The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1875-08-05
Our Texas Correspondence.
DALLAS, TEXAS, July Is, 1S7

In a recent account OF Cn0 fe1luleCOH
Farmers Association, the Iaatelligcncer
put Col. Elam Sharpe down on the NOR
tuary list. I am glad to be able to cor
rect this, as it has been my pleasure to
meet Col. Sharpe here in the flesh, and
find him in the enjoyment of ordinary
health and strength, with prospect be-
fore him of many years Of continued
usefulness to his family and country.
The Colonel has his residence four miles
west of Dallas, on a high promontory
iutting out into the prairie, with the Pa
cific Railroad running Immediately at its
base, this city in full view on the right
hand, the village of Eagle Ford-at pres
ent the terminus of the said railroad-on
the left, and the valley of the Trinity
River in front. It is one of the most at
tractive spots I have seen in Texas. Col.
Sharpe, though a resident here for only
three or four years, has attained the pop
ularity and consideration his high char
acter entitle him to. He is one, of the
school directors of the county, and will,
in all probability, be called upon at an
early day by his fellowcftizens to fill
other and higher positions.
I find very few South Carolinians in
this part of tho State. The greater por-
ton of immigrants from that State set
tied from one to two hundred miles South
of this. The reason of this, presume,
was because this part of the State was
supposed not to be adapted to the growth
Of cotton. 1t was looked upon entirely
as wheat and corn country. This idea
prevailed until after the closo of the war,
but it is now entirely and properly explo-
ded. That it is wheat country, and
perhaps as good wheat country as can
be found in the limits of the United
States, I think the crop made this year
abundantly proves. have made it my
special business to try and ascertain what
the average production per acre was, and
to get accurate information have sought
| it from persons who have been engaged
for six weeks with field threshers thresh-
ing the crop. Their statements warrant
me in placing the average yield at little
over thirty bushels per acre. Some had
threshed crops that did not exceed twenty
bushels, and one had threshed crop that
reached forty-one bushels; but the most
of them concurred in placing the average
at from thirty to thirty-three bushels.
The same land that produces these crops
of wheat will readily yield fifteen hum
dred pounds Of seed cotton, if the season
is at all favorable. And all this, too,
without being bothered with putting in
manure. It's the virgin soil that thus
lavishly rewards the toll of the husband
man, and from the looks of the corn and
cotton in fields that have been cultivated
for thirty years, would say that it is in
exhaustible.
From the feet that it was supposed that
cotton would not do we'll in this part of
the State, it happened that very few ne
groes were brought here. The country
was settled up by immigrants from the
Northwestern States, and by small farmers
from the Southern States who moved out
of the way as the large slave owners
needed more lands for the cultivation Of
cotton. AS consequence, the negro is
not an element in politics here. 1t is
emphatically white mans country.
Lands vary in market value according
to their nearness to or remoteness from
railroads. Within five miles Of this city
the price varies from thirty to one hun
dred dollars per acre; ten miles from the
city, from ten to thirty dollars per acre,
and at fifteen miles from Dallas as good
lands as there is in the world can be
bought at FIVE dollars per acre. One
Hundred miles west of this place as desi-
rable land as there is in the State can be
bought in any quantity that may be de-
sired at one or two dollars per acre.
Dallas is considered one of the well
settled counties of the State-the popu-
lation being about thirty thousand. 1t
is i'm the form of a square, extending
thirty miles from north to south and
from east TO west. 1t contains, therefore,
nine hundred square miles, or five hun
dred and seventy-six thousand acres.
Of this amount the assessors and collec-
tors of taxes report seventy thousand
acres in cultivation this year. The Trim
ity River runs diagonally through the
County from the northwest to the south
east, with several large creeks emptying
into it in its passage. Estimating the
amount of land occupied by the river
and it's tributaries at one hundred thou
sand acres, would leave four hundred
thousand acres in this one county that
has never yet been tickled by the labor
er's toll. The State owns eighty millions
of acres Of land, over great part of
which the savage and the buffalo roam
undisturbed. This comprises about half
of the territorial extent of the State.
From these figures your readers can
form some idea of the vastness of Texas.
Its indeed all empire in itself; being
larger than all the New England States,
New York and Pennsylvania together.
Why any white man should continue
to scratch precarious living out Of the
impoverished soil of South Carolina, and
at the same time be harassed by the un-
avoidable surroundings Of his location,
when he can get as much land in Texas
as he can cultivate by simply settling on