The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1882-02-23
NO. 30.

I. sons to do honor to their countr,
: IN Its councils, at its bar and on il
= bench.
That is my plea to-day before thi
intelligent audience.
: Let us get up a compromise be
: tween the farming interest and Tho
stock interest.
You have had no chance of oh.
tanning a permanent foothold in this
country. Our school lands are
chequered with RAILROAD lands. Ii
Is not to their interest to sell their
lands at present. They do not
want to sell them. They do not sell
them. Sometimes they do if they
can get what they consider a fair
price for them. But they lease their
lands, and so we should lease.
When they do not sell, we cannot
sell 10 any profit. We must lease.
But they do sell, and when they sell
we ought to sell.
L stated a while ago that we must
compromise the agricultural and
STOCK interests. Let us see how we
can effect compromise between
the farming interest and the stock
interest.
If you go to eastern Texas or mid
ole Texas, or western Texas as far
out as IT is settled, you will find that
COtIOI. 80, Ostsrs.,s-s -.
south. Go to the extreme west and
1t is not practicable. Therefore
the farmer that only owns 100
acres of land cannot make living
there. What is it? What point is
il in this country that will be made
middle ground, west of which we
may grant leases to any men-stock-
nen-or sell them any amount?
As l have stated, in the east you
cannot buy the land; it is all taken
up; and in the middle and in the west
it is settled.
The farmer has no business to go
to the far west to cultivate mixed
crops, for he can not raise them.
The farmer woDld do better to
buy him twenty-five acres of good
land out here and 90 to work on il,
than TO have five times that amount
given TO him in that dry country.
He could only, if he were there, set
tie on the streams, as they did
twenty-five years ago i'll Dallas,
Ellis and other places where the
country is now dotted all over with
fine farms.
To go out there farmer must
have $1,000 to start with. He must
carry, by the railroad, his plank for
building houses, and his plank
or wire for fencing. II was
not so when came
here forty years ago. A man did
not need a hundred dollars, and
in fifteen years he would be good
farmer, making money. A large
portion of the country has to be set
tied up by men with capital suffi-
cient to develop it. That country
is subject TO great disadvantages in
regard 10 timber, water and
droughts, to which it is subject.
Therefore, we wish to find line
of longitude beyond which it is not
profitable for a farmer to 90, but
where it is profitable for a stockman
to have his ranches.
| do not profess 10 be
sufficiently familiar with the
country to define that line as some
of the gentlemen here, but that line
would probably be 1909 of longi-
tude. 1t may be that beyond that
line great wheat farms may be es-
tablished, for wherever good grass
grows In country small grain can
be raised there, if the right sort is
! selected; and the country now oc-
cupied by the stock may be con-
verted into great wheat fields in the
| future. And it is for your interest
| that it should be done. 1t will not
do TO say that where millions OF
buffalo roamed over this country
and subsisted in all seasons OF the
year, even in the hardest climate of
Texas. that men cannot go there and
make living.
In ascertaining that line of longi-
tude, Irequest you to take this mat
ter into consideration and make a
recommendation to the legislature.
All the regions of country where
corn will grow on the highlands,
you will have to give up to the
farmer.
Fix that line and let the legisla-
ture determine that large sales and
leases of lands may be made west of
that line, until we can get stock
interest that will feed the whole
country.
When that line is determined,
land should be sold at reasonable
price, with reasonable interest,
and where parties are not able to
purchase the land, they ought to be
allowed to lease it, paying rent
thereon according to the value
of the land. That is equitable.
You are not going to have the use
of these lands any longer without
paying for them.
Great fortunes have been made
upon the children's property ;but we
are going to legislate upon it, if we
can have it done-nad wish it done
i wish to promote the agricultural.
the stock, and the farming interest,
and in doing it | want your help, as
men that expect to leave a posterity
who will have to be educated, if not
in the higher branches, at least in an
English education. You must be in
hurry about it.
A gentleman from California, who
came here to aid us about out
university, proposed, as soon as he
could ascertain that we intended to
lease lands, to get up syndicate in
California and come here and lease
100000 acres of our university lands
in the west.
Question by Mr.. Free Green--"At
how much an acre will he take that
land 7"
Governor R.-We will make q
calculation about that directly. l
will give you the figures, but l
want to get through with this.
Suppose we lease lands at rate
/ ,Iir1r A1, Aho i,,Anrnnh rf tho