The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1870-06-09
Correspondence Of the News.
LETTER FROM TEXAS.

LETTER FROM TEXAS.
Description Of the Colmtry-Soil, Climate
and P,'oductions-IHu Immense Trade ia1 Cat
Ae-AgTicuLture and Manufactures Neg
Lected- Waste Of Natural Sources Of
WeaLtA-A Fine Field for Northern En-
terpriSe- Railroads - HoW to ERligrate,
&c. &c. &c.
Fort WORTH, Tarrant County, Texas, !
May IL, 1870. !
J. L. BoARDMAN, Esq.-Dear Sir: In our
last letter we promised to tell something
of Texas in this. We have travelled through
II or Is counties in the northern, central
and northwestern portions of the State,
visited a great many of the houses, and
made as many inquiries as any Yankee
would do.
Texas in area is considerably more than
sir times the size of the State of Ohio, and
about One-fifth the size of the Empire of
China, which contains a population of 45O
millions of inhabitants, or half the popu-
lation of the habitable globe. A large part
of the northwest of the State-the Llano
EsLacodo, or "Slaked Plains''-is compara-
lively unknown. There is probably less
known of that country than any other part
of the United States, but it is believed to
be an excellent grazing country, though it
is between four and FIVE thousand feet
above the level of the sea, and has but
little rainfall, probably in that respect
similar to all the country lying along the
eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains.
The soil, so far as our observation goes,
Is exceedingly fertile, generally black
loan, slightly sandy, and not at all Liable
to bake and sun-crack. Cereals of all kinds
almost, and fruits, if properly cultivated,
would yield abundantly and be largely re-
munerative to the producer, while as a
stock country it has no equal in the world.
The vast plains are covered with an abun-
dant growth of rich, sweet, nutritious
grasses, which are said to come up in sue
cessiOn all the year round, and "Job OF
~ was AO1 AACLOA III 1AOChS anu uBIuS
than some of these "Rancheros." Many
of them own from ten TO fifty thousand
head of cattle, which have a range of per-
haps hundred miles, and the only care
they bestow on them, is to get them to-
gether once year, and brand the year.
lings, and they may not see them again for
three or four years, until they get them
together for sale. The consequ is, they
are about as wild as the Buffalo on the
plains, and it is all a mans life is worth
to go into a herd on foot. Great numbers I
of the beef cattle are lost in the stampedes
the large herds indulge in while on the
way to market, and there is also consid- |
cradle loss in swimming the large streams /
they have to cross. Sometimes a herd of
a thousand wih get frightened, when-mid-
way of some river, and "mill - as they call /
it-that is, swim in circles and pile upon |
each other, and perhaps drown fifty or one
hundred. This risk of loss has a great in |
huence in keeping the price of Texas beef
as low as it is. Steers from four to eight /
years old sell here at twelve to twenty
AS to the assertion that it is in
ferior to american beef, we do not think it
true.
There will probably be two hundred and
fifty to three hundred thousand head driven
from this State to Abilene, Kansas, alone.
We have met from five to ten.thousand
lay for the last two weeks, and still they
come. The annual export of cattle from
This State amounts to considerable more
han a million head, and this number
would be more than doubled had they
railroads on which to ship them, as the
risk and cost of driving far exceed what it
would cost to ship by rail, besides con-
Iuming so much time on the road.
The general character of the country is
hat of high, rolling prairie. 1t is we'll
and abundantly timbered with
black, white and live oak, walnut, elm,
3ols d. arc, pronounced Bo-dOck) another
lame for the Usage Orange, which grows
lere three to four feet in diameter, and is
most excellent timber for the nlanufac-
ure of wagOns-and pecan, used in the
of whip-stalks and ax-helves.
The streams are abundantly stocked with
ish. Buffalo, pickerel, perch, catfish and
rout, of very large size, while there are
great many deer and wild turkeys in the
orests and on the prairie, and round the
rain fields abundance of prairie chickens,
Luail and plover, making it a perfect Par
disc for the sportsman. ,,
Land is worth from 25 cents to $50 per
ere. When the country was under the
Government of Mexico, and afterwards ,
ghen it was an Independent Republic, to ,
very actual settler who remained there, ,
vas given as a Homestead, three leagues,
nd Spanish name I cannot pronounce,
1uch less spell, amounting to six thous-
nd acres in all. A great many of them
old out their homestead certificates, for a r
lere nominal price, and there were not +
7anting spectators, who eagerly bought +
hem up, and a great portion of the land II
now owned by them. When Texas was o
nnexed to the United States she had a 6
ebt that our Government would not pay, q
nd it was stipulated in the Articles OF An n
exation, that she should control her own 4
ublic domain to pay that debt, and the
tate Government has fixed the price on
s land at fifty cents per acre, instead of
ne dollar and 25 cents, the price of the (
ublic lands of the United States, thus Of n
,ring a superior inducement to immi- a
rants. C
The climate is delightful. The heat of
le day is almost always tempered by a
reeze blowing off the Gulf at the rate of