San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1882-08-03

the struggle pebWoen "Ae~NSN
United States for its possession; and'
finally, by the disasters incident to the
rebellion. Now, let us look at the
topography of the two States; The
area of Kansas is 81,3lS squaae miles,
that of Texas 274,256 square miles.
This is larger than France, Austria, or
the German empire; it is greater than
the United Kingdom of England Scot
land. ireland and Wales; larger than
Greece, Switzerland, Denmark, Bel
gium, the Netherland, Por ,ugal and
all the New England States COM
bined more immense in its area than
Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island,
Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland,
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Delaware, Illinois and Ohio, combined.
The average length of Kansas, 4Oo
miles; breadth, 200 miles; area, 81 ,3lS
square miles.
Railroads 1872, when l visited
Texas, there were but 359 miles OF rail-
road; there are now $500. Kansas has
3,1O4 miles.
Education.-The educational facili-
ties of Texas are without parallel in the
history of mankind; there are 81, 100000
dedicated to common schools already
invested in bonds; between 4O,0OO,OOO
and 50,OOO.000 acres of lands, worth 81
to So an acre, which will increase the
public fund to $1O0,O00,0O0 and will re-
alize $5,0O0,000 more in revenue; in
addition, each of the 235 counties in
the State has set apart toit four leagues,
or 17,712 acres of land, as an absolute
common school fund, which will in
crease the public school lands to about
60,000,000 acres, and, in addition to
this, one-fourth Of the general revenue
of the State, and 81 for each poll, goes
into the school fund. One million two
hundred and nineteen thousand and six
acres of public school landss were set
back by law, thirty-fve years ago, for
a State University, now worth 50 per
acre.
Kansas has a system. of free schools
under State board of education, grad.
ed schools, free State university, a
State agricultural college, State normal
schools, institutions for deaf and blind,
UNCONVENTIONAL colleges and universe
ties, a lady, college and many parochial
schools and academies. There is per-
manent school fund, county and school
district taxes.
Agriculture. less overwhelming
are the statistics of agriculture of Texas,
including wheat, cattle and cotton. A
recent writer states some figures in this
connection which are almost incredible,
his advocating new line of. railway
between the Indian Territory and Texas
to the Mexican border, and this is the
way he illustratesit: Your local trade,
he says, will be immense. Consider
that your road will run some $50 miles
through Texas. This will give you an
area of 81, 100000 acres. Should only
one-forrth of this be planted in cotton,
and produce but half bale per acre, it
would yield 2,640,O bales, and if olny
one fourth was put in wheat, and pro-
duced only ten bushels to the acre, it
would be 52,800,00O bushels. 1t would
take SO 600 cars annually to remove the
cotton crop, allowing each Car capacity
of thirty bales; and it would require
$4,000 cars annually to remove the
wheat crop estimating 600 bushels as
car load this would make ninety daily
trains of twenty cars, each 365 days in
the year, to remove the wheat
and cotton alone, to say nothing
to the thousands of carloads of cattls.
and other products. One million two
hundred thousand bales of cotton,
worth $50 per bale, or S60,000,000 were
produced last year, one-sixth of the
total crop of the whole South; and if
only one sixth of the cotton lands in
Texas were cultivated they will produce
more cotton than is now grown through
out the world The fine st beef sold in
the Norther Markets, and in Europe is
taken fat from the prairies Of Texas,
and these and the slaughtered cattle
aggregate 100000 a year, and ale worth
S2O.OOO,OO0 annaually.