The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1884-01-29
SOM -ruINGs TO CONSIDER.

development which looks 10 the healthy
progress OF the state In population, wealth
and enlightenment, demand such action as
is best calculated TO encourage those re
suits. 10 do this paramount truth Is
that immigrants coming into the
state, aud those already here but
landless, must have the oppoi
tuni,y, whenever they have the Will,
aud the means, to buy land for homes, IN
so far as the state can control that matter,
the more than thirty millions OF acres held
by railroads or their assignees, the three
millions OF acres condIionally held by the
capital syndicate and the vast amounts
held by individuals or companies, are sub
stantialy beyond state control, except AZ to
the opening OF highways through them.
This last, a. an attribute OF eminent domain,
IL power which the state cannot sur
render without suicidal stupidity But
over the more than thirty millions oil state
school county school, asylum and the rem
nani, OF public lands, the state has abso'
lutte control as to the mode and manner OF
sale. A fair portion OF these lands are
ad ipted to agricultural uses aud some oil
them unsurpassed in fertility OF soil and
healthiulness. All CT them are adapted to
stock iaising, IL we except. the timbeTed
lands of the cast and limited spots In the
wet. To populate our unsettled and
tlinly.settled regions with thrifty agri'
cultural population, supplemented by
towns, schools, churches and shops, the
aids yet held by the state must be sold in
small tracts to those designing settlement
not exceeding a certain amount OF agrieul'
tural land aud an equally certain amount oil
graz ne land to each individual. This Is as
sumed as the only sale rule TO &C.
o1mplish the results. Exceptions
may arise, but they should
not be anticipated but allowed to develop
by time and experience. For instance,
suppose ut the end OF ten years there sho1ld
remain unso!d considerable tracts, which,
.causs OF poor soil and grass, failed TO
lit such as wished to farm and raise
ock or cotton on the quantities OF land
allowed, then in such exceptional cases they
CO lld:be sold in such tracts as TO secure
purchasers. This is analogous to the
I nited States plan OF graduated prices tor
refuse lands.
This in no wise interferes with any acquir'
ed right prior to the enactment OF the law,
whether by the poor man OF 100 acres or
the wealthy cattle man OF hundred
thousand acres. We are neither
discussing nor assailng their vested rights.
We are discussing state policy AS to what
belongs to the state.
Perhaps no intelligent man will, in the
abstract, dispute the soundness Of the posi-
ton taken; but many will at once raise the
STANDARD" objection that the west is unfit
for agriculture and adapted to grazing only
This assumption is emphaticAlly denied by
inieliseu experienced and disiuteresttd
men, who know that country well. But
admit its truth-then what? Shall 1t be
saLtscd by multitudes O. small stock men,
the precursors of school and churches; or
held by lew very rich men, chiefly or
re iident, as an uninhabited grazing ground
for their herds and ilocks? This is a
problem which all can understand and in
tn solution of which there can be little
d onbt among the great body OF the peoI 10
who live by legitimate means and .indut-
tries.
But In fact, as responsible and honorf-
bic men assert, the fertile lands of the
ives, are sufficient TO sustain heavy pop
ulation. II is said, in illustration, by
those who know whereof they speak, th,t
on single stream or draw" 4 the plains,
but not laid dewn on the map, on each
SIDE for l40 miles. on an average, each hal
m le front will make 100 acre farm, or q
total OF go farms. Throughout the dis.
t,nce excellent permanent water exists or
is obtainable by digging two to six feet in
the valley. This is, correctly speaking, the
double mountain fork of the Brszos
and It's course herein referred TO
is from the south west corner
of Crosby or north east o
Lubbock county up through the impror-
erly called yellow House canyon" to its
head at the centre Of Lubbock county
thence up to near the southwest corner o
Hale; and thence northwesterly aud west
through the counties of Lamb and Bailey to
the line Of New Mexico, for this stream or
draw" has its source some forty or fifty
miles inside OF that territory. north of ri
Portal. More THAI this, large majority Of
the land on either side Is fertile and sus'
cep,ible OF easy cultivation. For the first
sixty miles Of this distance on the east TO
the Blanco fork of the Brazos, an average
distance of over thirty miles, the land Is
nearly all good, and In It's midst, nearly
mid way between the streams, Is the four.
yea--old colony of Estacado. devoted ex.
clu lively to farming on land no better than
the average in the district named.
o her districts, generally in smaller
contiguous bodies, are claimed
to exist in innumerable local
ties. Actual results in divers plac7,
over that vast territory, as fully authenti-
Gated in the September editions OF the press,
sh ow. as in Estacado, that the country Is
adapted to agriculture.
Wnat shall be thought, therefore. OF leg
islaton to prevent the population OF such a
country, with q climate unsurpassed on the
continent 10 all that goes 10 develope phys
ical manhood? On the contrary, does not
the hiehss. Interest Of the state demand the
announcement OF IFS settlement?
TIE democratic lower house Of congres
Is creating quite q ru,npus In Washington
official circles. BREWSTER. attorney.
general" 10 growing uneasy and desires 10
he relieved from Office. kfErkR's lately