The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1877-03-29
TEXAS.
An Interesting Letter. from a Mani.
towoc Boy.

DALLAS, IeXaS, Marcn 70, 1911.
The crops of northernTexas are cotton,
tobacco, wheat, corn, sweet potatoes, etc.
Your northern so-called Irish potatoes
do not thrive here, and the supply is
received from the north. They are con-
sidered a luxury, and, at the price, they
are for they are sold here at 81. 80 per
bushel. In the southern part of the
State sugar cane, coffee. etc., grows well
and is an article of export.
Texas is not, as represented, fruit
country, although peaches and grapes
do well. Apples, pears and cherry trees
do not bear, and soon die out The
soil is mixed from black wax, hog wallow
to red sand, interspersed here and there
with barren fields of limestone. It is
mostly rolling prairie, except along the
| rivers and creeks, where timber of differ
emit varieties, such as cottonwood, red
cedar, sycamore, bodeck, etc., are found.
The woods are now in their splendor );
the trees are fringed with green, while
the prairies are covered with beautiful
wild flowers. The cactus plant grows
wild and is considered nuisance, SINH
lar to your thistles. Cotton is planted
during February and March. Theground
is opened in drills, and the seed is plant
ed and cultivated the same as corn
blowing it only one way. After a GER
tain growth it is thinned, by chopping
| out, giving it a proper distance to ripen.
| Cotton picking begins about the middle
of August, and continues until about
Christmas. The pickers are mostly
negroes, who are experts in this occupa-
| ton. Supplied with basket, bag
is suspended from the pickers neck by
strap and is used to hold the cotton as
| it is taken from the boil, and when filled
it IS emptied into the basket, and so
continued all day. 1t is not hard work,
but monotonous. A good hand picks
from 20 to so lbs day. From the fields
it is brought to the packing house, where
it is ginned and baled, and ready for
market. The shippers take it to the
so-called cotton compress, where with
massive machinery and steam power
the bales are compressed to one-half of
their original size. A bale weighs 500
lbs. and averages one-half bale to the
acre. A cotton field in full bloom is
said to be grand sight.
A covered wagon, containing the fam
lily of disguised enigrant going back
north, passed through the streets few
days ago. On the cover of the wagon
was painted the following:
+TEXAs.=
There's long-horned cattle in Texas
Hog-wallowed and waxy land
1t beats the world to bust it,
1t does, by dam.
He who says that Texas is pleasant
ANY season of the year,
Is an awful liar, 1 tell you,
And my gentle voice you hear.
The weather for the last month has
been very warm /; some days the Their
nometor rose up to 80, but the nights
are invariably cool, the atmosphere be-
ing tempered by breeze from the Gulf
of Mexico. There are also some very
| sudden changes it will be hot all day,
and about 3 or o'clock in the afternoon
few black clouds arise in the northern
horizon. This is sign that the dread
ed Texas Norther is coming, and in ten
| minutes time cold wind will be blowing
and the thermometer drops down to 90
and often to zero. I experienced such
day on March 18th. 1t was so hot
that 1 was in doors most all day, with
the doors and windows open, my hat,
coat and boots pulled off to keep cool,
but all of a sudden norther sprang up
and in less than half an hour I had ON
my clothes and was sitting beside the
fire to keep warm.
The natives tell you it is nothing after
person gets acclimated. The fever
and ague season is coming, and don't
fancy accllmation worth a cent, for as
Mark Twain says 'sto be accI1mated no
two persons think alike, some regard
it as sort of initiation, like that into
the Free Masons, which renders one
liable to his regular dues thereafter.
others consider it merely the acquisition
of habit of taking every morning be-
fore breakfast dose of bitters, COM
posed of whiskey and assafoedita ont of
the reclamation jug. ANY Manitowocian
willing to go through the trying ordeal,
let him come to Texas and I will receive
him with joy, for the old maxim is,
MISERY loves company" Until then
1 remain, yours,
CHARLES BURMEIsTER.