The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-04-17
SOMETHING ABOUT TEXAS.

Northwestern Texas, in company with
my brother, Jas. B. Moore, left Ander-
son Court House on the evening of the
18th of March last, and went by the way
of Atlanta to West Point, at which place
we changed cars for Montgomery, Mo-
bile, New Orleans, Morgan City, and
from thence by steamer across the Gulf
of Mexico to Galveston, thence up the
Galveston Bay to within six miles of
Houston, making the remainder by rail,
and from Houston to Dallas on the Gal
weston and Texas Central Railroad, and
from there to Fortworth, thence by stage
to the city of Weatherford, in Parker
County, and Jacksborough, in Jack
County. Our business being in this
County, we remained in it for four days,
upon lands on the Trinity River--the
only time spent in the State outside of
the time spent on steamboats,, railroads
and hack lines. Therefore, under the
circumstances of such rapid passage, it
is not to be expected that we can give a
very accurate account of the soil, climate
and business of the sections of the State
through which we passed; but we think
we take no risk in saying that the soil is
by far the richest we have ever seen. Its
productive qualities are not likely to be
over estimated, and an average crop in
N. w. Texas is claimed to be from Is to
20 bushels of wheat, from 80 to 60 of
corn and about three -fourths of bale of
cotton per acre. No manure is used.
We never saw single sack of fertilizer
of any kind in the State. The lands in
N. w. Texas are not only rich and pro-
ductive, but they are in large quantities
already cleared and ready for the plow,
with suficiency Of scrubby timber for
fencing and building of log cabins and
out houses. Two horses, or yoke of
oxen, are sufficient animal power to draw
an eight or ten inch plow. The sod is
cut by the plow from two to two and a
half inches and turned completely over,
and when rotted the land is ready for
cultivation. To turn the sod in spring
or early summer fits the land for sowing
wheat in the fall; to turn it in the fall
for cultivation in the spring. An aver
age team of horses will turn one acre
day, and the same manual labor that
guides the plow here will guide it there;
in other words, a good plow boy here is
one there.
HEALTH.
The citizens claim the country to be
healthy, but you find many families who
suffer and are now suffering with chills
and fever, and many persons have pneu-
monia in Jack County this Spring-some
cases fatal-but the great majority Of the
citizens appear to be as healthy as any
people any where. The way many of
them live, in miserable huts, dirt floors,
&C., it would seem that they invite sick
ness and disease. I will state here that
while it is claimed-and it IS doubtless
for the most part true-that Texas has
more doctors than she needs, this is not
the case in all of Jack County.
WATER.
Jack is limestone County, as are all
the other Northwestern counties of the
State. Often nearly all the streams go
dry. The Trinity River was barely run
ming when we were there; but the creeks
and rivers when they cease to run do not
dry completely up, but stand in lakes,
furnishing plenty of water for the stock.
On the creeks and valleys are to be found
lakes disconnected with the creeks. They
are sinks, filled with rain water, and the
character of the ground is such that it
holds this water until it eraporates or is
taken out by use. The citizens, COWS,
horses, sheep, hogs and goats all use
water in common out of these lakes, and
as matter of course the water is as
filthy as it we'll can be. But they say it
is good enough, and make no effort for
better. In some places good limestone
springs are found, and the more indus
trious find but little trouble, for the most
part, to obtain well of good water, but
you often times fail to obtain water by
digging, and some times when obtained is
unfit for use. All persons can have good
cistern water as cheap in Texas as here.
The creeks and lakes have quantities of
fine fish, among them the blue cat.
IMMIGRATION.
There are, as to immigrants, two classes
of citizens in Texas. One encourages
immigration and the other discourages it.
Lawyers, doctors, merchants and, for the
most part, large landowners, encourage
and invite immigration, while the from
tiersmen and men engaged IN stock rals-
ing, for the most part, discourage it; and
as counties are formed and settled up by
us-the people from the States, as they
call us-this latter class move on to the
front, and will always be there. A per-
son desiring to settle in Northwestern
Texas, and especially in the frontier
counties, where lands are as rich and
productive as could be asked, will find it
no howery bed of ease, unless he has
sufficient money to buy a two-horse
wagon-for one could not keep house
without this-two horses for each plow
he wishes to run, which can be had for
thirty or forty dollars apiece. Add to
| thic fiftv dollars for farming implements