The Waco daily examiner. [volume] (Waco, Tex.) 187?-1888, 1882-02-14
WACO AND TEXAS.
Impressions Of Il vveII-knOwn
Glear-H eaded Visitor,

tract the IOllONllG from II
WACO, TExAs.-On a trip throug
Texas I stopped at this town, situate
on the Brazos in McClennan county, i
about the latitude of Natchez. Think
ing your readers would be pleased an,
instructed by description of this par
of this vast State, | impart what inform
alton my brief sOjourn affords me. You
people are not generally aware of thu
fact that Texas in a great part is vas
prairie. Almost wholly treeless, the
surface as level as a billiard table, gen
orally, but now and then swelling into
gentle Undulations; IN fact, the country
resembles the ocean in calm. A vast
/ expause, bounded only by the horizon
the soil is as rich as the alluviOn of the
/ Mississippi bottom lands, IN places as
black as ink, with generally a great
depth, the sub-stratum being composed
OF what Is Familiarity known as rotten
/ limestone, of a yellowish color; while
the prairie character of the country
enables the settler to al once pillow and
plant crop. The absence of timber is
! of course much felt, and the materials
/ for building are brought from great
( distance. Common pine lumber is
worth 500 per 1000. The transportation
of lumber is a large source of employ
aent and revenue to the railroads.
Cotton, wheat and oats are pro
duced to perfection. Wheat and
oats are being largely cultivated
and the profits are, to a Louisi-
anian, almost Incredible will state the
yield per acre of those cereals as ascer-
tanned from many sources and upon the
highest authorities The wheat now
most in favor in this county is known
as the Nicaragua" is preferred for
its amazing yield per acre, and Its weevll
proof and rust resisting propertles-the
yield averages from % to 80 bushels per
acre, the former figure may be relied
upon rs a fair average, while the ordi-
nary wheat produces on an average Is
bushels per acre; oats yield an average
of 40 bushels per acre, and III quality are
umrivaled, as every dealer knows. Were
/ 10 relate the occasional extraordinary
Yield OF wheat and oats it would not be
believed, and l give only the averages.
But what Is most interesting IN relation
to the culture Of wheat and oats III this
country, is the extremely small cost OF
sowing and harvesting them. | must
say, before detailing the cost of produc-
tiOH' lItdl an VIC lIIBlbNtO IldtiIutTN
used in the west III cultivating and say
Jag the crops are used here universally.
As to the cost Of cultivation and harvest
ing, viii better illustrate the subject
10y taking Il single instance Mr. Sedge-
wick has in this vicinity 100 acres in
wheat and oats, and plows and sUws all
tins with four hands, using the famous
Chicago cHltivator piow, with six mules
i II, D
Or cultivator is nine feet wide-that Is. /
the frame-and plows fifteen acres day. |
sowing the seed at the same time One |
man does this blowing. or course, the /
blowing is not like that done in .
as the ground for wheat /
needs no deep blowing. But what q
contrast the result shows here to that /
presented IN your state, where heavy /
blowing, an army OF laborerS all the year /
round. and the result mortgages, fear I
tut and usunous interest, bad seasons, .
and IN fact the classic fable of the man
Sysiphus, who was doomed to roll the .
stone up the mountain, only to end
where he began. Such is the fate of
our sugar planters generally. Con
rasted with this Is the cheapneSS with
which the cereals are produced here.
Is | said, the gentleman named Whose
ase 1 name to Illustrate the subject
ultivates twelve hundred acres in wheat
nd oats, with four hands and the pillow
r plows named, sowing part of this
rop IN the autumn or winter and part
/ the spring When his crops are
lady for harvesting, he uses the reap
e machine, which not only reaps but
inds also. Then, while harvesting he !
nploys fifteen or twenty extra hands
II from three to five weeks. This is all
lie labor required i'll the cultivation and {
irvesting OF this vast crop. At one
ollar bushel for wheat, you can read
y estimate the profits of such a crop.
/ case OF failure, he cannot lose any :
ing. Not SO in Louisiana. A large
I'M has TO be expended, crop or no ,
op. This remarkable result is all
wing to machinery. The threshing is
me by steam. When the farmer :
mot afford q thresher he gets
done for one-twelfth. So
~ see the country is not de- o
.ndent on cotton it is of secondary c
lportance. Cattle and sheep raising h
a large factor IN the resources of this @
untry. Wool is attracting an active e
trrest, and sheep raising is developing I
pldly, but more west Of this than in
Is county. AS proof of the lucra-
7eness of sheep raising, 1 met a gen c
7man of noted wealth from the state
New York, who was there devoted to
Dol growing, but embarked more -
rgely IN 1t IN California, and now he :,
moving his sheep to Texas, for the 3
ason that this Is better climate and a
5 more moisture than California. For f.
e rapid accumulation of wealth from
modest beginning, there is no pursuit
sure as sheep raising.
50 you see the natural wealth, or ca in
city for producing wealth, that Texas "a
$50 many resources-not as in the ID
ton and sugar states, where the plan pI
has has eggs in one basket. Lands
valued according to their location:
)se near a town or on a railroad, with
1d improvements, are worth (particu- III
~ those near this town. from S15 to be
per acre. Others not as eligibly at
ated are worth from SO to So. lam
'aklng of the best lands, as in other
us OF the state lands are to be had at d
4 these prices. w,
Inc town of Waco is the best laid out "
1 4andsomest, excepting San Antonio tiC
/ Dallas, in Texas 1t has a cotton
tory, an oil mill, water works, Ii has
zee railroads and population of over Ju
lie thousand, and buildings are going
IN every direction. 1t has also q
ly newspaper, one of the best any
ere outside of the large cities. giving
~ the Associated Press dispatches. ~ ~
EXAMINER is conducted with dignity ~
a freedom from slang that might be c cp
tated prottably by many papers. nv,
he various Christian denominations sta
well represented by handsome fe,
riches. The Methodist church is n
eeful piece of architecture. resem-
lg DIR. Palmers church in your city.
must not forget the Telephone"
co has this institution in all its
and it has ninety subscribers. ro-
ne planters living near town have il l nn
Meeting their dwellings with the "
Il. The population of Waco is the
have seen, owing to the fact that ]
country was settled 10y large num- Be
5 Of people from the same neighbor- dd,
DIS ia the Older States; so that there the
homogeneous population-al old ha,
and friends, knowing each lee
1r IN days of yore-this is notably der