Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1884-06-06
A Free-Grass Farmer.

Men VINO uTe thlkluB uuoup iiSS
grass barons" gobbling the school
children's land should talk to Powell ,
Cole, farmer of Clay county, whose
views were reported yesterday. The
GAZETTE asked him about that dear
little children argument of the lease
men, and he said "What we want is
free grass to help the farmer in new
country raise his children; a man who
has attained a competency by free
gras $ in the old counties under the old
time policy of Texas knows better
than anyone else how he depended on
his cows to help the new farm produce
enough to eat for his wife and chill.
drep, and for him now to tell the West
to lease its lands in big pastures to
educate his children is id nonsense.
Their school tax is light, and its
reduction by all the lease money the
fund will ever get would not amount
to anything worth mentioning, and
nothing at all compared to what his
policy would cost the farmer strug-
Cling in a new country to raise his
children and make farming pay"
"But, Mr.. Cole, the herd-law papers
are beginning to intimate now that
farming cannot be made to pay in the
West,n said THE GAZETTE.
at will pay" said Mr.. Cole. II
have amassed a competency by farm
,, ing and stock-raising in what people
I called the 'drouthy country l have
/ dug and plowed the rain up out of the
ground, and while waiting for it to fM
: fed my cows on free grass; but VIVA
1 could | have done towards developing
5 the agricultural capacity of the West
I had not been aided ia critical time
;: by beef raised on free grass? Farmin!
20 will pay, and in less than fifteen years
d if we can have free grass to encourag
Z; and help us, all the West will be file
IS with farmers whose taxes will be NOR
~ to the school fund than all the land
40 40 leased would bring"
~ "But, Mr.. Cole, y said THE GAZETTE
va "you know this paper is the organ
i. the bullionaires-that it is the cattl
70 mans paper-are the people not afrai
-. of a trick in it's advocacy of fire.
p grass?n
~ "Let you. a2er keep on" said II
az old veteran, ''ani you Will get 500
no subscrlb rs; every one of 'em wi
10. take it when he knows what you al
+ fighting for, because they all agr'
os with you, and you'll win the figh
m If you were the organ of the devil IL
90 people won't care SO long as you a
lie right. They want free grass"
o.. "Mr. Cole, one more question" sal
THE GAZETTE as the gentleman 70
a.t to retire; "THE GAZETTE has asserte
Id that actual settlers will not ava
nd themselves of the law which permi
- . sale to actual settlers of land insi
;oh leased pastures. Now, we don't wi
MI. to misrepresent anything connect
Var with this discu ssion-are we correct
.;ra Eyes sir" said he, linen pass 1
,ao place occa.ionally-less frequent
now than before it got out to the wol
that Texas was leasing its lands
pasture cattle inland stop and ask
where public lands can be found.
=" refer them to the lands inside the
Wv pastures, but" and here the gen
GA, mans eyes twinkled, they say IL
eA don't want any of that ia theirs. w
on our own Texas people won't settle
w.. i side of pasture, and do you tn
'no men from other states will? No,
wing ,on 90 :. .horla ho ont
owner would suspect the nearest farI
"u .m of the deed, and thus an unpleasi
ness be originated"