
 himself with slaughter. At the mouth of the 
 Trinity River is a famous "roosting" ground. 
 On certain low, marshy islands here assemble 
 every night countless thousands of water- fowl 
 from their feeding grounds round about. In 
 the morning when they disperse in search of 
 "breakfast," the sky is fairly darkened with 
 their numbers. 
 
 Two varieties of cranes are with us during 
 the winter, the "Sandhill" {Orus Canadenm), 
 and the Trumpeter crane {Grus Americana). 
 These arrive in September, but few of them 
 are killed, as they frequent the prairies and 
 open fields, and are very wary. The Trum- 
 
44 
 
 TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 peter crane is a beautiful bird, standing quite 
 six feet high, with white plumage relieved by 
 black wings and back. On the level prairies 
 of the coast they may be seen stalking with 
 dignified steps in every direction, lazy look- 
 ing, but having a watchful eye on the in- 
 truder. They must be shot with the rifle at 
 long range. 
 
 Quail are abundant, and of them we have 
 five varieties, viz. : the Virginia {Ortyx Virgin- 
 iaiius), Massena (0. Massena), Blue {Caliye'pla 
 squamata), Gambel's {Lopliortyx Gamheli) and 
 the TexHS quail {Ortyx Texanns). Of these 
 the Virginia quail, or common "Bob White," 
 is found in Northern Texas only. The Texas 
 quail has the same note as 0. Virginianus, 
 and the only perceptible difference between 
 them is that the former is not so large or so 
 brilliantly marked as the latter. The Texas 
 quail is found all over the State in vast num- 
 bers, lies well to the dog, and is in all respects 
 equal in gamy qualities both in the field and 
 on the table, to his twin brother Ortyx Vir 
 ginianus. The Blue, Massena, and Gambel's 
 quail have all the same range, viz. : between 
 latitude 27'* and 30^, and west of the 100th 
 degree of longitude through to Mexico and 
 New Mexico. The blue quail is of a steel-blue 
 color, about the size of a Virginia quail, very 
 strong and active, rarely lying to the dog. 
 They go in large flocks, and have a call simi- 
 lar to that of the Guinea fowl. The Massena 
 quail the writer has found very abundant in 
 Crockett county, along the rough lands of 
 Devil's River. They lie well to the dog, in- 
 deed too well. 
 
 The prinnated grouse, or prairie-chicken 
 {Tetrao cwpido) is found in all the prairies north 
 of latitude 29® and east of 98° longitude, 
 though on Red River it is? found as far west as 
 longitude 100*. In our climate the season opens 
 about the middle of July, when the young 
 birds are well grown and quite strong on the 
 wing. At this season a more toothsome del- 
 icacy can hardly be found. 
 
 Two varieties of snipe are with us during 
 the winter. The common snipe {Scolopax 
 Wilsonii) and the red- breast or New York 
 snipe {8. Novehoracensia). The woodcock is 
 not abundant in Texas, though found in the 
 eastern part of the State. 
 
 Of the plover and sandpiper tribe we have 
 many varieties, of which the principal are the 
 Tattler {Tringa bartramia). Golden {FvItuh 
 charadrius), Bull-head, or Swiss plover (C/mrw- 
 drius Helvetica), Marlin, or mountain plover 
 (C. montanvs). Of the waders we have the 
 greater and lesser Telltale, and all kinds of 
 sandpipers. We have also the common long- 
 heeled curlew {Numinius longirostris), which 
 is found in immense flocks on our prairies. 
 Tlie wild-pigeon (C. Canadensis) is common 
 in the timbered regions of the State. The 
 Carolina dove (Columba Carolinensis), is every- 
 where met with. 
 
 Although not a game bird, one well worthy 
 of description, and peculiar to Texas and 
 possibly Mexico, is the ground cuckoo {Geo- 
 cocyx Mexicans is), locally known by various 
 names: "Carre-camino" {roadrunver), "Pni- 
 
 sano," "Chapparal Cock." "Prairie Cock," 
 etc. This bird, somewhat larger than a quail, 
 has a very long tail and crested head, with 
 brown and sombre plumage. It is solitary in 
 its habits, possesses great fleetness of foot, 
 and never takes wing unless pushed, when it 
 flies only a short distance. There are num- 
 bers of birds and beasts beside those named, 
 but none of much interest to the sportsman. 
 FISH IN TEXAS. 
 The game fish par excellence of Texas is the 
 black bass, or trout, as he is improperly called. 
 He is found in all the clear streams and lakes, 
 and ranges from four ounces to as many 
 pounds, or even larger in size. Even the 
 smallest spring branches are usually stocked 
 with this fine fish, if they have deep pools 
 here and there. The white perch abounds in 
 some of the streams, and most of the lakes 
 and ponds. The catfish is found in all the 
 waters, and is of three or four varieties, tile 
 Channel or Blue Cat being the best. In the 
 clear streams of West Texas this fish is gamy, 
 strong, active and an excellent fish for the 
 table. He is not esteemed more highly, only 
 because he is abundant. 
 
 The "Buffalo" fish is the largest of the 
 numerous sucker family in the State. It of- 
 ten attains a weight of twenty pounds and 
 upwards. It is a good food fish, and found 
 in every part of the State. It is especially 
 fond of sluggish waters. Its habits are very 
 similar to the European carp, which is also a 
 sucker. 
 
 Of the perch family there are many varie- 
 ties. 
 
 The soft-shell turtle inhabits all of our 
 streams west of the Brazos. In the quality 
 of his flesh he is equal to any turtle. 
 
 The coast or salt-water fishes, which furnish 
 fine sport and fine eating, are too numerous 
 to describe, but we miiy mention the pompano, 
 the sheepshead, the red-fish, the Spanish mack- 
 erel and sea bass as among the best. Oysters 
 are common along the whole coast, and sell 
 all along the railroads, far iu the interior, at 
 about one dollar per hundred. 
 GERMAN CARP. 
 This valuable food fish has been succf.ss- 
 fully imported from Germany into the United 
 States, and a supply has been furnished to our 
 fish commissioner in Texas. Those that have 
 been placed in Texas waters have grown with 
 amazing rapidity, showing that our lakes and 
 rivers are well adapted to the fish. The carp 
 can be as easily cultivated as pigs or chickens, 
 and there is no reason why all the streams, 
 lakes and ponds of the State should not be 
 stocked with them in a few years. 
 
 PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 The public institutions of Texas are such 
 as one might expect to find in a liberal, high- 
 spirited and benevolent community. Ample 
 provision is made for the blind and the deaf 
 mutes and the insane. The former are taught 
 remunerative occupations, so that they may 
 go abroad in the world occupying the honor- 
 able position of self-supporting citizens. The 
 latter receive the servi(;es of the best medical 
 
TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 45 
 
 skill in aid of their restoration to reason. All 
 these buildings are located at Austin. 
 
 By the terms of the treaty of annexation 
 between the United States and the Republic 
 of Texas, ten millions of dollars were paid to 
 the State of Texas. A large portion of this 
 money was expended in the building of deaf 
 and dumb, blind and lunatic asylums, and 
 certain portions of the public domain were 
 set apart for their support. As these lands 
 are sold, the proceeds are invested in bonds 
 and become a permanent fund for their sup- 
 port. 
 
 THE BLIND ASYLUM. 
 
 The Blind Asylum is located, as all the 
 asylums are, on an elevated site in the suburbs 
 of Austin, The air is salubrious, the water 
 excellent, the buildings commodious and 
 comfortable. Through the influence of Sen- 
 ator (then Governor) Coke, the services of an 
 oculist of great skill and national reputation 
 were secured for the institution; the result 
 has been that several who were supposed 
 doomed to perpetual darkness, now see. The ! 
 present number of pupils is eighty-four ; these 
 are all being educated and instructed in such 
 useful arts as they are capable of practising. 
 Some of the male graduates are in the busi- 
 ness of broom and brush making ; others earn 
 independent livings as music teachers and 
 piano tuners. Among the lady graduates are 
 accomplished musicians and dressmakers. 
 Some of the latter compete in skill and dex- 
 terity with those who are blessed with the 
 sense of sight, and reproduce, by the sense of 
 touch, fashions and styles of dress that they 
 will never see. The institution is supplied 
 liberally with pianos, organs, brass and string 
 instruments, sewing machines, and all other 
 necessaries for the instruction of the pupils. 
 The annual expenditures are about $20,000. 
 It may be mentioned in this connection as in- 
 dicative of the forms taken in Texas by pri- 
 vate benevolence, that H. M. Hoxie, Esq., 
 general manager of the International & Great 
 Northern Railway, furnishes any and all the 
 pupils of the blind and deaf mute asylums 
 with free railroad passes, whenever it is de- 
 sirable for them to visit their homes, which 
 they all do at least once a year. Dr. Frank 
 Rainey, in his circular to parents, says: "Pupils 
 admitted at any time. Everything here is free 
 of charge — board, washing, tuition, books, in- 
 struments, doctors' bills, etc." 
 
 THE TEXAS INSTITITION FOR THE DEAF 
 AND DUMB. 
 
 The location of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum 
 is on one of the Austin hills, and affords nu- 
 merous views of most charming landscape. 
 Besides the usual instruction in sign language, 
 and the arts usually taught in s\ich institu- 
 tions, a most successful effort has been made 
 during the last few years to instruct the deaf 
 mutes in practical printing. A very large 
 proportion of the State printing is now per- 
 formed by the pupils. Its accuracy, neatness 
 and even elegance attest their skill. The 
 pupils now have the opportunity of acquiring 
 skill in an art that will always afford them 
 lucrative employment. This is an application 
 
 of practical benevolence which will commend 
 itself to every philanthropist. The number 
 of pupils at present residing in the institution 
 is about seventy. 
 
 All deaf mutes of the State between the 
 ages of ten and twenty years, of sound mind, 
 good moral character, and free from contagious 
 disease, are entitled to admission. 
 
 No charge is made for board, tuition, wash- 
 ing, medicines, medical attendance, books, or 
 stationery, all these expenses being paid by 
 the State. 
 
 TEXAS LUNATIC ASYLUM. 
 The Lunatic Asylum is delightfully located, 
 and has ample grounds for the exercise and 
 recreation of patients. These grounds are 
 elegantly laid out and beautified with flowers 
 and growing plants. It was first opened March 
 1, 1861. From that date until October 3, 1880, 
 there had been 1,418 admissions; of these 636 
 recovered —138 improved ; remained unim- 
 proved, 59; died and escaped, 216; remained, 
 Oct. 31, 1880, 369. 
 
 A large farm attached to the institution sup- 
 plies an abundance of milk and vegetables. 
 Because of the increase of population the 
 buildings already in use have been over-crowd- 
 ed, and the project of either enlarging those, 
 or building another asylum in some other lo- 
 cality, is under consideration. 
 
 TEXAS PENITENTIARIES. 
 Texas is perhaps the first State to apply the 
 just rule — that convicts are to be treated kind- 
 ly — but they are not to be made public bene- 
 ficiaries. As a very large proportion of crime 
 arises from a hatred of work, Texas prescribes 
 hard work as the cure. Honest men are not 
 taxed to feed rogues. The Texas peniten- 
 tiaries are more than self-supporting, the 
 surplus being nearly $100,000 annually. The 
 convicts are well fed, comfortably clothed, 
 are taught useful employments, and are liber- 
 ally dealt with on discharge; hut they are not 
 petted as in some States, and they are made tcr 
 work. Divine wisdom prescribed labor as the 
 proper punishment for the first crime, and 
 human intellect has not yet found a better. 
 On his disciiarge each prisoner receives a suit 
 of clothing, $20 in cash, and transportation to 
 the county from which he came, or its equiva- 
 lent in money. 
 
 The labor of the prisoner is let out to the 
 highest bidder. These can sublet the labor of 
 such portion as they cannot employ. The 
 following figures, taken from the report dated 
 October 31, 1880, will show how convict 
 labor is made productive. 
 
 The convicts on hand are distributed as 
 follows, viz.: 
 
 In prison proper 342 
 
 Engaged m prison construction at Rusk 256 
 
 On railroad construction trains iriU 
 
 In wood-cuttinjf forces on Texas and Pacific railroad 215 
 
 .^t Kelly's iron furnace, Marion county lOi 
 
 On plantations in different localities 1033 
 
 Miscellaneous employment 39 
 
 Total .2157 
 
 ThcLe is a regular, systematic inspection of 
 all gangs hired out, and it is believed that the 
 convicts of Texas are better cared for" than 
 those of most other States. The old peniten- 
 tiary at Huntsville having become insufficent 
 
46 
 
 TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 to accommodate the greatly increasing popu- 
 lation, another has been constructed in Rusk, 
 Cherokee county. That location was selected 
 with a view to utilize the labor of the convicts 
 upon the iron mines in the neighborhood. 
 
 The Rusk penitentiary has been constructed 
 after the very best models. It contains 500 
 cells, intended each for two prisoners. The 
 penitentiary at Huntsville, while upon an 
 older model, is an excellent institution. 
 
 CLIMATE, TEMPERATURE 
 AND RAINFALL. 
 
 The area of Texas presents two distinct 
 climates, with an intermediate region, sharing 
 in a marked degree the peculiarities of both. 
 These are bounded by lines or belts of longi- 
 tude rather than of latitude, and are due 
 mainly to the influence of moisture derived 
 from the Gulf of Mexico, which is our natural 
 reservoir. 
 
 An examination of the reports of the Chief 
 Signal officer of the United States, will exhibit 
 a marked prevalence of E. S. E. and south 
 winds, not only along the coast of Texas, but 
 at interior points. These southerly and south- 
 easterly winds, starting from the boundary of 
 the regular trades, r)low through a great 
 portion of the year, almost with the regularity 
 of the monsoon. They come from the Gulf, 
 charged with vapor almost to saturation, 
 w^hich is gradually deposited as they proceed 
 inland. West of the 100th degree of longitude 
 they either cease to blow with the same 
 regularity, or they have, in a great measure, 
 lost their humidity — for in the travel of such 
 wind as passes from south to north, along 
 meridians west of 97*^, it is obvious they have 
 no opportunity to imbibe humidity after their 
 passage over the Cordillera range of Mexico, 
 whilch having an average elevation of 
 more than 10,000 feet, effectually rob the 
 passing clouds of their moisture. All winds, 
 Sien, ascending from the level of the Pacitic, 
 even if saturated at starting, must be very 
 dry when they reach the west side of the 
 mountains. Hence the prevalence of drouth 
 in that region of Texas west of the 100th 
 degree of longitude. 
 
 This delightful trade wind serves in Texas 
 the double purpose of conveying moisture and 
 of tempering a heat in summer that would 
 otherwise be severe — the nearer the sea coast 
 the cooler and more brisk the current, but 
 the entire area of prairie and a large portion 
 of the timbered country feel its benign influ- 
 ences. So that, what in many other countries 
 of this latitude would be termed "the hot 
 season," is here not only tolerable, but often 
 pleasant through nearly the entire summer. 
 Sunstrokes are unknown, and exercise, even 
 under the blazing sun, is rendered agreeable 
 by the constant fanning of the " sweet south." 
 
 THK NOKTIIKUS OF TEXAS. 
 
 It is understood by many persons at a 
 distance, that the Texas " northers " are.dread 
 f ul winter storms, which come on so suddenly, 
 and are so severe and extremely cold, that 
 man and beast, caught out on the open prai- 
 ries, a few miles from sli(!ller, are liable to b(! 
 
 frozen to death in a very short lime. In a 
 
 late "Manual of Geography " the children are 
 
 taught that "Texas is famous for its north 
 
 winds. These come on at times so suddenly 
 
 I in winter, and are so cold and severe, that 
 
 ! both man and beast have been known to 
 
 I perish in them." 
 
 ! Texas northers are sometimes undoubtedly 
 I severe, sudden and violent, but by no means 
 1 deserve their reputation for the severity of the 
 I cold which accompanies them ; nor is the 
 force of the wind ever sufficient to do any 
 i damage to trees, fences, or houses. 
 
 The people in Texas divide these winter 
 storms into "wet northers" and 'dry north- 
 ers." The "wet northers "are those wkich 
 bring rain or sleet, and usually last twelve or 
 fourteen hours, passing off with a moderate 
 north or northwest wind. These really do 
 more damage than the "dry northers," for 
 stock exposed to their influence become wet, 
 and suffer extremely from tne cold. The 
 "dry northers" are attended with peculiar 
 phenomena, witnessed nowhere else. 
 
 For several hours preceding the most violent 
 of these "dry northers," there is almost a dead 
 calm, and the air is unusually warm and 
 sultry. A lew low% sluggish clouds drift 
 about in the eddying atmosphere. A dark, 
 muddy-looking cloud-wave next appears, low 
 down, ail across the northern horizon, which is 
 the "precautionary signal" of the near appoach 
 of this strange Texas storm. A few minutes 
 more and the terrible roaring of the norther 
 is distinctly heard. All hands out of doors 
 are now running to the house for shelter, 
 where the logs are piled upon the ample 
 hearth. At the same time, the live stock on 
 the prairies have turned tail and are fleeing to 
 the friendly shelter of bottom, bluff, or ravine. 
 All this and more, too; but be not alarmed, 
 for there is no danger, the colts on the prairi'^ 
 and the children in tli<^ yard are kicking up 
 their heels, sporting amid the pranks of the 
 whistling wind. But the dark cloud-wave is 
 now over, and no rain, except it may be a 
 ver}^ slight mist, followed by a dry, blue, 
 misty haze, with the peculiar smell which is 
 developed by a flash of lightning, though at 
 other times it reminds one of flne straw smok(i 
 in its odor. It is highly probable that this 
 turbidness and odor are due to the ozone set 
 free by the high electric excitation in a dry 
 norther. 
 
 Let this be as it may, there is evidently, in 
 these dry " blue northers," (as they are called) 
 a state of high electrical condition of the at- 
 mosphere, which produces a thrilling sense of 
 exiiilaration in man and beast. 
 
 The northers contin e without abatement 
 from twenty-four to forty-eight hours, and 
 then gradually subside in from twelve to eight- 
 teen hours more. The cold which attends, 
 them is variable, often not frei^zing at all, and 
 then again sinking the mercury down ta 
 twenty or even lower. In one instance, at 
 Austin, the temperature sank to six degrees 
 above zero, but this would hardly occur twice 
 in a lifetime. 
 
 Tiiese (by northers are con-iidered, and no 
 
TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES 
 
 47 
 
 doubt are, very healthy winds. They free 
 the air of every miasmatic influence, (it" such 
 exist) and produce a delightful exhilaration, 
 prompting to active muscular exertion in both 
 man and beast. 
 
 Consumption never originates in the area of 
 the norther, and persons already afflicted with 
 that disease are always benetitted, and often 
 radically cured, by leading a wild, roving, 
 <')pen-aiT life, in the country where they are 
 most prevalent. 
 
 RAINFALL. 
 
 As will readily appear from a consideration 
 of the facts stated in that portion of this 
 itrticle relating to the Climate of Texas, the 
 rainfall decreases in extent as you progress 
 ^\ est of the 97th meridian, for the reason as 
 Iherein stated, that the prevailing winds, 
 which are southerly beyond that parallel, 
 blow over a vast extent of elevated arid 
 -country in Mexico, and are thereby robbed of 
 their moisture. But the prevailing opinion 
 that Texas, even as far west as the 100th 
 meridian, is subject to drouths that unfit it 
 for an agricultural country, is not borne out 
 "by the facts. A few years ago the new-comer 
 was told that it never rained west of the 
 Colorado River, and that farming w ould not 
 pay west of the Brazos. Now, all the counties 
 between the Colorado and San Antonio are 
 devoted to agriculture, and the dry belt is 
 moved west of the latter place. It will soon 
 have to be moved farther west. The Castro- 
 ville colony, on the Medina and Hondo, and 
 the pioneer settlement at D'Hanis, have been 
 farming for the last thirty years, and a more 
 prosperous community it would be difficult to 
 find in Texas or any where else. The north- 
 western portion of Atascosa county is largely 
 devoted to farming; the Germans in Kendall 
 and Gillespie coundes are successful farmers 
 — and BOW comes the report of fine crops in 
 Dimmit county, bordering on the Rio Grande. 
 These locatities are not specially favored as to 
 soil or rain, but the people have some knowl- 
 edge of agriculture, and are willing to expend 
 a little manual labor in its pursuit. There is 
 probably not an equal extent of country in 
 the United States to that of West Texas, that 
 has so large a per cent, of tillable land. 
 
 The reason why farming has not been car- 
 ried on to a greater extent is that stock-raising, 
 an easier occupation, has paid so well hereto- 
 fore that few could be found that would fol- 
 low the more arduous life of a tiller of the soil ; 
 but for the last few years farming has been 
 largely on the increase. Many men have fol- 
 lowed farming for years, and have made money. 
 Appended is a letter from Mr. W. J. Locke, 
 which explains itself and goes far to explode 
 the idea that farming will" not pay in West 
 Texas : 
 
 " Olmos Creek, Bexar County, | 
 Texas, July 19, 1880. f 
 
 ' ' In accordance w ith your request I give 
 you a few items with regard to farming in 
 West Texas. I am a native of Illinois, and 
 came to Texas twenty-seven years ago, and 
 my first experience in farming was in this 
 •.(Bexar) county in 1857. Owing to a late frost 
 
 and drouth our crops were a failure. From 
 that time until the present we have not had an 
 entire failure. Some years our crops were 
 light and others very good. In 1872 i made 
 sixty bushels of corn per acre on land that 
 had been in corn fifteci years in succession, 
 without any fertilizing whatever. In 1873 I 
 made but thirty bushels per acre; the differ- 
 ence was owing to the season. Our soil is 
 very rich — capable of producing one hundred 
 bushels per acre. My first experience in rais- 
 ing small grain in this country was in 1874, 
 when I made seventy bushels of oats per acre. 
 In 1878 my sons made over one thousand bush- 
 els of oats on ten acres of land. Our soil is a 
 black loam, over four feet deep. The wheat 
 crop of my neighbor, Mr. James H. Coker, 
 for the years from 1873 to 1878 yielded from 
 twenty to twenty-two bushels per acre. He 
 planted cotton one year and gathered one bale 
 per acre, but discontinued the cultivation of 
 cotton, preferring to raise grain. In 1872 the 
 late Mr. Albert Stowe, twelve miles northeast 
 of San Antonio, told me that he made sixty- 
 one bushels of corn to the acre. In 1876 the 
 corn crop of my neighbor. Mr. Anton Horn, 
 averaged forty-seven bushels per acre, and the 
 only plowing it received was but two furrows 
 in the row when the corn was knee high. The 
 present year crops in many localities are light, 
 owing to the hard frost in March and partial 
 showers since. I believe that farming pays 
 better here than in my native State, and during 
 a decade we will make as much grain per acre, 
 which commands a better price here than 
 there. ''W.J.Locke." 
 
 Mr. Locke is but one of the many, and he 
 admits that his cultivation of the soil is not 
 nearly as thorough as is necessaiy in Illinois. 
 The employment of manures for general fer- 
 tilizing is unknown, and there are lands near 
 San Antonio that have been under cultivation 
 for over 150 years. West Texas has a great 
 variety of soils, from the heavy black-waxy 
 lands, that are fairly greasy with richness, to 
 the light sands, so easy of cultivation that a 
 forked stick is often made to do the duty of a 
 plow. There are very few farms in thfs sec- 
 tion where improved machinery is in use, and, 
 in fact, the only one that comes to the mind of 
 the writer is the Capote farm, on the Guada- 
 lupe River, fifteen miles below Seguin. This 
 farm is under the management of Major Alex. 
 Moore, and is a marvel to all the country round. 
 This is only the second year under the present 
 management, but the success of modern farm- 
 ing is fully admitted by all who visit this place, 
 and they are many. Major Moore has under 
 cultivation this year nearly 2,000 acres. His 
 crops of oats, wheat, rye, barley and several 
 other cereals, and grasses and corn, have been 
 fully up to his expectations. He plows deep 
 and cultivates thoroughly, and is correspond- 
 inly rewarded. The Capote farm has been in 
 cultivation for many years, but heretofore has 
 usually been an elephant on the hands of its 
 owners. The failures in a series of farming 
 experience can always be traced to the man- 
 ner in which it was carried on, and not to 
 natural causes. With the same amount of in- 
 
48 
 
 TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 telligeiice and industry that is necessary to 
 make botii ends meet in any of the Northern 
 States, a man can win from the soil a com- 
 petency in this. 
 
 The recuperative powers in this country 
 are most wonderful, and its power of endur- 
 ance equally astonishing. The soil is so por- 
 ous that, once saturated with a good rain in 
 llie early spring, it will mature small grain. 
 One good rain in May and June assures a corn 
 crop, and cotlon will languish with limp and 
 shrivelled leaves for months, and, on a good 
 rain, make a good crop. Sometimes there is 
 not a good frost to freeze ice for several years, 
 and seldom later than the 1st February, or 
 earlier than the 1st December. Many crops 
 that are grown in the Northern States in the 
 summer grow best here in the winter. No 
 liay need be put up for general stock cattle, 
 as there is always enough grazing for them the 
 year round, and but little is needed for work 
 stock; and, in fact, many of our so-called 
 farmers feed nothing to their work stock from 
 one year's end to another, obliging it to hunt 
 its own living. 
 
 It is a well-known fact, which has been de- 
 monstrated in this and the northwestern States, 
 that, as the country becomes settled, the ground 
 broken up and trees growing, the rainfall is 
 more frequent and more evenly distributed. 
 That has been especially the case in Kansas 
 and this State. In 1866 little or no farming 
 was done west of the Neosho River, but now, 
 some of the finest and most prosperous farm- 
 ing communities in that State are located west 
 of that River, and the rainfall is becoming 
 m.ore regular every year. The same is true 
 here. Thirty years ago that section of country 
 between the Colorado and San Antonio was 
 considered worthless for farming purposes, on 
 account of the uncertainty of rain ; now it is 
 one of the most prosperous in Texas. In this 
 country particularly there has been a great 
 change going on in regard to vegetation and 
 the relative humidity. Thirty years ago all 
 that country lying between the Colorado and 
 the Rio Grande w^as a bare, open prairie, like 
 that of Western Kansas, and but little timber 
 was found skirting the streams ; now the whole 
 face of the country is covered with the rapid- 
 growing mesquite tree, which not only fur- 
 nishes firewood, but a more durable fencing 
 material than the red cedar, while the growth 
 of timber has great influence on the rainfall, 
 making it more copious and frequent. Thus 
 nature, in its incomprehensible economy, is 
 preparing the way for the increased popula- 
 tion that is destined for this country. 
 
 The following table of the rainfall in 
 several of the principal points in this State 
 and the United States, will prove that Texas 
 is not the dry country that its enemies would 
 have you believe, and it must be borne in 
 mind, that the greater portion of the period 
 of time that this represents we were suffering 
 from an almost unprecedented drouth, which 
 lasted till into tjbe early spring of 1880. 
 
 RAINFALL IN TEXAS DURING YEAR ENDING 
 JUNE 30, 1880. 
 Locality. Inches. 
 
 SanAulonio 3833 
 
 Brownsville. 27.37 
 
 Brackett 26.18 
 
 Coleman City 89 38 
 
 Concho 23.83 
 
 Denison 50.19 
 
 Eagle Pass 25,43 
 
 Corsicana 4^.53 
 
 Fort Griffin 37.96 
 
 Laredo 20.88 
 
 Mason 22.98 
 
 Galveston 67.47 
 
 Indianola 50.79 
 
 AT OTHER POINTS IN THE UNITED STATES 
 DURING SAME PERIOD. 
 Locality. Inches. 
 
 Breckeuridge, Minnesota 18.37 
 
 Duluth, Minnesota 33.67 
 
 St. Paul, Minnesota 23.44 
 
 Cincinnati, Ohio 38.16 
 
 Toledo, Ohio 34.66 
 
 Cleveland, Ohio 37.13 
 
 Sanduskj', Ohio 39.80 
 
 Davenport, Iowa 33.86 
 
 Dubuque, Iowa 37.05 
 
 Grand Haven. Michigan 34,29 
 
 Detroit, Michigan 36.71 
 
 Port Huron, Michigan 31.20 
 
 Denver, Colorado 12.81 
 
 Chevenne. Wyoming 13.50 
 
 Salt Lake, Utah 18.30 
 
 Omaha, Nebraska 38.08 
 
 North Platte, Nebraska 28.77 
 
 Los Angelos. Cal 21.26 
 
 Sacramento, Cal 24.86 
 
 San Francisco, Cal 35.18 
 
 San Diego, Cal 16.10 
 
 Philadelphia, Penn , 39.39 
 
 Pittsburg, Penn 32.53 
 
 New London, Conn 36.14 
 
 Indianapolis, Ind 36.38 
 
 La Crosse, Wis 33.29 
 
 Albany, New York 44.59 
 
 Chicago, 111 45.03 
 
 St. Louis, Missouri 41.68 
 
 Buffalo, New York 42.27 
 
 Bismarck, Dakota 18.3T 
 
 Dodge City, Kansas 24.87 
 
 Leavenworth, Kansas 41.07 
 
 Boise City, Idaho 11.57 
 
 By comparison you will see that the average 
 rainfall in Texas is fully up to that of many 
 of the great grain-growing States of the Union. 
 There were only seven points in the United 
 States where the rainfall was greater than at 
 San Antonio, and Galveston had 67.47 inches 
 — the greatest of all the points named. 
 
 Below is a table giving the mean tempera- 
 ture and rainfall for "each month of this year, 
 up to the 14th of August, during which there 
 is a heavy rain-storm in progress : 
 
 Months. 
 
 January 
 
 February 
 
 March 
 
 April 
 
 May .. 
 
 June 
 
 July 
 
 To Au«u6t 14. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Rainfall- 
 Inches. 
 
 Mean 
 Tem. 
 
 3.48 
 4 01 
 
 2 42 
 
 3 94 
 3 04 
 2.26 
 6.30 
 2.78 
 
 62.4 
 567 
 61.6 
 71 9 
 77.8 
 83 5 
 83.0 
 
 28.23 
 
 70.9 
 
 Tims you will see that the rainfall for the- 
 first seven montks of this year has been great- 
 
TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 49 
 
 er than the rainfall for a whole year in eigiit 
 of the States quoted in the first table, and if 
 the same rate continues to the end of the year, 
 the rainfall will be over forty -eight inches. 
 The richness of our soil is admitted by all who 
 see it, and now it is proven that as much rain 
 falls here as in the average of the States in the 
 Union. The market is always good and will 
 so continue for years and years to come; and 
 what more is needed to make this a farming 
 country but men who know how to farm and 
 are willing to work ? 
 
 So much for the charge that Western Texas 
 is not suitable fbr an agricultural country, on 
 account of the excessive drouths. It is not 
 denied by any one, that there is an ample rain- 
 fall all over that portion of the State east of 
 the meridian of Austin, and, as finally dis- 
 posing of this article, we append herewith the 
 following tables. We regret that the means 
 are not at hand to bring both of these tables 
 down to date, but they will at least convince 
 any one that Western Texas is not the "rain- 
 less region" that some have pictured it. 
 
 RAIN AND TEMPERATURE. 
 
 Record at Austin, by D. W. C. Baker, for Twenty- 
 three Years. 
 
 I shower was in August, 1860, when seven 
 inches fell in four hours. 
 
 Eighteen hundred and seventy-nine was 
 probably the driest year ever known in Texas 
 since its white settlement; yet in most parts 
 of the State there was a fair crop of small 
 grain, and the cotton crop was good, although 
 the year 1878 tvas also a dry year. 
 
 The highest range of thermometer during- 
 the twenty-three years has been in July, 1860, 
 107°. The lowest range was in January, 
 1804, ii^ above zero. 
 
 
 Inches of 
 Rain. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Temperature. 
 
 Years. 
 
 fl 
 
 r^ 
 
 1857 
 
 20 00 
 
 36.37 
 
 30.24 
 
 2961 
 
 29. «9 
 
 23.17 
 
 33.85 
 
 25.16 
 
 38.40 - 
 
 41.95 
 
 27.19 
 
 40 09 
 
 38.54 
 
 41.23 
 
 29.21 
 
 29.81 
 
 44.94 
 
 48.79 
 
 30.70 
 
 39.96 
 
 42.12 
 
 21.56 
 
 18.34 
 
 26.21 
 
 1857-58 
 1858-59 
 1859-60 
 1860-61 
 1861-62 
 1862-63 
 1863-64 
 1864-63 
 1365-66 
 1866-67 
 1867-68 
 1868-69 
 1869-70 
 1870-71 
 1871-72 
 ■•872-73 
 1873-74 
 1874-75 
 1875-76 
 1876-77 
 1877-78 
 1878-79 
 1879-80 
 
 98 
 
 101 
 
 107 
 
 100 
 
 101 
 
 99 
 
 99 
 
 106 
 
 96 
 
 98 
 
 96 
 
 97 
 
 96 
 
 102 
 
 99 
 
 96 
 
 104 
 
 99 
 
 103 
 
 97 
 
 96 
 
 100 
 
 94 
 
 22 
 
 1858 
 
 10 
 
 1859 
 
 18 
 
 1860 
 
 1861 
 
 1862 
 
 23 
 23 
 
 17 
 
 1863 
 
 1864 
 
 1865 
 
 1866 
 
 1867 
 
 6 
 18 
 21 
 17 
 15 
 
 1868 ; 
 
 1869 
 
 19 
 
 1870 
 
 1871 
 
 22 
 
 l.j 
 
 1872 
 
 13 
 
 1873 
 
 38 
 
 1874 
 
 10 
 
 1875 
 
 1876 
 
 1877 
 
 1878 
 
 1879 
 
 28 
 20 
 23 
 16 
 32 
 
 1880 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 Total for 23 years. . . 
 
 774.83 
 
 
 Average annual rainfall, 33.69 inches. 
 
 Note.— Temperature is for years beginning August 1. 
 Average temperatn-e at Austin, the past twenty-three 
 years, nas been 67.84. 
 
 REMARKS. 
 
 There has been a steady increase in the 
 annual rainfall at Austin, as is shown by 
 taking periods of five years, viz. : 
 
 ^ Inches. 
 
 Average annual fall, 5 vears, beginning August 1, '57 31.49 
 
 '62.. ..32.13 
 
 '67 37.49 
 
 '72 38.31 
 
 The greatest amount of rain which has 
 fallen in any one month during above period 
 of twenty-three years, was in September, 
 1874, inches 13.84. The greatest in any one 
 
 a) 
 
 1 
 
 2.84 
 3.25 
 4 62 
 1.62 
 .53 
 2 59 
 2.50 
 
 2 46 
 6 87 
 
 .33 
 
 3 96 
 7.86 
 
 i 
 
 j3 ISfeS^SSSggSgS 
 
 00 1 (N r^ O i-H to 00 ■<9' ^ TT r-( rj> >-H 
 
 3 
 
 < 
 
 a 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 RAINFALL AT MY RESIDENCES IN GRIMES COUNT 
 
 ten miles east of south, the other fourteen miles west of sout 
 e last sixteen years. 
 
 X <N Oi ■«*' (N 1-1 ■«* C< O CO C» 1 r- 
 
 1-H 1 1 CO 
 
 2 jSgSSSggco^g^S ^ 
 w 1 Tp ■<*' w (N ^ eci?j in c^ o ec tj< 
 
 1868. 
 
 1.73 
 4.40 
 5 92 
 4 38 
 1.53 
 1.03 
 4 64 
 3.29 
 1.63 
 2 28 
 9 39 
 8.06 
 
 49 28 
 
 1866. |1867. 
 
 2.40 1.02 
 6.70 1.55 
 
 .50 2.22 
 5.48 5 35 
 4.45 6.75 
 2 60 5 20 
 4.45 4.79 
 4 48 8 02 
 4.93 2 82 
 
 .20 5.86 
 5.45 3.15 
 2 08 1.26 
 
 43 92 4.5799 
 
 1865. 
 
 ~4T88 
 7.03 
 6.94 
 3.62 
 1.83 
 4.86 
 1.13 
 1.00 
 .95 
 2.17 
 1.53 
 1.16 
 
 37.15 
 
 2 |g^^::gg^g£3g«^^ ^ 
 
 oo 1 ■ ei CO in CN 3-. in oj c} »n lo -"i^ x 
 
 00 1 s> o> ■<*< ,-; eo so ■ 1-; I- c< r-( <N 1 ij 
 
 1 
 
 t:a2ggS8§Bgr^§Sg 
 
 ^ 
 
 N^incoi-i-^ oor-i-^eo 
 
 CO 
 
 X j<ceO'r-;-»c»to^8.--r-.co 'o 1^ 
 
 
 0^2 
 
 p ^Sg^5o^^?iS?^Sg IS 
 X (N "(rjwoitoi-i'eoocoT-ioj |^ 
 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 5 (u « D.W c s 3 oT" ® ^ 
 
 
 ^ e- 
 
 LENGTH OF SEASONS. 
 There is no appreciable ditference between 
 this country and the Southern States of the 
 Union generally in the length of seasons. 
 Spring commences about the middle of Feb- 
 ruary, and planting is begun in February and 
 March. The warm weather sets in about the 
 first of June, and continues till about the first 
 of October. September, October, November 
 and December are the great "cotton-picking" 
 months, and it is hard to find more delightful 
 weather anywhere in the world than an aver- 
 age November or December day in Texas. 
 The air is cool and balmy, and all nature 
 wears a peculiar aspect of calmness and rest, 
 which is most delightful to the senses. The 
 advent of wiatry weather rarely occurs before 
 
50 
 
 TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 the last week in December, but at no time is 
 it cold enough to discontinue work out of 
 doors. With the exception of an occasional 
 rain)^ day or "norther," the industrious farm- 
 I er can find no reasonable excuse during the 
 entire year to keep "his hands from the 
 plow," or some other useful implement. The 
 renting time is when the corn and cotton are 
 laid by, the wheat, oats and other small grain 
 harvested, and the sweet south breezes breatli- 
 ing over a sea of grassy prairie, invite to a 
 siesta and day dreams under the shadow of 
 the wide piazza. 
 
 WATER SUPPLY AND QUALITY. 
 
 ' The watercourses of Texas are numerous, 
 but while the principal streams are of great 
 length, they are not navigable to any consid- 
 erable extent. But the supply of water for 
 all domestic and farm purposes is quite suffi- 
 cient for the wants of any increase of popula- 
 tion. Id all the eastern, northern, middle and 
 southern portions of the State, good wells are 
 obtainable at very moderate depths, and the 
 water is wholesome and pure. Springs and 
 rivulets of bright, clear sparkling water are 
 especially noticeable in the cretaceous region 
 west of the Brazos River. After passing the 
 tooth degree of longitude, going west, sur- 
 face water becomes scarce, but even here a 
 good supply can be obtained by digging al- 1 
 most anywhere at moderate depths, and a I 
 sufficiency for stock purposes is easily obtain- 
 ed by constructing inexpensive "tanks" or 
 reservoirs to catch the winter rains. 
 
 Cistern water is used very extensively in 
 the towns and cities of Western and Middle 
 Texas, many persons preferring rain-water to 
 the natural supply, which in the cretaceous 
 region is more or less impregnated with lime. 
 Besides there is a common opinion that rain- 
 water is more healthy than any other kind. 
 This may or may not be true, but certainly 
 there are no healthier people in the world 
 than those inhabiting the rural districts of 
 Western Texas, and these depend in the main 
 upon the natural supply. 
 
 HEALTHFULNESS. 
 
 It may be safely said that the people of no 
 country enjoy a higher standard of general 
 health than Texas. We have not at hand any 
 reliable vital statistics, but the United States 
 census for 1880 will soon be accessible, and 
 that may be consulted in verification of the 
 above statement. 
 
 It is true that in the timbered jwrtions of 
 Eastern and Southeastern Texas, along the 
 river bottoms, malarial diseases of a mild type 
 are sometimes prevalent in the latter part of 
 the summer, and these are very distressing to 
 persons from a northern climate, especially the 
 first season; but these complaints yield readi- 
 ly to treatment, and they can be altogether 
 avoided by the judicious selection of a living 
 locality unexposed to miasmatic influences. 
 The house of the immigrant should never be 
 lecated in a bottom, but on a hill, and if pos- 
 sible, with any creek or river on the north 
 side, as the prevailing winds in summer here 
 are from the south. The greater portions of 
 
 Texas however, notably of Central and West- 
 ern Texas, are as free from malaria! influences 
 as any part of the world. 
 
 Bilious and intermittent fevers, and fever 
 and ague may be expected in heavily-timbered 
 river and creek bottoms in the hot months, 
 but these can be easily avoided by proper pre- 
 cautions, and the danger of them need not be 
 encountered at all. 
 
 Consumption, that dreaded and fatal dis- 
 ease of northern climates, never originates in 
 Texas, and manj'- who have come here pre- 
 disposed to, or suffering with mcipient con- 
 ditions of consumption, are entirely restored 
 to health, and live out their natural lives. 
 Diphtheria, another scourge of northern cli- 
 mates, is, we believe, unknown in Texas. 
 
 Winter and typhoid fevers are very rare, 
 and never prevail as epidemics, and the cases 
 that do occasionally occur do not prove of the 
 stubborn and protracted character that at- 
 tends them in the older States Endemical 
 diseases are few, and in general they are easily 
 and quickly subdued. 
 
 Yellow fever has not prevailed, even in the 
 coast cities for many years, and it is believed 
 that the rigid system of quarantine now 
 adopted will effectually exclude that disease 
 for all time to come. 
 
 MEDICAL OPINION. 
 
 The following extracts are made from a 
 paper read at the Ninth Annual Session of 
 the Texas State Medical Association, by Dr. 
 J. B. Robertson, one of the oldest and most 
 highly esteemed physicians of the State: 
 
 "That portion of West and Southwest 
 Texas lying west of the 98th meridian of lon- 
 gitude, and north of the 29th degree of lati- 
 tude, has an elevation above the sea, begin- 
 ning fifty miles south of San Antonio, of 500 
 feet, and"^ gradually rising, as the line is traced 
 north, to 2,000 feet. This region is drained 
 by the following rivers and their" numerous 
 tributaries: Brazos, Colorado, Guadalupe, San 
 Antonio, Nueces and Rio Grande, all of which 
 find their outlets into the Gulf of Mexico. 
 The rapidly decreasing elevation of the coun 
 try through which these streams pass in theii- 
 course to the sea. secures to the section named 
 the most perfect and thorough drainage In 
 addition to this fact, this vast area of terri 
 tory is entirely free from ponds, marshes, 
 lakes or stagnant bodies of water, to disturb, 
 with their contaminating effluvia, the purity 
 of the atmosphere. Here are also found the 
 principal mountain ranges, of which the 
 Guadalupe is the largest and has the greatest 
 elevation. These mountains, with their inter- 
 vening valleys and plains, with their springs 
 of pure and limpid water, which for beauty 
 and picturesqueness, are rarely equalled and 
 never surpassed, are beginning to attract the 
 attention of the professional man in search of 
 a locality for the climatic treatment of dis- 
 eases of the respiratory organs, especially 
 phthisis. 
 
 " It is a source of much regret that 1 have 
 not been able to get satisfactory reports of the 
 range of the thermometer and the barometer, 
 Willi the humidity of the atmosphere. I an) 
 
TEXAS HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 51 
 
 only able to give the mean temperature for 
 the seasons and year (means obtained from 
 six years' observation at San Antonio ending 
 with the year 1875, which is, Spring, 69.94'^; 
 Summer, 85.56^; Autumn, 08.95''; Winter, 
 52.94^: for the year, 08.85^. The mean aver 
 age rainfall for the same period was 36.90 
 inches. For these figures I am indebted to 
 Dr. Fred. Peterson, of San Antonio. 
 
 " The pressure of vapor, its weight, the ab- 
 solute humidity, have, as far as I know, never 
 been measured, but the observations of daily 
 life, by all who have lived in any pp.rt of this 
 section, or travelled through it, concur in at- 
 testing the astonishing rapidity with which 
 the roads dry after a fall of rain, and the per- 
 fect preservation of meats for days, hanging 
 in the open air, indicating unmistakably a 
 small amount of moisture suspended in the air, 
 
 " That eminent English author, Dr. James 
 Henry Bennett, in the second edition of his 
 valuable work on the ' Treatment of Pulmon- 
 ary Consumption by Hygiene, Climate and 
 Medicine, in its connection with Modern Doc- 
 trines," after demonstrating the error of send- 
 ing consumptive patients to all the points, 
 both in Europe and America, that have been 
 selected, and are now being used for the cli- 
 matic treatment of consumption, concludes 
 thus: * We are always, however, at a loss to 
 find a cool summer residence in the States, 
 where the minimum in July and August would 
 be between 50^* and 60^ Fahr. , and the maxi- 
 mum between 60*^ and 70^. I wish, therefore, 
 my American colleagues would try to find out 
 ?^ome such locality in their mountain ranges 
 at an accessible distance from New York.' 
 
 "While the range of the thermometer in the 
 region here treated of, as far as record has 
 been kept, is higher than that indicated by 
 this experienced author, the known drvness 
 or' the air, together with the cool and refresh- 
 ing breeze, which is universally prevalent, 
 may more than compensate the consumptive 
 patient for the difference in the range of the 
 thermometer. The beneficial effects of the 
 tlimate, in the area treated of, is not simply a 
 matter of opinion on the part of the writer 
 on purely theoretical grounds. During a 
 practice of over thirty years in Central Texas, 
 he has seen many patients sent there with 
 clearly marked indications of consumption, 
 and at a time in the history of the country 
 when such patients had to rely almost entirely 
 upon the climate for the benefit they received. 
 In all cases the change gave marked relief, 
 with, he believes, a prolongation of life for 
 years with some, and a perfect cure with 
 others. " 
 
 Those invalids coming to Texas, who have 
 sufficient vitality to endure an active life, 
 would do well to prepare themselves for camp- 
 ing out, provide ample means for fishing and 
 s»hooting, and start for the rarer and drier 
 atmosphere of tlie mountainous regions of 
 Western Texas. 
 
 To those who have a taste for these sports 
 this will be very pleasant; and for invalids 
 notl ing is more conducive to their health and 
 good digestion, than the appetite born of 
 
 exercise in the open air, and the game with 
 which they satisfy it. All physicians advise 
 invalids coming to Texas to take plenty of 
 out-door exercise. No evil consequences 
 result from sleeping in the open air. Tl^^ 
 more the invalid can live out of doors th^^ 
 better the chance for his re(;overy. 
 
 ADVICE TO IMMIGRANTS. 
 
 Many immigrants go astray, and suffer 
 much loss and many disheartening experiencs, 
 for the want of intelligent thought and pru- 
 dent foresight, before starting out. 
 
 WHO SHOULD GO TO TKXAS. 
 
 1. Those who wish to engage in agricultu- 
 ral pursuits. 
 
 2. Those who wish to engage in manufac- 
 turing enterprises. 
 
 3. Those who wish to engage in stock-rais- 
 ing. 
 
 4. Those who seek a field for the profitabh; 
 investment of capital. 
 
 Under the first heading are included those 
 who wish to hire out as farm hands, those, 
 who wish to rent lands, and those who wish 
 to become owners of farms. The demand for 
 farm hands is great, and the wages paid are 
 fair. For a young man who is entirely desti- 
 tute of capital, it fs a good idea to work on a 
 farm for one year. By so doing, he will gain 
 a valuable experience and make some money, 
 and if he is industrious and worthy, can easily 
 rent or buy land for himself for the next year. 
 
 The difference in favor of settling in 'i'exas, 
 as compared with the older States, consists m 
 the fact that the poor man can succeed in es- 
 tablishing himself in a home of his own here 
 more easily than elsewhere. 
 
 WHEN TO GO TO TEXAS. 
 
 Going early in the year will give the immi- 
 grant time to look about and locate himself 
 advantageously, to buy or renf land, and in 
 case of purchase, to clear and fence his land, 
 build his house, break his laud, and be in readi- 
 ness to plant in time to make a crop. Ar- 
 rangements for renting land are usually made 
 in December, and renters generally take pos 
 session of their land by or before Christmas, 
 but lands can be rented as late as April. 
 
 Immigi-ants from the Northern States should 
 not forget that they are going South, not 
 West, and that the climate and seasons for 
 sowing and reaping are much sooner than 
 they have been accustomed to, therefore they 
 should stait in the late summer or early 
 autumn. The preparation of lands for seed 
 ing of wheat, and the harvesting the cotton 
 crop always causes an active demand for 
 labor, when immigrants can obtain immedial-: 
 employment at remunerative prices, and ;i. 
 the same time secure suitable employment f<;;" 
 the coming year. The best places aie mo- i 
 frequently engaged in the fall, both in the 
 renting of lands or as laborers. So great, 
 however, is the demand for good ana reliabh; 
 labor, there is no season when employment 
 cannot be obtained. 
 
 The constant development in all depart- 
 ments of life which are going on in the State., 
 
52 
 
 TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 assures the patient and industrious immigrant 
 a certainty of remunerative employment, ex- 
 tending the season for immigration to the 
 whole year. 
 
 ^ WHERE TO GO IN TEXAS. 
 
 This is a question each immigrant will de- 
 cide for himself. The pursuit he chooses to 
 follow and his individual taste, will direct 
 him to select that place for a home which 
 offers the best prospects of success, and would 
 be most agreeable to himself and family. It 
 is best to seek information from reliable and 
 trustworthy sources, by specific inquiries in 
 relation to the business in which you propose 
 to engage. The Southwestern Immigration 
 Company has no other interest to serve than 
 to people the country, by exhibiting its re- 
 sources and advantages, and will be impartial 
 as to localities. It will advocate no special 
 sections, but its agents will be instructed and 
 enjoined to furnish truthful information of 
 all locations of which they are inquired. Hav- 
 ing obtained correct information from them, 
 and such other sources as are at command, 
 proper and suitable selections can be made 
 without much difficulty. 
 
 HOW TO GO TO TEXAS. 
 
 This will be determined from the immi- 
 grant's location and circumstances. Rates of 
 passage over the routes of travel vary so fre- 
 qutintly, that a list of rates given now would 
 be incorrect in a few weeks. This company 
 contemplates making arrangements, and the 
 work is now under progress, of perfecting a 
 system of rates over the important trunk lines 
 of railroads and water routes, both by river 
 and ocean, which it hopes will be uniform 
 and cheap. An effort will be made to estab- 
 lish low rates from all important points on 
 railroads in the United States, and from the 
 principal shipping cities of €rreat Britain and 
 Continental Europe directly to the Southwest. 
 For the present, the immigrant can learn from 
 the nearest station-agent, the rates to any given 
 point in Texas as now charged. It is also 
 contemplated to make arrangements for the 
 transportation of the household effects, tools, 
 and implements of immigrants at the lowest 
 class freight rates. As to routes of travel, the 
 Southwestern Immigration Company will 
 strive to be wholly impartial, seeking at all 
 limes to secure the most accomodating terms 
 tor the immigrants. 
 
 In advising immigrants how to come to 
 Texas, the plan of coming by land, with their 
 wagons, teams, and some of their best stock, 
 is recommended for their careful considera- 
 tion. It is true, as a rule, that a family in sell- 
 ing off everything, preparatory to moving to 
 a new country by rail or water transporta- 
 tion, sacrifices much in the low rate at which 
 the property sells. This is especially true of 
 horses and cattle, V)()th of which they must 
 have in their new home. 
 
 The autumns in Texas, from September to 
 December, are generally mild and pleasant, 
 and a family properly equipped for travelling 
 with wagon, ambulance, or carriage, which 
 can be purchased at slight cost, will be enabled 
 
 to travel with ease and comfort many hundred 
 miles; bring with them as much of the home 
 stock, including the work horses and mules, 
 as they see proper; purchase on the way 
 forage and subsistence at a very small outlay 
 in money, and by this course can reach their 
 new home with these ready for use. If they 
 have, after getting here, a surplus horse, 
 mule, wagon, carriage, or ambulance, it can 
 readily be sold in any neighborhood for a fair 
 price. A pair of horses or mules will bring 
 a year's supply of provisions, or make an im- 
 portant payment on a tract of land, should 
 they conclude to buy. Brood mares and colts, 
 as well as half or full bred cattle, command a 
 good price in all parts of Texas. While this 
 would be a slow way to travel, its advantages 
 over that of coming quicker by rail, after 
 arrival of the family here, would be in having 
 the necessary stock for farming or other pur- 
 poses, as required, instead of having them to 
 purchase. 
 
 RENTING LANDS. 
 
 There is a large amount of land for rent 
 each year on the most favorable terms. 
 Where the landlord furnishes the land and 
 improvements only, and the tenant the team, 
 tools and provisions, the landlord receives 
 from one-fourth to one-third of the crop, and 
 the tenant has the remainder. Where the land- 
 lord furnishes everything necessary to the 
 making of the crop, except the provisions for 
 the family of the tenant, the crop is usually 
 divided equally between the parties. The 
 two systems of leasing offer industrious poor 
 men, and especially Those with considerable 
 families, golden opportunities to become 
 independent, and the owners of farms at an 
 early day. Thousands of men in Texas, who 
 are to-day independent and the owners of 
 fine farms, made the first step towards suc- 
 cess by renting land in the manner described, 
 and many of them purchased farms with the 
 profits of a single year's lease. Of course it 
 is more profitable for a man to buy land 
 and improve and work his own farm, if he luis 
 the means to do so, but for those who are desti- 
 tute of capital, and are possessed of industry 
 and some knowledge of farming, the system 
 of renting land for a share of the crop cannot 
 be too highl}' recommended. 
 
 When the immigrant has got to Texas, he 
 will, of course, first seek to erect a shelter for 
 himself and famil}'. The climate is such that 
 a very cheap structure will be found perfectly 
 comfortable, until time and means afford the 
 opportunit}' for greater convenience and ele- 
 gance. 
 
 THE COST OF MAKING A HOMESTEAD. 
 
 We assume, as an average, that the immi- 
 grant's family consists of himself wife, and 
 three children, two of whom are over tive 
 years of age, and one under; and that riu' 
 railroad fare is $32, and while to some points 
 it is less than this, to othf^rs it is more. This 
 would call for — 
 
 Three tickets at $32 $96 00 
 
 Lunches and incidental;? 2.5 00 
 
 Total cost of taking a familj- of two 
 
 adults and three childrcQtoTexas. . $121 00 
 
TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 53 
 
 House. — Cost of constructing a house of two 
 rooms and shed: 
 
 Lumber $100 00 
 
 Nails 5 00 
 
 Saah 10 00 
 
 Doors 6 OO 
 
 Extra labor 50 00 
 
 Total cost of house • . . f 171 00 
 
 Agricultural Implements : 
 
 Plough SIO 00 
 
 Hoes and other implements 10 00 
 
 Total cost of implements $20 00 
 
 Animals, Etc. : 
 
 One yoke of oxen , $40 00 
 
 One horse 25 00 
 
 Saddle, etc 10 00 
 
 Six chickens 1 25 
 
 Pair of swine 5 00 
 
 One cow 12 00 
 
 Total cost of animals $93 25 
 
 Fencing, sa}' 40 acres $200 00 
 
 Provisions, for one year $150 00 
 
 Recafitulation, showing the cost of moving 
 to Texas, establishing a homestead tliere, 
 and living until the first year's crop is made : 
 
 Passage $12100 
 
 Building house 171 00 
 
 Agricultural implements 20 00 
 
 Animals 93 25 
 
 Fencing 200 00 
 
 Provisions for one year 150 00 
 
 Total cost $755 25 
 
 Of course, a man with pluck and energy can 
 .start life in Texas on a smaller sum, but this, 
 with ordinary prudence and industry, will 
 make success certain. 
 
 This calculation is on the supposition that 
 
 the chosen location is on the prairie. Of course 
 
 in the timber, where the immigrant cuts his 
 
 own logs and buys no lumber for fencing, the 
 
 expenditure of ready money is much less. 
 
 GENERAL INFORMATION, 
 
 INTERESTING TO ALL WHO MAY THINK 
 
 OF GOING TO TEXAS OR BUYING 
 
 LANDS THERE. 
 
 WAGES AVERAGE ABOUT AS FOLLOWS : 
 
 Blacksmiths, per day $2 00 to $3 00 
 
 Bricklayers, " 2 00 to 3 00 
 
 Stone Masons, " 2 00 to 3 00 
 
 Carpenters, '' 2 00 to 3 00 
 
 Plasterers, '• 2 00 to 3 00 
 
 Painters, " 2 00 to 3 00 
 
 Shoemakers, " 2 00 to 3 00 
 
 Printers, '• 2 00 to 3 00 
 
 Wagon Makers, " 2 00 to 3 00 
 
 Tailors, '^ 2 00 to 3 00 
 
 Harness Makers, " 2 00 to 3 00 
 
 Farm Hands, per month, wfth board — 10 00 to 15 00 
 Laborers in town, finding themselves, 
 
 per day 1 00 to 125 
 
 Laborers at saw mills, per month 20 00 to 35 00 
 
 PRICES OF STOCK, TOOLS, PROVISIONS, ETC. 
 Spanish ponies, broken and unbroken, 
 
 sell at $10 00to$30 00 
 
 Good,large American horses are worth. 75 00 to 100 00 
 
 Mules, well broken 75 00 to 125 00 
 
 Beef cattle. 3 to 5 years old, sell at.. . . 15 00 to 20 00 
 
 Fat cows, for beef ... 15 00 to 18 00 
 
 Milch cow and calf (young) 12 00 to 20 00 
 
 -Choice beef is had in most Texas mar- 
 kets at 4 to 8 cents per pound. 
 
 Good clear bacon sides 9 to 15 " " 
 
 Average price for corn, about 40 cents per bushel. 
 
 oats, " 30 " 
 
 Wheat sells according to quality, locality and facility 
 for shipping, at 75 cents to $1.15 per bu»shel. 
 
 Texas flour sells at $3.00 to $4.50 per hundred pounds' 
 
 according to grade. 
 Sweet potatoes, 30 to 50 cents; in winter and spring, 50 
 
 cents to $1.00 per bushel. 
 
 Irish potatoes 75 cts. to $1.50 per bushel. 
 
 Pork 3 to b cts. per pound. 
 
 Lard 9tol2»^ct8. '• i 
 
 Butter. 15 to 30 cts. " 
 
 Stock Hogs $1.50 to $3.00 each. 
 
 Sheep 2.00 to $3.00 " 
 
 Oxen $40.00 to $50.00 per yoke. 
 
 Farming implements and machinery, groceries and 
 provisions, are as cheap as in any Southern State. 
 
 In dry goods there is but very little variation from the 
 prices in Northern cities. 
 
 Brick delivered, $6.00 to $10.00 per 1,000. 
 LUMBER. — CAR LOAD RATES AT THE MILLS, 
 
 DELIVERED ON CARS. 
 Boxing, all lengths and breadths $ 8.00 to $10.00 per M. 
 
 Fencing, 6 inch, 16 feet . 8.00 to 10.00 ' ' 
 
 Framing, special order 10.00 to 12.00 " 
 
 Lathing and rough edge 6.00 to 8.00 " 
 
 Shingles, cypress 4.00 
 
 pine 3.00 to 3.50 '■ 
 
 Note. — West of Brazos River there is no pine timber, 
 and lumber sells there at from $16.00 to $19.00 per M. 
 
 WHAT CAN AN IMMiaRANT 
 DO IN TEXAS? 
 
 This is the first question that he will ask 
 when contemplating removal from one coun- 
 try to another. Texas, and especially West 
 Texas, is as yet in its infancy, as far as devel- 
 opment of its natural resources is concerned. 
 Although many sections of it have been 
 inhabited by the Spaniards and their descend- 
 ants for nearly two hundred years, and the 
 Americans for some forty or more years, there 
 has been but little done to develop its natural 
 resources. 
 
 It is estimated that Texas, as a whole, is 
 capable of supporting a population equally 
 dense as that of the German empire, which, 
 according to our area, would be over 35,000,- 
 000 people. We have not yet 2,000,000, and 
 Western Texas, in area greater than that of 
 England, Scotland, Ireland, and several little 
 kingdoms thrown in for good measure, has 
 yet less than 250,000 people, cities and all. 
 
 If an immigrant can make a bare living in 
 the North, where it is winter from four to 
 seven months, and where the cost of fuel 
 would feed him in this section, can he not make 
 a little better than a living here, where there 
 is no winter, and it takes much less clothing 
 and food, and allows a man more working 
 days than in the North? The advice of one 
 who has been in almost severy county and 
 town of West Texas is : — If you want to work 
 this is the place for you to come; but if on 
 wish to make your living by your wits on 
 had better stay where they can be better a re- 
 ciated. 
 
 There never was a country where lal is 
 better remunerated, taking in the co( ot 
 living, than in West Texas. For illustni i. 
 we take a carpenter who is master of hi> 
 trade; begets from $2.50 to $3.50 per day. 
 There are very few days in a year that he 
 cannot work in and out of doors, without fire 
 or shelter; his Iiouse-rent costs him from $>< 
 to $12 per month, and his fuel not more than 
 $20 per year; his clothing and that of- his 
 family fifty pfer cent, less than it does North ; 
 and if he is sober he can not only make a 
 
£4 
 
 TEXAS: HER KESOUr.CES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 good living, but lay woniothiDg aside for the 
 JbiOiir of sickness and old age. 
 
 At the present time there is great need for 
 fami labor, and a large amount of cotton will 
 ^o to waste if labor cannot be had from 
 Abroad. Farm labor is always in demand, 
 and land can always be had for rent, either 
 on shares or money rent at very reasonable 
 rates. As yet there is more land than labor 
 in this country. You will be told, and by 
 men here, that this is no place for a poor man, 
 and the very men who tell you so, and who 
 are now the possessors of thousands of dollars 
 in lands and stock, came to this country so 
 poor that they were glad to accept a dry crust 
 from the table of a poor Mexican peon (slave). 
 They were men of stern stuff, and stayed. 
 Are you not equally brave in facing fickle 
 fortune and winning from her a fortune and a 
 position in society? Gold lies not loose upon 
 the ground, but we have a rich soil that will 
 produce abundant crops with less labor than 
 any other portion of the Union. We have 
 fine natural grapes; we have a climate the 
 *;qual, if not the superior, to any in the world; 
 we have a market for all the produce that can 
 fee raised, and we have a hearty welcome for 
 all who wish to make this their home, and 
 become one of us; then, why ask what will an 
 immigrant find to do in this country ? If he 
 wishes to work he need not be idle a day. 
 If he is a lawyer he had better stay away, we 
 have too many already; if a doctor, he had 
 better go to a coun*;ry where people get sick, 
 this is too healthy, and we have to import 
 invalids to keep alive the milk of human 
 kindness; but if he is a mechanic, a farmer, 
 or any other man with manual labor as his 
 stock-in trade, this is the place for him — his 
 •ommodity is in demand and will bring a 
 lair price. 
 
 TEXAS A WORKSHOP FOR 
 
 MAN. 
 
 From the overcrowded mills of New Eng- 
 land; from the sturdy tillers of high-priced 
 Western lands; from the dark and dreary 
 mines of Pennsylvania; from the farmers, 
 mechanics, mineis and artizans of this coun- 
 try, and from the overworked and poorly fed 
 millions of the old world, the cry is daily re- 
 peated, "Where can we find relief? What 
 country offers us a home with better oppor- 
 t unities for an independent living?" This 
 question, so pertinent and full of feeling, was 
 answered by the Hon. Wm. W. Lang, in his 
 eloqu(!nt oration before the Agricultural and 
 Mechanical College of Texas. 
 
 An eminent writer has said, " The earth is 
 the ground floor, so to speak, of nature; the 
 home, or rather the cradle of man and of na- 
 tions — the dwelling place of our race. It is 
 not merely a region of immense space — a vast 
 superficies; it is the theatre where all the 
 forces of nature and the laws of nature are 
 displayed in their variety and independencies, 
 licsides this, it is the field of all liunian effort, 
 and the scene of a divine revelation !" In the 
 view that it is the great workshop of nature, 
 and the home of all natural elements and 
 
 forces^ may be comprehended the Avholc body 
 of the material sphere, but, as the home or 
 cradle of man and the scene of human efforts, 
 the limit must be ciicumscribed by the boun- 
 daries of those portions that offer to the human 
 family, by reason of natural resources, .soil, 
 climate, atmosphere, vegetable and animal life, 
 the best opportunities for rapid and continual 
 advancement in power, in wealth, in civiliza- 
 tion, m a ceaseless development of his powei 
 of thought. Man by his very nature turns 
 away from the glistening icebergs, the chilling 
 blasts and rigorous seasons of a polar zone, 
 where two-thirds of his life must be spent 
 within the narrow limits of closely-built walls, 
 and sustained by artificial means. He does 
 not care to dwell under the burning rays of a 
 tropical sun, and however rich the soil or 
 exuberant the vegetation, he will not make 
 his home where disease-engendering malaria, 
 is the burden of every breeze, where listless 
 torpidity seizes upon all his intellectual pow- 
 ers. Nor will he rest upon the barren sands 
 of a Sahara, though its sunlight be the bright- 
 est, its atmosphere the purest. None of these 
 portions of the globe offer a home to the 
 Caucasian. But within the confines of this 
 great State of Texas, with its incomparable 
 climate and soil, adapted to the production of 
 everything demanded by the necessities of the 
 human race, with its mountains and hills 
 ready to yield untold wealth to the industry 
 of tlie miner, with its streams and rivers offer- 
 ing him food and easy transportation to an 
 extensive coast, with its valleys and almost 
 boundless prairies of unsurpassed fertility and 
 beauty, the very inspiration of health and 
 energy — have we not all that any country can 
 offer as a home to the human family ? 
 
 There are in Texas no glistening icebergs, 
 nor dreary winters holding the earth for 
 months in their icy embrace — no season of 
 cold and inclement weather, during which the 
 farmer must consume in feeding and shelter- 
 ing his perishing animals, all that food and all 
 that profit for which he has toiled under the 
 burning suns of July and August. The cli- 
 mate of Texas is indeed incomparable. There 
 is no extreme of cold to freeze and consume, 
 nor of heat to enervate and destroy. The 
 glorious configuration of her surface tempers 
 the rigors of a northern winter, and the scorch 
 ing heat of a torrid summer to a variety of 
 weather conducive to health and vigor. Her 
 sod is rich and fruitful, repaying the husband- 
 man for his toil with great liberality in a series 
 of crops whose diversity is without a parallel, 
 and in this diversity there is a security, an in 
 surance, so to speak, which no other portion 
 of the world can offer. For if the tailing 
 rains hurt the wheat harvest, they also give 
 vigor and growtli to the young cotton plant. 
 
 That which injures one crop, but makes the 
 other more fruitful. Nature's great law of 
 compensation is exemplitied. The diversified 
 landscape contains valleys fit for a world's 
 granary, and mountains like those of which 
 the })rophet spoke when he said, "Out of 
 whose hills thou mayest dig brass." Hidden 
 beneath the fruitful soil is untold mineral 
 
TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 wealth. The husbandman and miner alike 
 have their reward. Turn where we may up- 
 on the broad domain of Texas, we find the 
 elements of wealth and prosperity waiting the 
 hand of industry to subdue and appl}" them to 
 the uses of man. The means of comfort and 
 competency are to be found eveiywhere. In- 
 dustry will never fail to place its possessor in 
 the honorable position of an independent and 
 self-supportmg manhood. When the resources 
 of Texas and her rapid increase in population 
 are set before the thoughtful mind, an answer 
 is sometimes returned, that "this is all well 
 for the present generation, but that the next 
 or at most thenext following that, will find 
 itself suffering from the same evils of ex- 
 hausted soil and over-crowded territory that 
 oppress so many of the present generation." 
 There are many farmers in the Eastern States 
 pouring expensive fertilizers upon exhaustive 
 lands that their grandfathers bought because 
 of their great productiveness, in th'e hope that 
 they would descend in undiminished vigor to 
 their seed forever. The fathers who in earlj^ 
 life emigrated to the prairies of Indiana and 
 Illinois, now find scant opportunity for their 
 sons among the high-priced lands of those 
 States. May not they ask, and wisely ask, 
 " Will not the same result follow the spring- 
 tide of immigration which is now flowing over 
 Texas ?" We think not. For Texas, sifuated 
 as she is, so to speak, at the foot of the North 
 American continent, is enriched with the 
 washings of countless ages until her soil has 
 u depth to which no other soil on the conti- 
 nent extends. But the size of Texas precludes 
 all fear of her being crowded for generations 
 yet to come. The mere mention of square 
 miles by the hundred thousand, and of acres 
 by the hundred million, conveys but little idea 
 of the magnitude of Texas, and her capacity 
 for affording homes and profitable employ- 
 ment to millions of people. On page five of 
 this pamphlet, an effort was made to realize 
 the vastness of Texas, by a comparison v/ith 
 other States and other countries. We will 
 endeavor to make some comparison between 
 her capacity to produce and the world's con- 
 sumption. 
 
 For the cotton year ending September. 
 :1879, the cotton crop of Texas was 951,003 
 bales, and it was produced on 1,808,886 acres 
 or 2,825 square miles of land, being a little 
 less than the one-ninety-seventh ^jart of the 
 entire area of the State. 
 
 The entire cotton crop of the United States 
 for the same year was 5,020,387 bales; it was 
 produced on 12,595,510 acres of land. If we 
 deduct this from the entire area of Texas, we 
 shall find that Texas after producing the en- 
 tire cotton crop of the United States, would 
 have 162.992,330 acres left. 
 
 The wheat crop of the United States was 
 448,755,118 bushels, and it was produced on 
 32,545,899 acres. If we assume that Texas 
 has produced all this wheat, besides the cot- 
 ton of the whole country, we shall have 130, 
 446,431 acres left. 
 
 The amount of corn produced in the whole 
 United States was 1,544,809,193 bushels, and 
 
 it was grown on 53,085,401 acres. If we take 
 this from the acreage left after producing all 
 the cotton and all the wheat of the country, 
 we shall have left 77,361,030 acres— so that 
 Texas could produce all the cotton, all tl)^||k 
 wheat, and all the corn, the principal article^^ 
 of bread and raiment used in the United States, 
 and have more than 77,000,000 acres of land 
 left. 
 
 But little more than half the area of Texas 
 would produce all the cotton, wheat and corn 
 of the United States, while that which re- 
 mains has timber to an incalculable amount, 
 and pastoral ranges upon which millions of 
 sheep could feed, and wool enough be pro- 
 duced for a nation's clothing. Beneath the 
 soil lies hid coal, iron, copper, and other 
 minerals, enough to suppl}^ the whole United 
 States. Should there be a famine in all the 
 rest of the country, Texas could take upon 
 herself the task of supplying the whole United 
 States with bread and corn for food, and cot- 
 ton and wool for raiment. 
 
 But we may take a step farther, and we 
 shall see that the world's consumption of cot- 
 ton is about 12,000,000 bales, and that Texas 
 has the capacity to produce ten times as much 
 cotton as the whole world consumes.,,-; 
 
 Competent statisticians state that the amount 
 of land used in growing the nine principal 
 crops of the United States, cotton, wheat, 
 corn, oats, barley, hay, rye, potatoes, and 
 buckwheat, is 223,763 square miles — so that 
 Texas has land enough to raise all the nine 
 principal crops of the United States, and have 
 a garden plot of 50,000 square miles to spare. 
 These simple calculations indicate the part 
 which Texas is destined to take in the world's 
 production. Her soil, enriched as we have 
 seen, by the washings of a continent, cannot 
 be exhausted, while generations must elapse 
 before her boundless territory can be even 
 moderately filled with people. Within her 
 boundaries almost every production required 
 for the use of man can be grown. The min- 
 eral resources of the State are boundless in 
 extent and wonderful in richness. All that 
 tends to the comfort and happiness of man- 
 kind, is found in abundance witliin her borders. 
 
 A country with so many capabilities and 
 such a variety of resources, will always afford 
 a great multiplicity of occupations. No mili- 
 tary servitude, taking the best years of youth- 
 ful vigor and early manhood for the service 
 of the State is exacted here, as is done in so 
 many countries on the other side of the broad 
 Atlantic. The government is managed on the 
 economical principles of "pay as you go," and 
 the State this year calls for no more than for- 
 ty-five cents on the hundred dollars, while the 
 county levy is but half that amount. Sixty- 
 seven cents on the hundred dollars, all told, 
 will surely satisfy the most clamorous advo- 
 cate of cheap government. 
 
 These are a few of the manifold attractions 
 and advantages which makes " Texas the 
 home and cradle of man," affording such 
 splendid oi)portunities for rapid and continual 
 advancement in ])ower, in wealth, in civiliza- 
 tion, in a ceaseless development of the power 
 
56 
 
 TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 
 of thought, and which to the peoples of all 
 climes and all nations, she offers in the lan- 
 guage of the eloquent speaker before quoted, 
 saying: "Come, take your places in the front 
 k of those who, inspired by the heroic tra- 
 ions of her past, and her grand future des- 
 tiny, are now battling for the material pros- 
 perity and progress of Texas, and cease not 
 your efforts until you shall have adorned her 
 vast continental area with a splendid agricul- 
 ture established from border to border, lin^s 
 of railroads, canals, and telegraphs; taken 
 tribute from the rich deposits of lier mines 
 and mineral lands ; built up her manufactories, 
 her cities and towns, her public buildings, 
 churches, and, above all, her school-houses. 
 Provided with men true to her institutions, 
 men capable of directing the construction and 
 operation of her public works and of develop- 
 ing her rich stores of latent material wealth, 
 Texas will attain her proper degree of indus- 
 trial prosperity, and become the admiration 
 of the civilized world." 
 
 THE WINTER AND THE CROPS. 
 
 HOW THE "blizzards" OP THE NORTH- 
 WEST HAVE EFFECTED WHEAT AND CATTLE — 
 LESSONS FOR THE FARMEK. 
 
 We copy the following graphic description of a 
 " Northern " blizzard, from the correspondence 
 of the Dubuque Herald : 
 
 WisNER, Neb.. March 10, 1881. 
 
 How shall 1 write of this timberless plain ? 
 The past summer was one of suushine. The 
 present winter has been one of tempest. 
 
 Climate makes a country rich and prosperous, 
 or it may make it a waste. The weather and 
 climate are one. Men speak of the weather just 
 in proportion as they love nature. A storm in 
 the great Red River Valley is telegraphed to all 
 sections ol the country. A heavy frost in Ken- 
 lucky is known the next day in all parts of the 
 world. The tobacco crop may have been threat- 
 ened. The great plain prairie country west of the 
 Missouri is subject to weather of violence, and in 
 obedience to law. 
 
 The blizzard is a fact, a terrible, perilous fact. 
 Its merciless fury has not been confined to Neb- 
 raska alone this winter, but the entire Northwest 
 has felt its killing, devastating touch. As I write, 
 human life is safe only within doors. During the 
 blizzard of February 12, a near neighbor started 
 lor his corral iH mid-afternoon ; at midnight he 
 Ibuud himself knocking at the door of a distant 
 dugout, still alive, but where he had wandered or 
 been driven by the storm he could not tell. It 
 was the 14th instant belore the fury of the storm so 
 abated as to allow him to return to his home, to 
 find one-half of his stock stiff In death. There 
 must be a compensation somewhere that induces 
 men to brave such danger. 
 
 The government gives a man a home for plant- 
 ing a few acres of trees; the State of Nebraska 
 exempts property from taxation to encourage 
 I'.irestry. You who dwell in cities and towns 
 know nothing of the wonderful powers exerted 
 by the wiuds upon the ti^reat plains. The chemist 
 tells us that hot water under pressure is the most 
 powerful of known solvents; so a snow-storm, 
 driven by a fierce wind which has gathered moun 
 tains in its flight ol hundreds of miles across a 
 treeless plain, becomes a blizzard, before which 
 human life is as a toy in the hands of an athlete. 
 
 Nebraska is inferior to Iowa in all things that 
 
 go to make up an agricultural State. Your cer- 
 tain rainfall, timber and coal are all in all to a 
 new State. Strange as it may appear, the Agri- 
 cultural Department Report for 1878, phuH's 
 Nebraska in the front rank as a corn-producing 
 St;ite, John fhoenix's idea of happiness may be 
 realized here — 
 
 Cora in the big crib, money in the pocket. 
 Baby in the cradle, and a pretty wife to rock it. 
 
 Western Nebraska, like Western Kansas, may 
 pioduce a crop once in a dozen years, and it may 
 i.ot — the chances are too many iu favor of the 
 bank for a man to risk even his pocket change in 
 j theveuture. Ttie great and irrowing interest here is 
 I ihe grazing business. Grass is abundant, water fairly 
 ! plenty iu running streams, and easily obtained 
 i by diggnig, and everything seems to favor the 
 j future of that busiuess, except the wintei- and the 
 ; blizzard. The present winter has demoostrattd 
 ! the more than folly of trying to winter stock iu 
 this section outside of warm sheds or birns. Go 
 I with me on a day's drive among my nei2;hbors Ion 
 I point out to you the carcasses of cattle and sheep, 
 i and hogs enough to have built a jj^ood barn for 
 I every stock raiser iu the country. The interested 
 [ pc.rty who represents that stock requires less 
 ; protection here than in Iowa is a falsifier, ''and 
 I the truth is not in him." Be not misled, you who 
 think of coming to Nebraska to engage in the 
 stock business. Come with your eyes open, and 
 remember first that cattle require as much care 
 and protection here as in Northern Iowa or 
 Mmuesota. The feeding season is as long, the 
 winter more severe, and the weather fully as cold. 
 A hundred miles west from here you reach the 
 eastern boundary of the range where cattie some- 
 times winter on buffalo grass. The present win- 
 ter has been a wasting exception. Over all that 
 vast range in Nebraska, Dakota, Colorado, Wy- 
 oming and Montana, the grass it under snow and 
 sleet, so deep that no bovine can reach it. He 
 who counted last November -the cattle on a 
 thousand hills as his," is shorn of his earthly 
 possessions. The plains and the canyons are 
 Bach in the bodies of the slain. 
 The average loss attending this growing interest, 
 always large, has never before taken capital, stock, 
 increase and all. As a result, cattle must rule 
 high for a few >ears to come. During the month, 
 of January the mercury touched 40"^ below zero, 
 and once iu February it reached 30"^ below. The 
 cold has been steady and has held unbroken 
 sway. 
 
 The above is a gloomy and foreboding picture of 
 a country which has been extolled as the very 
 Arcadia for delightful and profitable homes. It 
 has been truly stated that this has been an excep- 
 tional cold winter, and the consequ^'nces have 
 been much suffering in all the Northwest, attended 
 with great loss of live stock, in some instances of 
 human life, and also from a want of transporta- 
 tion, all trains having been blockaded, week after 
 week, by terriflic snow-storms, and even while 1 
 write, March 28d, 1881, it is reported that another 
 of those terrible storms is prevailing in the North- 
 west to such an extent as to stop all trains. The 
 fiuancial editor of the New York World says : 
 
 "The most important news of the street to-day, 
 I think, is the weather report from the West. 
 More heavy snow is reported, and it is acknowl- 
 edged now that the winter wheat crop is in a very 
 bad way." 
 
 While it is admitted that the winter has been 
 uncommonly severe, it is no unusual circumstance 
 for these blockades of trains to occur iu ordinal y 
 mid-winter, and while all this suticring, incon 
 venience and loss of property was occurring, iu 
 
TEXAS HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 57 
 
 Texas the farmers were plouo;hing their lands 
 and planting iheir seeds; and their flocks were 
 making a good living upon ihe wild grasses of the 
 prairies. At this writing the crops are planted, 
 and all farming operations are far advanced — 
 althoujfh this has been the severest winter linown 
 in Texas, stock men assert that the losses lor the 
 year ending first of March, 1881, will not ':;xceed 10 
 per cent., and that their flocks have gone through 
 the winter in good condition and healthy. 
 
 RAILROADS IN TEXAS. 
 
 Nothing connected with the material growth 
 and prosperity of Texas presents so striking a 
 picture as the history of tiie various railway 
 enterprises constructed or projected withiu 
 her borders. 
 
 Each year leaves a record of still further 
 development in internal improvement, the 
 faith and energy displayed by both home and 
 foreign capital showing the importance of 
 Texas "among her progressive sister States, 
 and arguing. well for the future. The large 
 increase in our population during the past ten 
 years, the numbers being nearly doubled, is 
 to be accounted for in great degree by the 
 completion of railroads through all eligible 
 sections of the State. Thus we have been 
 brought in connection with the outside world 
 and have had the products of the manufactur- 
 ing centres placed within easy grasp. The 
 fertility of our soil and attractions of climate 
 became known to capitalists and enterprising 
 men looking for fresh and safe helds of in- 
 vestment, and so shrewd were the calculations 
 of these moneyed elements that immigration 
 seemed to begin simultaneously with the lay- 
 ing of the first rail. Towns sprang up as if 
 by magic as roads were extended, and daily 
 grew under the support of fast settling rural 
 districts surrounding them. 
 
 At the close of the war in 1865, there were 
 but six railroads in Texas that had track laid 
 in running order, viz: the Buffalo Bayou, 
 Brazos & Colorado Radroad, from Harrisburg 
 to Alleyton, eighty miles; the Houston & 
 Texas Central R'\ilroad, from Houston to 
 Millican, eighty miles; the Washington Coun- 
 ty Railroad (now the Austin division of the 
 Central), from Hempstead to Brenham, thirty 
 miles; the Galveston, Houston & Henderson 
 Railroad, from Galveston to Houston, fifty 
 miles; the Texas and New Orleans Railroad, 
 from Houston to Liberty, forty miles; and 
 the Columbia & Brazos River Railroad, from 
 Houston to Columbia, fifty miles — making a 
 total of 330 miles of railroad in actual opera- 
 tion fifteen years ago. The Southern Pacific 
 Railroad (now the Texas & Pacific) was under 
 operation from Shreveport, La., to the Texas 
 line, but at that period had not penetrated the 
 State. 
 
 Now there are twenty-nine different lines of 
 railroad in actual operation within the State, 
 with a total mileage in running order of about 
 forty five hundred miles, showing that since 
 the year 1865 no less than forty-one hundred 
 miles of railroad have been constructed and 
 placed in running order. 
 
 No other part of the world now witnesses 
 •such pronounced activity in the construction 
 
 of great lines of railway, as Texas. The eyes 
 of the financial world are turned upon her, 
 and schemes of gigantic magnitude are being 
 consummated within her borders. What is^ 
 popularly known as the "Gould Combia^^ 
 tion," now controls the Missouri Pacific, tn^F 
 Missouri Kansas & Texas, the Texas & Pa- 
 cific, the St. Louis Iron Mountain & Southern, 
 and the International and Great Northern 
 Railroads, witli their various branches and ad- 
 juncts. The Missouri Pacific, from its terminal 
 point on Texas soil, at Dennison, has extended 
 its arms, one on the East, through the coun 
 ties of Grayson, Farmin, Hunt and Raines, to 
 a connection with tiie Texas & Pacific and 
 the International & Great Northern Roads ai 
 Mineola, in Wood county; the other on the 
 West, through Denton and Fort Worth 
 (where it crosses the Texas & Pacific), thence 
 nearly due south, through Johnson and Hill 
 counties, to Waco, in McLennan county , 
 thence to Temple, near Belton, in Bell county, 
 wliere it crosses the Gulf Colorado & Santa 
 Fe Railroad, thence the line will be run to a 
 connection with the International & Great 
 Northern Railway, at Taylorsville, in Wil- 
 liamson county. 
 
 The International & Great Northern Rail- 
 way, already completed and in running order 
 some eighty miles South- West of San An- 
 tonio, is pushing to Laredo, on the Mexican 
 frontier, with great rapidity. The Texas & 
 Pacific has reached the Pecos River, and is 
 proceeding Westward towards El Paso at the 
 rate of more than a mile a day. The Houston 
 & Texas Central Railroad has completed its 
 Waco Branch, to a connection with the Texas 
 & Pacific Railroad at Cisco, in Eastland 
 county. 
 
 The Texas & St. Louis Narrow Guage, is 
 running trains from Texarkana to Waco, and 
 will be pushed Westward, to the Rio Grande 
 frontier. The East Line & Red River Narrow 
 Guage, is working on steadily AVest, has 
 reached Greenville, Hunt county, and will go 
 thence probably to Dallas. The East & 
 West Texas Narrow Guage, is finished from 
 Hoiiston to Moscow, in Polk coimty, and 
 will be pushed thence to Marshall, and with 
 its various proposed connections, will consti- 
 tute a complete narrow guage system. The 
 Gulf Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad, already 
 completed some fifty miles North of Belton, 
 is pushing forward in two directions, its 
 branch on the East, running North from 
 Temple Station, in Bell county, to Dallas or 
 Fort Worth, where it will connect with the 
 Texas & Pacific. Its main line on the West, 
 projected through the counties of Lampasas, 
 Brown, Coleman and Taylor, where at Abi 
 lene, it will cross the Texas & Pacific;, on 
 through the Panhandle, toward Santa Fe, 
 New Mexico, its ultimate destination. 
 
 The Texas Trunk is running from Dallas to 
 Kaufman and beyond, and will push its line 
 rapidly to Sabine Pass, on the (julf of Mexico, 
 through the counties of Henderson, Ander- 
 son. Cherokee, Angelina, Tyler, Hardin and 
 Jefferson. The Chicago, Texas & Mexican 
 Central are grading between Dallas and Cie- 
 
58 
 
 TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 burne, in Johnson county, and surveying a 
 continuance of tbeir line nortlieast to Paris, 
 in Lamar county, and southwest toward 
 Mexico. 
 
 1^ Many other important lines are projected, 
 Pmd some of them under construction, but so 
 rapidly are these various enterprises being- 
 constructed that it is difficult to keep up with 
 them, and our design is only to indicate, in a 
 general way, their magnitude and extent, and 
 the bearing they necessarily have upon the 
 rear future of our State. Already we feel the 
 effect of the vast sums of money expended in 
 their prosecution. Labor is in demand at 
 high wages, trade in every department is 
 stimulated, and the State seems to have en- 
 tered upon an era of unexampled prosperity. 
 The immigrant can now come to Texas with 
 the certainty that remunerative occupation 
 awaits him. Lands are cheap, wages are high, 
 crops, the past season, have been abundant, 
 and bread and meat are plentiful. 
 
 The enormous extent of railroad building 
 now^ going on in Texas has but one drawback. 
 The scarcity of labor is being seriously felt in 
 the interior of the State, and it is anticipated 
 that great trouble will be experienced in work- 
 ing and securing the present year's cotton 
 crop. This condition grows out of the fact 
 that the activity in railroad building now go- 
 ing on in Texas draws labor from the fields, 
 the price paid for labor by the railroads being 
 highly remunerative. In many instances, 
 farms are being deserted altogether, the labor 
 thereon taking to railroad building. Unless 
 an influx of labor can be obtained from some 
 source, the present year's crops will be light- 
 ened. As a whole, the prosperity of the State 
 may not be injuriouslj" affected by this scarcity 
 of labor, as the money paid out by the roads 
 will cover all deficiencies, although in the 
 matter of agricultural productions the State 
 may not show up as well as it did during the 
 past year. Of course, after awhile, the rail- 
 roads will have to see to this matter of agri- 
 cultural production. These roads must be 
 made to pay. However, the outlook for the 
 l)resent year is, that there is not labor in the 
 country to cultivate and gather a cotton crop 
 any where equal to that of last year. The 
 railroads are absorbing everything. 
 
 The first railway projected in Texas was the 
 Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado (now ab- 
 sorbed by the Galveston, Harrisburg & San 
 Antonio Railway). Work was commenced 
 on this road in 1852. By August the year 
 following twenty miles toward Richmond 
 were completed and in operation, but the Avar 
 coming on some years later, all railroad build- 
 ing ceased, until 1865, when, as stated above, 
 only 330 miles were in actual oi)eration, and 
 these so worn and dilapidated from rough 
 usage and the lack of means and material to 
 keep them in repair, that practically the}'' had 
 to b(! reconstructed, so that railroad building 
 in Texas may almost truthfully be said to 
 have begun only with the close of the civil 
 war in 1865. 
 
 The following table exhibited the extent of 
 railroad building in Texas at the close of the 
 
 year 1880. Since that time to the present 
 (August. 1881) there have been added about 
 twelve hundred miles of constructed road, 
 and building is now progressing on the vari- 
 ous lines at an approximate rate of two miles 
 per day. It may be safely estimated that by 
 the close of the year 1881 there will be in 
 operation in Texas not less than six thousand 
 miles of railroad, twenty-seven hundred miles 
 of which will have been built in 1881. A very 
 simple calculation will show wliat an enor- 
 mous amount of money has been spent in the 
 State from this source alone : 
 
 RAILROADS IN TEXAS. 1880. 
 
 GrAGE. 
 
 Road. 
 
 lal 
 
 O 
 
 ©■d 
 
 standard. 
 
 Houston & Texas Central & 
 
 618 
 608.81 
 
 . 609.60 
 
 233 
 
 226 
 
 203 
 
 123.50 
 
 108 
 
 58.50 
 
 64 
 
 66.80 
 
 41.50 
 
 52 
 
 50 
 22 
 39 
 25 
 41 
 16 
 
 15.50 
 12 
 12 
 11 
 
 7.75 
 25 
 
 None. 
 12 
 
 3,300.96 
 
 
 '< 
 
 Texas and Pacific 
 
 160 
 
 
 International & Great North- 
 
 80 30 
 
 
 Galveston, Harri.sburg & San 
 
 18 
 
 
 Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe.. 
 
 115 
 123 
 
 standard. 
 Narrow. 
 
 East Line and Red River 
 
 Texas and New Orleans. ....... 
 
 Texas Mexican 
 
 30.50 
 None. 
 5 
 
 standard. 
 
 Houston, East and West Texas 
 Gulf, Western Texas & Pacific. 
 Denison Pacific (West Branch 
 Missouri Pacific) 
 
 15 
 None. 
 
 " 
 
 Denison & Southeastern (East 
 Branch Mo. Pacific) 
 
 31 
 
 " 
 
 Galveston, Houston and Hen- 
 derson 
 
 None. 
 
 " 
 
 Rio Grande 
 
 
 •' 
 
 Dallas and Witchita 
 
 20 
 
 Narrow. 
 
 Montgomery and Central 
 
 None. 
 
 Standard. 
 Narrow. 
 Standard. 
 Narrow. 
 
 Standaid. 
 
 Henderson and Overton 
 
 Galveston, Brazos & Colorado. 
 
 Waxahachie Tap. . . 
 
 Longview and Sabine Valley. . 
 Sabine Pass and Northwestern 
 
 " 
 
 
 East Texas 
 
 6 
 
 " 
 
 Chicago, Mexican Central and 
 Rio Grande 
 
 None. 
 
 " 
 
 Texas Trunk 
 
 12 
 
 
 Totals 
 
 662.80 
 
 Texas is the tenth State in the Union in 
 respect to railroad mileage, and considered in 
 her relation to that gigantic scheme of rail- 
 road extension, which has for its object the 
 control of the carrying trade of our neighbor- 
 ing Republic of Mexico, is assuming a vast 
 importance. Situated, as she is, in an inter- 
 mediate geographical position, across her face 
 must necessarilly pass those great arteries of 
 trade which will soon send the life blood of 
 commerce from the east to the Gulf of Cali- 
 fornia on the west, and the remotest regions 
 of Mexico on the southwest. Much of that 
 vast country, grand in its resources, no less 
 than its extent, is undeveloped, shut out from 
 immigration and capital, hitherto by the lack 
 of transportation. 
 
 But two lines of railway are competing in 
 their race for Mexico. The Atchison, Topeka 
 and Santa Fe liave reached El Paso, in the 
 extreme western corner of Texas, connecting 
 with the Southern Pacific at that point. It is 
 now pushing southward into Mexico as fast 
 as possible, for the rich trafiic of that yet unde- 
 veloped country is a prize great enough to 
 prompt the most strenuous exertions. In 
 point of distance, however, what is known as 
 the "Gould S3'^stem," by its acquisition of the 
 
TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 5» 
 
 International and Great Northern Railway of 
 Texas, gains an important advantage. 
 
 That road has already reached a point 80 
 miles beyond San Antonio, Texas. From 
 that point the distance to Laredo, on the Mexi- 
 can border, is about 70 miles, thence to the 
 City of Mexico is less than 600 miles on the 
 map. But the air line distance from the 
 present terminus of the Atchison road to the 
 City of Mexico is about 1,000 miles. If there 
 be an advantage possessed by either road in 
 avoiding rough country, that advantage must 
 be greatly in favor of the Texas route ; but a 
 much more important point as to possible 
 ^ rapidity of construction, is that the builders 
 of the Southern line can commence on the 
 Rio Grande and build both ways, thence as 
 well as southwestward from San Antonio, 
 while the Northern road can be pushed from 
 one point only. And again, as to cost of con- 
 structions the advantage will be very gi-eatly in 
 favor of the route which can deliver its iron and 
 heavy materials on the Rio Grande by water, 
 while the Atchison road will be compelled to 
 transport everything nearly 1,500 miles by 
 rail, from the banks of the Mississippi to the 
 starting-point of its Mexican movements. 
 These advantages ought to be decisive. The 
 Texas road will be completed to the City of 
 Mexico years sooner than any other, and at 
 many millions of dollars less cost. 
 
 THE TEXAS AND PACIFIC RAILWAY AND THE 
 COUNTRY THROUGH WHICH IT PASSES. 
 
 When it first became apparent that the 
 necessities of the nation would soon require a 
 ir railway to the Pacific Ocean, engineers study- 
 ing the geographical features of the country 
 and the commercial necessities of the road, 
 designated the 32d parallel of latitude as its 
 proper location. Major-General, then Cap- 
 tain Pope, an ofiicer distinguished for his 
 scientific attainments, was placed in charge of 
 the survey. After a thorough study of all 
 the factors which entered into the problem, 
 he fixed upon the 32d parallel as the best for 
 the proposed road, and it has ever since 
 remained the favorite route. Although other 
 routes have been built and operated for years, 
 each recurring winter demonstrates anew that 
 near this parallel a road can be constructed 
 which shall be free from the annually recur- 
 ring vexation of snow blockade. 
 
 And it is a well ascertained fact, that never 
 will the American people possess a trans-con- 
 tinental road, open at all seasons of the year, 
 and fully adapted to all the growing necessi- 
 ties of commerce, until the Texas and Pacific 
 shall have been completed along the parallel 
 indicated. A glance at the history of this 
 enterprise will be interesting. 
 
 In 1852 the legislature granted a charter, 
 amended in 1854 and 1858, to what was known 
 as the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, 
 with a grant of sixteen sections of land to the 
 mile. This road was to begin at the State 
 line, twenty miles east of Marshall, and extend 
 westward to a connection with the Trans- 
 continental, or. in case of* a failure of the 
 latter to construct its line, then to build inde- 
 
 pendently to El Paso. No part of this line 
 was built before the war, and only twenty- 
 two miles during that period by the Confede- 
 rate government as a military expedient. On 
 the 8d of March, 1871, the congress of the 
 United States chartered the Texas Pacifi ' 
 Railway Company, the name of which was 
 changed to Texas and Pacific, granting the 
 right of way through the territories. 
 
 The initial points of this road on the Atlan- 
 tic and Pacific slopes were respectively, Mar- 
 shall, Texas, and San Diego, California, 
 with El Paso and Fort Yuma as intermediate 
 points. Texas approved this charter, so far 
 as her own territory extended. In 1872 Col- 
 onel Thomas A. Scott and his associates 
 purchased all the chartered rights and fran- 
 chises of the three roads, viz. : the Southern 
 Pacific, the Trans-continental, and the Texas 
 Pacific, uniting all under one and the same 
 corporation, viz. : the Texas and Pacific Rail- 
 way Company. During the long time that 
 these companies had existed, they had built 
 only forty-four miles of road within the limits 
 of Texas. 
 
 ITS EXTENSION. 
 
 Its initia. point is Texarkana, a growing- 
 and prosperous city on the line between Ar- 
 kansas and Texas, and the southwestern ter- 
 minus of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and 
 Southern Railway. 
 
 From this point two lines of the Texas and 
 Pacific Railway penetrate the State of Texas. 
 The Trans-continental division completed at 
 present westwardly across the northern tier 
 of counties, through Clarksville, Paris, and 
 other growing towns, to the city of Sherman, 
 a distance of 154)^ miles. This division is 
 now completed from Sherman nia Whitesboro, 
 Pilot Point and Denton to a junction with the 
 Southern Division at both Fort Worth and 
 Dallas. The main line extends from Texar- 
 kana in a southerly direction through the citj^ 
 of Jefferson to Marshall, seventy-four miles. 
 
 From Marshall the Southern Division is 
 completed eastwardly to Shreveport, in 
 Louisiana, an old city of some 15,000 inhabi- 
 tants, a place of extensive trade and one of 
 the largest cotton markets in the South. From 
 here the road is now being extended (under 
 the charter of the New Orleans Pacific Rail- 
 way) to the city of Ncav Orleans, distant about 
 825 miles. Negotiations have just been 
 effected which doubtless will result in the 
 completion of this road within the next 
 eighteen months to the aforesaid city, the 
 metropolis of the South. 
 
 From Marshall the main line of the Texas 
 and Pacific extends westwardly through the 
 important towns of Longview, Mineola. Wills 
 Point, Terrell, the city of Dallas, Fort Worth, 
 Weatherford, and on West. 
 
 The road was completed to Fort Worth 
 late in the year 1876, its terminus remaining 
 here until May 1880. Construction is pro- 
 gressing rapidly; grading on the fifth one 
 hundred miles is far advanced; track has at 
 this date been laid a distance of about 400 
 miles west of Fort Worth, and is progressing 
 at an average rate of more than a mile per 
 
GO 
 
 TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 <iay; and it is expected the track will be fin- 
 ished to El Paso, on the western border of 
 Texas, by 1st January, 1883. 
 
 The rapid extension of the Texas and Pa- 
 
 ific is opening up new and vast fields to 
 
 enterprise, and is infusing new life into the 
 
 country through which it is being constructed. 
 
 THE GULF. COLORADO AND SANTA FE RAILWAY. 
 
 In 1873 the enterprising citizens of Galves- 
 ton felt that it comported with neither the 
 dignity nor the interest of the chief seaport of 
 the Gulf, to depend for all connection with 
 the railway system of the country' on a single 
 line of road. The Gulf, Colorado and Santa 
 Fe was projected, with Galveston on tlie 
 Gulf for its initial point, and Santa Fe, New 
 Mexico, for its destination. Realizing the 
 truth of the maxim that ' 'the gods help those 
 who first help themselves," the projectors of 
 this enterprise built, equipped, and operated 
 the first sixty four miles before going into the 
 money markets of the world for that aid 
 which most roads ask before the first spadeful 
 of dirt is thrown. The Gulf, Colorado and 
 Santa Fe crosses from Galveston city, on 
 Galveston Island, to the mainland, on a 
 bridge two miles in length; passing through 
 the rich bottom lands, it crosses and makes 
 connection with the International and Great 
 Northern at Areola. Maintaining the general 
 direction to the west of north, it intersects the 
 Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio at 
 llichmond, in Fort Bend county. Next it 
 m.ikes connection with the Austin branch of 
 the Houston and Texas Central at Brenham, 
 in Washington county. Then it again crosses 
 the International and Great Northern at Mil- 
 ano junction, in Milam county, and thence to 
 Belton, in Bell county, where a connection 
 will be established with the Mexican extension 
 of the Missouri Pacific. 
 
 At Belton, or rather at a station called 
 Temple, six miles south of that point, the 
 road forks, one branch going northeast 
 through McClellan, Bosque, and Johnson, to 
 Fort Worth, in Tarrant county, where it will 
 intersect the Texas and Pacific, and establish 
 a through connection to the north by that 
 route and the Missouri Pacific road. 
 
 The other fork will go to the northwest 
 through Coryell, Lampasas, and other coun- 
 ties in the direction of Santa Fe. This will 
 be the main or trunk line of the road. It 
 may be added in this connection that the 
 Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe has constructed 
 and is opc^rating 300 miles of road, and has 
 all the financial arrangements made for the 
 building of 180 additional miles, which will 
 inchide the whole of the Belton and Fort 
 Worth branch and miles on the main line 
 
 INTERNATIONAL & GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY. 
 
 The g(Mi{Mal course of this railway and 
 branches is through the eastern and middle 
 portions of the State. On this line are many 
 of the leading towns of the State. The road 
 was commenced at Houston early in 1871, and 
 was known as the Houston & Great Northern. 
 The line from Longview to Austin was called 
 the International. Up to December, 1873. Ihf 
 
 roads were owned by separate and distinct 
 corporations. On the date named, a consoli- 
 dation was effected under the name of the In 
 ternational & Great Northern Railway. The 
 following will show the present and prospec- 
 tive length of the road: 
 
 Miles in operation: Longview, in Gregg 
 county, to Palestine, Anderson county, 83; 
 Palestine to San Antonio, 201; Palestine to 
 Houston, 152 ; Houston to Columbia, 51 ; 
 Troupe to Mineola. 45; Phelps to Huntsville, 
 8; Georgetown Railroq,d, 10; Henderson & 
 Overton, 15. 
 
 Total, 625 miles. 
 
 Miles in course of construction, San Antonio 
 to Laredo on the Rio Grande, about 160 miles, 
 of which some eighty miles have been finished 
 recently, leaving at the present time (August, 
 1881) a gap of only seventy miles between the 
 terminus and Laredo, most of which is graded. 
 
 The connections of the completed road are: 
 The Missouri Pacific at Mineola, giving a 
 through line to St. Louis and the East; TexavS 
 & Pacific Railway, at Longview and Mineola; 
 Henderson & Overton Railway, at Overton; 
 Houston, East and West Texas Narrow Gauge 
 Railway, Texas & New Orleans Railway, Gal- 
 veston, Houston & Henderson Railway, Gal- 
 veston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railway, 
 Texas Western Narrow Gauge Railway, Hous- 
 ton & Texas Central Railway, Texas Trans- 
 portation Railway, at Houston; Houston & 
 Texas Central Railway, at Hearne and Austin, 
 Gulf. Colorado & Santa Fe Railway, at Areola 
 and near Milano, and with the Galveston, 
 Harrisburg & San Antonio Railway again at 
 San Antonio. 
 
 At Laredo, on the Rio Grande, it is designecl 
 to connect with a projection of the line rua- 
 uing thence to the City of Mexico. 
 
 The extension to San Antonio was complet- 
 ed about the 15tli of January, 1881. 
 
 The present termini of the road are Mineola 
 and Longview on the north, and Houston and 
 .Jan Antonio on the south and southwest. 
 The various counties through which this road 
 runs afford all the varieties of Texas soil and 
 climate. 
 
 Through the timber belt, the advantages of 
 loamy creek bottoms for cereals and cotton, 
 and sandy hill soils adapted to fruit, are to be 
 added to the facilities for building, fencing 
 and fuel. Water in this region is generally 
 more easily procured than on the prairies. 
 The latter supply the most productive soils, 
 however, as the counties along the line of this 
 road from Hearne west give evidence. From 
 this place to Austin is to be seen a farming 
 country scarcely excelled in any part of the 
 State for fertility, topography and beauty of 
 agricultural, as well as plain, natural scenery. 
 
 The region traversed by the eighty-mile ex- 
 tension, from Austin to San Antonio, is re- 
 garded by many as the garden spot of the 
 State. In spil and scenery, it is of rare ex- 
 cellence. The never-failing Blanco, Comal 
 and San Marcos Rivers flow through this pari 
 of the State, and furnish reliable water-power, 
 now being utilized for flour milling and other 
 manufacturing purposes. Through well-di 
 
TEXAS: HER RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES 
 
 61 
 
 rected efforts, this road has added largely to 
 the population of the State, and now reaps the 
 benefit of its policy in a fine class of farmers 
 along its line, and several large towns, doing 
 a heavy business, and among these may be 
 named Palestine, the headquarters of the road. 
 
 As to the extension: Leaving Austin, the 
 line extends in a southerly direction, sixteen 
 miles in Travis county, passing over an undu- 
 lating surface, with a black, calcareous soil, 
 well timbered, almost all the way, immediate- 
 ly upon the line of the road, with live-oak, 
 pin-oak, cedar and pecan, while broad rolling 
 prairies spread out on either side of the tim- 
 ber; the valleys being rich and productive, 
 and the broken and hilly portion affording 
 excellent grass for pasture. Limestone rock, 
 of excellent quality for building purposes, ex- 
 ists in large quantities, and not only many 
 durable fences, but sightly and comfortable 
 dwellings, are also constructed of this valu- 
 able material. Persons seeking a healthy 
 country, where stock-raising and farming may 
 be carried on successfully, either separately 
 or in conjunction, and at the same time hav- 
 ing the facilities and advantages of a railroad 
 and organized society, should not neglect to 
 see this section. 
 MISSOURI PACIFIC RAILWAT-THE COUNTRY 
 WHICH IT TRAVERSES. 
 
 By the recent consolidation of the Missouri, 
 Kansas & Texas, and the Central Branch of 
 the Union Pacific with the Missouri Pacific, 
 this latter company is one of the largest in th(^ 
 United States. It traverses Missouri from 
 the east to the west, and from the northeast 
 to the southwest, runs through Northern Kan- 
 sas, through East Centre Kansas, and north 
 and south through the Neosho Valley, throu^-]. 
 Southwestern Kansas, and south through the 
 beautiful Indian Territory to Denison, Texas, 
 where it diverges, the Southwestern Branch 
 running to Whitesboro', Denton, Fort Worth ; 
 thence south through Johnson, Hill and M cLei i - 
 nan counties to a second connection with the 
 International and Great Northern Railroad, at 
 Taylor, in Williamson county. It is already 
 completed from Denison, in Grayson county, 
 to a connection with the Texas & Pacific at 
 Fort Worth, and is under contract the whole 
 way from Fort Worth to Temple, near Belton, 
 in Bell county; and grading and bridging 
 rapidly progressing. 
 
 The Southeastern Branch, from Denison 
 
 to Greenville, in Hunt county, has re- 
 cently been completed to its connection 
 with the Texas & Pacific and the Interna- 
 tional & Great Northern Railways at Mineo- 
 la, in Wood county. The Missouri Pacific 
 having leased the International & Great < 
 Northern, they may now practically be con- 
 sidered one and the same road, and two daily 
 express trains are now run from St. Louis to 
 San Antonio, Texas, by this line. 
 
 By these connections of the Missouri Pacific 
 with the International and Great Northern, the 
 great sugar belt of Texas has an outlet to the 
 markets of the East. The lumber region of 
 Eastern Texas, the sugar regions lying south- 
 west from Houston, and the te,eming fields of 
 Northern Texas are brought into juxtaposition. 
 The constant exchange of products arising 
 from the tillage of the country tributary to 
 this line of railroad, a country capable of sus- 
 taining an immense population, and admitting 
 an almost endless variety of productions, will 
 yield a tonnage wonderful in its immensity. 
 Along this line every variety of staple crop, 
 from the cereals of the temperate to the sugar 
 and fruits of the tropical zone, will find a 
 genial home in the soil and a climate exactly 
 suited to its maturity. 
 
 But an equally important result is that there 
 will be a direct line and immediate connection 
 between the Red River and the Rio Grande. 
 
 When this road is completed to the city of 
 Mexico, which will be in the near future, this 
 will be the principal avenue for the rich pro- 
 ducts of Mexico, and will promote a com- 
 merce with the neighbor republic of great 
 value. It will be of immense importance to 
 the stock-raisers of the great pastoral regions 
 of Southwestern Texas, furnishing them with 
 a direct through route to the markets of the 
 East. It will bring to notice and development 
 a vast section of the State which has hereto- 
 fore been devoted to stock-raising, on account 
 of its isolation and want of transportation. 
 
 The country in Texas, traversed by these 
 two branches of the Missouri Pacific, in con- 
 nection with the International & Great North- 
 ern Railroad, is one of enormous extent, and 
 presents every peculiarity and advantage that 
 Texas can offer, and every diversity of soil 
 and climate. The immigrant coming into the 
 State over this line, and traversing it through- 
 out its extent, who cannot find an " abiding 
 place," would be, indeed, "hard to please." 
 
»r 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Address of Col. Lang 5 
 
 Advice to Immigrants 51 
 
 Agriculture ,. . 51 
 
 Area 
 
 and 
 
 Asylums 
 
 Bees and Honey 
 
 Cattle 
 
 Cane, Amber 
 
 Climate, Temperature and Rainfall 
 
 Coal 
 
 Constitution, Provisions of 
 
 Corn 
 
 Cotton 
 
 l^ducation 
 
 Features of State 
 
 Finances 
 
 Fish 42 and 
 
 Flower Culture 
 
 Fruits and Berries 
 
 Fruit Culture 
 
 Game Birds 
 
 Game and Fish 
 
 Garden Vegetables and Melons 
 
 General Features 
 
 Goats 
 
 Grapes, Wild and Domestic 
 
 Orasses, Wild 
 
 Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad 
 
 Health 10 and 
 
 Historical Sketch 
 
 -Hogs 
 
 Homestead, Cost of making 
 
 Homesteads, How to acquire 
 
 Horses and Mules 6 and 
 
 International & Great Northern R. R .... 
 
 Introductory Statement 
 
 Iron 
 
 Labor : What it can do 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Land Titles, Origin of 15 
 
 Land, School ; How Purchased 15 
 
 Lawlessness, Is Texas a Land of 17 
 
 Laws 16 
 
 Livestock 29 
 
 Missouri Pacific Railroad 61 
 
 Northers 46 
 
 Northwest, Winters and Crops in 56 
 
 Oats 21 
 
 Pecans 7 
 
 Penitentiaries 45 
 
 Planting Season 20 
 
 Population , 5 
 
 Potatoes » 24 
 
 Poultry 42 
 
 Products for 1878 — Amount 5 and 6 
 
 Public Institutions 44 
 
 Railroads 57 
 
 Rainfall 47 
 
 Renting Lands 52 
 
 Seasons, Length of 49 
 
 Sheep and Wool 31 
 
 South- Western Imm. Co. , Purpose of 12 
 
 Stock 6 and 29 
 
 Sugar 21 
 
 Taxes and Finances 16 
 
 Temperature . 49 
 
 Texas a Workshop for Man 54 
 
 Texas & Pacific Railroad 59 
 
 Timber 7 
 
 Tobacco Culture 25 
 
 Water Power 9 
 
 Water Supply and Quality 50 
 
 Wheat 22 
 
 Wheat, Nicaragua — a Bonanza 24 
 
 Wild Fruits, Nuts and Berries o . . . . 26 
 
 Wool 31 
 
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A 
 
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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