Dallas herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1849-1873, 1868-10-03
OUR HOUSTON LETTER.
IlnusrnN. Sent. II. $50

Judge y. NJ Buri0rd, Of Dallas, a
day or two since, Oh his way home
ir0m Galveston, | regretted Ia
: hear from him that the merchants Of
. Galveston gave the enterprise Of
opening tho Upper Trinity To nayi-
cation the cold shoulder, II seems
TO me they arc pursuing an exceed
ingly short sighted policy, and one
little calculated To advance the in
terests Of that city, Galveston de-
pends on tho handling of cotton rs
its principal source Of profit Tho
opening Of tho Upper Trinity TO
navigation would add 20, 900 bales
10 the Galveston market, and the
commissions, storage, drayage, in
suranee, etc, etc, on these 10000
bales in one year would about twice
pay Tor making the river navigablc
To Dallas, ] presume they look TO
SEQ the cotton como Ia them any
way, and hence see no necessity of
buying trade already belonging
10 them.
| trust that tho failure OF tho pco.
plo Of Galveston to respond 10 the
invitation Of tho people OF tho Up.
per Trinity will have no unhvor-
able effect upon the enterprise. The
river must be cleared out, and tho
steamboats, must load at your land.
ing, The capacity of your country
for the production Of commercial
crop is not yet dreamed of, aud at
n day not far distant both railroad
trains and steamboats, will be needed
10 connect you with our markets
here. Lot me thon urge the people
of Dallas to work away on their
navigation scheme, but keep an eur
open TO tho South for the scream of
the locomotive,
And speaking Of tho locomotive.
what is being done at Preston, on
Red river, regarding the meeting of
the Kansas and Central roads at
that point? The people there should
by all means bcstir themselves aud
SEQ that some other point does not
outbid them for tho conncction.-
Favorable sites do not always make
towns. In 1886 Josiah III. Bell, who
owned the town tract of what was
then Columbia. Brazoria county,
thought that nature had made that
for the capital of Texas. SO when
Congress asked for terms he had
mono to make. Congress was then
sitting there, and looking out for
seat of government Tho mc,abcrs
then turned their attention to the
hcadwatcrs Ct Galveston Bay. Mr..
Harris, who owned the town of
Harrisburg, believed that nature
had made that on purpose for big
city. 1t was at the supposed head
Of navigation, at the head of what
is called tho wide bayou. lie had
no terms to offer. A. G. e. J. X.
Allen, however had a bettor card
They made navigation fow miles
further up the bayou, laid Off the
town. undertook to build n capitol
in ninety days, called the place
Houston, got Congress to move here
from Columbia, and gave their en-
terprisc an impetus that sent it away
out of sight of the others. The
Columbia of that day, now West
Columbia, is made up Of about three
houses and n half, and has not even
a blacksmith shop. Harrisburg is
somewhat better, owing to its pro-
proprictors having had tho enter {
prise eighteen or twenty years ago s
to offer terms to railroad company {
and it has few hundred inhabitants, 6
but Is still nothing MS a business |
place. The moral Of all this is that s
the owners Of Preston will do well |
to send n delegation to the Kansas t
Railroad Company and consult with $
them about tho Red River crossing f
Of that road. Nature neither makes G
railroads or towns, or traffic of any f
kind. Nature did vastly more for 9
Columbia and Harrisburg, and for /
That matter, New Washington and !
Bolivar City, (now marked by
dozen ancient China trees on the v
banks of the Brazos,) than it did i
or Houston. And the enterprise h
hat built Houston would have more c
,asily accomplished the result at n
either of these points. But though j
nature is very good hand at max o
ng forests and prniries, navigablc
md unnavigable rivers, islands and p
'ceans, sho is of very little account b
n making cities or in directing the
curse Of trade.
| observe tho Galveston News
alks very learned y of hybridizing
,rapes, of first and second crosses,
# tartaric acid and sugar found in
mast by Beaume's hydromcter of
vildings, etc, etc, etc. would +
ike to say to the News that, SO far, N
cry few hybrid grapes have been $;
PRODUCED, and of those claimed to h
&c such very few indeed can be r
'rovcd to be so. The process is a N
ice one, and not ono attempt in IL
housand succeeds. To be sure, al
he Mustang being generally diccian
though not Observation-Disclosures a Ii
etter medium than usual for hy- W
but insects are numerous, n
nd often battle the best attempts of i
he hybridizer For the rest we n
hall do better to cultivate the best Ii
arieties we have. Sun and air and N
igh cultivation will itself improve l.,
ny fruit, and out of what VIC have al
4 all tho nurseries we can find =;
nouch to leave little to be desired
1 new hybrids ST
What a bother insects arel / II
hink they have destroyed well on II
} a million embryotic cabbages for y
le this fall Ny seeds gerrninate al
pparently, but before the leaves RI
II aboye ground they are devoured al
tterly. 1t is the same thing to q 80