San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1882-11-02

cedar on the BlaZos. lheio ii''S
appropriated by Congress, and eX'
nended in opening the mouth OF tins
river. $4,000, and Congress, at its
session Just closed, appropriated $780,
600 more, which, il judiciously ex'
pended, will place the jetty line lar
ont in the gulf and across the BAR
which fills the channel and prevents
the entrance of large vessels. The
bottom lands along this river are
wider and of a larger area than the
majority Of Texas navigable streams,
and a majority of the sugar plantations
are located along its borders. Cotton
| is extensively raised, and is really the
principal industry of what should be
a prosperous sugar region.
OYSTER creek is about SIX miles east
of the Brazos, and has about the same
reputation as to richness OF SOL as
Old Caney. The soil is remarkably
rich. and is of the yellow or reddish
sandy loan, which is the delight OF
all planters, and is really better
adapted for sugar than 1.-THE black
waxy. This rich belt extends lar up
into Fort Bend county, and at what
is called Sugar Land are some OF the
largest plantations in the State.
Flores bayou and Chocolate bayou are
in the extreme eastern end OF the
county, and while not good for cane'
are excellent cotton lands, and FUR
nish plenty of water for the immense
herds of cattle roaming over these
large and splendid prairies. This IS
grand total of seven streams that
empty INTO the gulf and water the
sugar bowl, atfording plenty OF water
for stock and navigation purposes.
No country covering as small an area,
OF with such resources and riches, can
boast of being fed by as many
streams.
Now that we have located the
country embracing the sugar bowl
proper, and it's rivers, and the places
adopted to sugar culture, let us go
back again to sugar culture and sum
up the profits to be made by it. The
cultivation of cane is peculiarly
adopted to white labor. tits the east
est cultivated and the most healthful
to handle Of any of the Southern
products. 1t really takes less time
and labor to cultivate than corn, and
about half that of cotton. In the
first place, it is only planted once in
from five to seven years, and all the
work is done before the hot season
commences. There is no gathering
or harvesting until fall, and then
"sugar-rolling" is good for sick
man. What is needed here is the in
PRODUCTION of capital, the establishment
of sugar mills, and the importation of
small farmers who will raise the cane
and sell it for fair price, delivered
at the mill, and this dividing the labor
and profits, as well as an equal divi-
sion of capital. There is no sort Of
farming that pays as well to the num-
Der of acres cultivated. There is one
plantation in Brazoria county that
has 600 acres of cane upon it. From
these 600 acres $4,000 was cleared
one year. Another place, in Fort Bend
county, last year was in the hands of
incompetent men who wished to sell.
A gentleman well known in the State,
using convict labor, seeing chance
for splendid speculation, waited I'm
til after the crop had matured, bought
the plantation for 100000, manufac-
tured the crop and made enough to
pay for the place. A gentleman living
on Gulf prairie, on the Brazos, mea-
sured off less that ten acres, and
out of the cane on this land over forty
hogsheads of sugar and eighty barrels
of molasses were made. This sugar
was worth $4,000 and the molasses
$1,000, a total of $4,000. Sugar
will average one year with another $50
an acre. And now where is the COM
parison in raising wheat at not more
than S2O an acre, OF corn at not over
thirty bushels an acre, or even fifty,
and long, hard winter to feed it to
stock. This is a matter for the North
ern farmer to consider after he has
the chilly blasts of North
ern winters, feeding his stock nearly
the year round, whilst here stock
work stock-is never fed, except when
in active use. But some one will ask:
Can all farmers do this well?" We
answer, mo. But most of them could.
Bat suppose they do half as well, it
pays better than anything else.
The lands capable of producing
sugar can be placed at 1000, 900 acres,
at the lowest estimation. Allowing