The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1881-09-01
TEXAS.
her RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES,
The Land of Plenty and Promise. Unsur.
passed by any Country in the World.
Full, Correct and Condensed Resume OF
Our Attractions.

PAPER READ by COL W. W. LANG, OF TEXAS
BEFORE THE FARMERS CLUB, COOPER UNION
NEW YORK CITY, MARCH s, 1881.
1t is difficult by the mere statement O
square miles by the hundred thousand and
acres by the hundred million to convey any
just idea of the state which forms my theme
this afternoon. 1t is only when we com.
pare her with the other states and nation
alities that the mind rises to some appre-
citation OF her magnitude of her immense
capabilities, aud of the glorious future that
awaits the development of her limitless re.
sources.
When / tell you that Texas contains ga.
1856 square miles, or 175, 5S7, $40 acres, make
a very prosaic statement, which carries
with II very little appreciation of the actual
fact that this state of Texas is as large AS
six such states as New York. In acres and
square miles the empire state of the south
Is SIX times the magnitude of the empire
state of the north
Place Maine, New Hampshire, Massa.
chusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, Con.
necticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsyl-
yania, Delaware, Ohio and Illinois close to.
gethcr, and the territory of Texas will cover
and overlap them all 5000 square miles.
Should we divide Texas in the middle,
the one-half will equal Great Britain and
Ireland.
Massachusetts supports q population Of
iS6 to the square mile; were Texas popu-
lated IN the same ratio her census would be
6l,O3O, ZIG, which is equal to that of the
whole United States.
As we look a little further we shall see
that if cold, bleak, rocky Massachusetts, can
sustain population of 1856 to the square
mile, Texas, with her genial climate, her
fertile soils and varied productions can do
much more. n
THE CROPS.
Texas contains about nine degrees of
longitude and eight degrees of latitude, but
her peculiar surface configuration gives her
q much more varied power of production.
All the productions Of the temperate zone,
and many of the torrid, flourish in Texas
cotton, all the cereals and grasses, rice,
sugars, tobacco, oranges, bananas, olives,
guava. Texas produces, with almost equal
ease, all the grains and meats that support
life--the cotton and wool which clothe it
the fruits that, like those of Eden, are pleas
ant to the taste, ard the tea and the silk
which are its luxurics.
In 1850 the production of wheat was less
than 80 600 bushels, and he who should have
predicted its successful culture in any save
the counties of the extreme north would
have been regarded as wild visionary.
Yet in 1873 the wheat crop was 100000
bushels, and its production is now only lin
tied by market facilities. 1t ripens month
earlier than the wheat of more northern
states. In centennial year the first sack OF
Texas flour reached Galveston MAY IS. 1t
was sold at auction for handsome sum and
sent to the emperor of Brazil; while the price
bought many sacks for the orphans in the
asylum.
Texas wheat weighs from sixty-two to
sixty-eight pounds the measured bushel,
and flour made from II passes the tropics
without danger Of fermentation or souring.
The balance Of our trade in favor Of Brazil
is about thirty-fve millions, every dollar OF
which might be saved by increasing the pro-
duction OF Texas wheat and the expectation
Of Texas flour to pay for Rio coffee. A care
full estimate shows that Texas can produce
sixty-four millions Of bushels, or one-eighth
OF the entire wheat crop of the United States.
without interfering with her other crops
The total acreage of the nine S prippsipol
crops Of the United States-corn. wheat.
oats, barley, rye, buckwheat hay, potatoes
and cotton-is 143, 1883 acres. Texas
could produce all these and have a surplus
OF 81 ,3O3, al acres for other purposes. She
could not only contain the population of the
United States, but she could raise ali the
principal crops for homo consumption and
foreign export they produce.
This Is what Texas might do. Let us see
what 1t is that she does do.
Returns from sixty-eight shipping points
give the following aggregate results of
Texas produce. While these figures do not
reach the entire production, they indicate
its magnitude,