The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1880-06-17
THE LONE STAR STATE.
A Giles countian Gives a Cheerful
Description of Texas Farming
Region, Where the Soil
Sprouts Spondulicks.

JOHNSON Co., Texas, June 10th 1880.
EDITOR CITIZEN Perhaps a few
items from this far of spot will not
be unpalatable to the old folks at
home. 1 am domiciled in johnson
county, near the centre of the state.
The county is about equally divid-
ed between woodland and prairie.
The timbered land varies in color
from q dark TO a red sandy. 1t is
very rich. producing in a seasona-
BILE year from 80 to 60 bushels of
corn per acre, according to the
mode of cultivation. Good farm
ers never make less than 80 bush
els in the most unfavorable years.
Even an indifferent farmer, who
sits on the ferce the year through
and picks his teeth, can keep up
his circulation and make q good
living. / do not overdraw this pic
ture, figuratively speaking-I mean
to convey the idea that even a
careless farmer does not suffer, so
generous is the soil. The land will
also make from eight to twelve
hundred pounds of seed cotton per
acre. Wheat does not grow as we'll
on the sandy land as on the prairie,
but we make enough for home con
sumption, averaging ten or twelve
bushels to the acre. Oats are a
sure crop, seldom, If ever, failing.
Last season we had the shortest
crop in ten years, but most farmers
made from forty to fifty bushels
per acre. The soil is favorable to
barley and rye, but neither is grown
to any considerable extent. Pota-
toes, both sweet and Irish, do well,
Tut the ground must be tried year
or two before you can count on an
abundant crop, for some localities,
which appear favorable at first, ul-
timately give place to the rot,
which proves fatal. This is a per-
picking peculiararity of the soil
with regard to this vegetable.
The prairie land lies on both
sides of the timbered land. The
prairie on the eastern side is called
the Mountain Valley, because it
lies - the foot of a range of high
hills. Here the soil is the richest
l have ever seen, growing cotton,
wheat, corn and oats in profusion.
Farmers in this locality, who prac-
tice even ordinary industry and
thrift, are fast growing rich. The
western prairie lands are not so
well adapted to the growth of cot
ton and corn, as the timbered or
eastern prairie land. The soil of
the latter is either "black sandy"
or "black waxy," some-of 1t stick
ing to the fingers like tar.
The smallifruits, as a rule, do well
all over the coun Y, but they must
be protected during the winter.
Apple trees, from some unaccounta-
BILE cause, are a complete failure.
Some OF them will attain the proper
growth for bearing fruit, and then
tie roots will begin to decay. look
ing very much like they had been
drenched with scaldIng water.
The water supply is obtained by
digging, running springs being very
scarce; in fact, there are none here
that can be relied on the year
through. For our own use we dig
wells, the depth varying from y
to so feet. Cattle and other live
stock are watered from tanks Con-
structed for the purpose. These
consist of q dirt dam stretched
across a gully where the water &C
cumulates during the rainy season
and remains through the summer,
pure and good. Some of these
tanks will swim a horse.
Society is good. We have law
yers, doctors and preachers CT aver
age ability, and in numbers suffi-
cient to meet the legal. physical
and spiritual requirements of the
community; but we are also cursed
with a set of roughs who occasion
ally dis6gure our annals with their
lawlessness, but these are fast dis
appearing as men of better stuff
and resolute moral calibre settle
among US. A very large proper
ton of our farmers are from Tenn
essee and some of them melt into
tears when they think Of old Giles,
the favored spot where they first
saw the light. One of these is
your present correspondent,
RAMBLER.