Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1878-06-21
johnson. who drove us from Fl Worth

johnson, who drove us from Fl Worth
to Cleburne, told up that this grass, in
a dry time, would turn red and look
dead; that after rain the sap would
come up into the grass and it would
turn green again and make good feed.
It is the grass relied upon for. winter
feed for the cattle This land, where
cultivated showed good crops, but be-
tween Hillsboro and Waco there did
not seem to be much cultivated. We
came upon some settlements, and all
the farms showed that the land was fer
tile. The average price for unimproved
lands through this county, was from So
to $40 per acre. and the improved lands
were held at Is to 25 dollars per acre.
| There seems to have been no scarcity
of timber here, for the farms were most
ly fenced with rail fences, seven rails,
then staked and double riders Though
out on the prairie, we saw some barbed
wire fences, using four wires with posts
16 feet apart This fence is not liked
by stock men, but the law of Texas al
lows it as lawful fence, so they will
have to submit.
Waco is on the Brazos River. West
| VI Chio IlNci, VIC WIZ IOlu, Is very
broken country The hills covered with
cedar. We saw cedar posts at Cleburne
and Hillsboro, that they said came from
the west Of the Brazos, and were sold in
those towns at to 8 cts each, and one
man offered to get from 10000 to 100,-
600 posts delivered along there at Z cts
EACH, all to be goodsized and good
length fence posts.
We arrived at Waco at about 5 p. NJ,
and stopped at the Sturgis House. The
river is spanned here by suspension
bridge At the west end of the bridge
are some very nice springs, and the city
is now making waterworks for the pur-
pose Of supplying the city with this wa
ter. We went down and drank at the
spring. The water was nice and cool
and pleasant to the taste. Waco is the
end of the Texas Central railroad in
this direction. 1t is lively town of
some $1,000 inhabitants, large number
of whom are American citizens, whose
remote ancestors came to this country
from Africa as migrants OF an involun-
tary character. At Waco we took the
cars for Hearne. Leaving Waco ats p M
NJ we arrived at Hearne at II ?. NJ. We
could not see this country. The road
passes down the Brazos, and We were
told it was all the way through the tim
Der We lay at Hearne until 6 p M.
of the End inst, and then took the cars
for Texarkana Our stay at Hearne
had no interest attached to it, except
the sight of a flock of cashmere goats,
about 400 in number. We could not
learn from the herdsman anything of the
success or profit Of keeping them.
Hearne is in the timber; is very small
town, and has no Importance, except as
being the crossing of the Texas Central
by the International and Great North
ern r. r. We left Hearne at p. NJ,
and at daylight the morning of the Bird,
we were at Longview Our way, as we
were told, was mostly through timber
ed country, and it possessed no special
" attractive sights. Our road from
| Longview to Marshall was over fair
country for dryness, but timbered and
from the crops, as seen, rather light
poor soil. On leaving Marshal for Tex
arkana, we struck into swampy coun-
try. The chief occupation of the peo-
pie seemed to be the getting out OF cy-
press trees and making them into lum-
Der, and at some points on this road
were extensive lumber and single mills
This seemed to be the chief industry.
At Texarkana we changed cars; took
the St. Louis, Iron Mountain Il South
ern cars, and on leaving that town we
left Texas behind us, and went into the
wilderness of Arkansas, bordering on
the Red River