San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1883-05-31
Value OF Texas Lands.
Texas siftings.

aoAa7 ehtabss
The almost phenomenal progress of
Texas during the last decade in all that
relates to the material prosperity, but
more particularly rs regards agricul-
tural development, is attracting uni
versal attention. as it well might,
Within that short period the States
population has more than doubled, the
frontier has been pushed back upward
of two hundred miles, the Wilderness
made to blossom like rose, labor-sav-
ing machinery has everywhere taken
the place of such farming implements
as properly belonged to the rudiment
airy stage of agriculture; new modes of
farming best adapted to the soil and
climate have been adopted, and III the
department of stock raising, the long
horn kline and scraggy sheep have al
most disappeared with buffalo and
the Indian, leaving their places to be
supplied with the Short-horn and Me-
rino. The evidence of these improv-
ments is afforded by the marked ad-
vance in the value of real estate, reach
ing at least 500 per cent. with strong
upward tendency still prevailing. Ranch
lands that eight years ago could be
purchased ut ten cents an acre, now |
command as high as three dollars
an acre and improved farming lands
within radius of ten miles from |
market, have gone up from six dollars
to thirty dollars an acre. At these fig |
ures the purchaser, thanks to willing
soil, and genial climate, and the diver
sity of revenue bearing crops, within a
few years realizes the full amount of
his investment from the fruits of his
industry, affording q presumption in
favor of the opinion-a presumption
supported by the judgment of many of
our shrewdest farmers-that the value
of this kind of real estate will reach at
least eighty dollars an acre within the
present decade. It is impossible to
estimate with any degree of certainty
what the fixed value of ranching prop
erty will amount to, as it must depend
chiefly upon the demand by the North
on Texas for her meat supply, and this
again will be governed by the charac-
ter of Industries that time will develop
in the North. At the present rate of
increase of Northern population and
Northern industrial pursuits outside of
the domain of stock-raising, which
seems destined to be contracted as
population increases, and in view of the
cheapness and certainty attached to the
Texas stock raising interest, it is by no
means an extravagant estimate to hope
that this class of land will have gone
up fully 400 per cent. ten years hence.
It is unnecessary to enlarge upon
what we have already said concerning
the development of the natural agents
to production in Texas, but it must be
interesting to the outside world to
understand the combination of causes
+ that have led to this magnificent re-
suit. As before stated, ten years ago
agriculture, in it's great departments OF
=, crops and stock raising, was conducted
according to primitive principles, and
with the improvidence that characterize
: ed the Texas veteran in all his relations
to worldly affairs. Syndicates having
\ large landed interests in the northwest,
and notably in Kansas and Nebraska,
through the medium of pamphlet liter
allure and live agents, had raised as it
1 we're, great Chinese wall between the
v immigrant and Texas. by belittling it's
natural resources and magnifying its
!, society evils, more particularly as con-
cerned security of life and property.
! ! Under the magnetic influence, however,
l of Jay Gould's golden wand, the tide
t of immigration was diverted from the
+ Northwest to Texas; spectators got
s astride of the wave and brought their
I property prominently before the capt.
, talists, and the latter in the certainty
of the profit that was clearly visible,
8 experienced no nervousness in in
:, vesting largely. But, while Mr.. Jay
Gould may claim the credit OF having
q turned the tide, the spirit of progress
t that animates the State Legislature
n toward granting liberal subsidies I'll
i. internal improvement must ever be re-
;. garded as the great underlying agent
I. from which the States resources have
:, grown. This, it is true, has not added
to the capacity Of the soil nor the salu'
britv of the climate, but it has led tc
! the extension of railroads, by which the
! despotic tread Of the iron horse has
- been added to the strong arm of the
Z hardy pioneer, in converting the vii
= derness into a garden. With these ac
n complishments. and the foundation fol
), the most magnificent school system
u "A system that knows no color, NJ
- race and has millions of dollars behinC
+ tive can afford, while claiming TO
h Texas no fanciful Elysium, to paint