San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1885-01-29
The Great Question OF the Hour Ia
Texas.

was telegaphed to the late Stock
Convention at Austin from the North
west part Of the State that 100000
cattle had drifted against the fences
in this direction andwere in imminent
danger OF perishing from cold and
starvation; and an account from a
different quarter stated that some
80, 1000 were thus drifted, and that il
would DO necessary 10 cut the fences
in order TO give them a chance for
life.
These accounts are but rspetitions
Of what we have every winter OF the
wholesale loss OF stock in Texas. The
losses in this way have been i'm
mense, TO say nothing Of the cruelty
OF this style Of stockraising.
What is the remedy We com-
mend 10 the consideration Of our
readers the following letter bearing
on this subject, which We find in q
late issue of the Stockman, published
at San Antonio, 1t is dated Sher-
wood, California, Dec. Oath, 1884.
Read;
I am home from an extended trip
over the great State Of Texas, and on
the whole like it, though there are
some serious objections to it as there
are to any country. and one OF the
worst is scarcity OF water for stock
and for drinking. But this trouble
has already been partially met by
means OF wells and tanks, and will be
overcome to o still greater extent in
the future, Artesian wells for pur
poses OF irrigation and supplying
8 ok with water have proved a sue
cess in California, and why they
should not be made to serve an equal
ly good purpose in Texas 1 am I'M
able to see.
The present system of stockrais-
ing in Texas is the same as prevailed
in California twenty years ago, but q
revolution in stockraisir,! hf1 taken
place in this country, and few years
will see the same in Texas. Instead
of the land being owned by the gov
eminent and used by everybody in
mmon, it will be owned in limited
tracts by the people who will fence
and otherwise improve it, keeping
their own stock inside and other PEG
pies stock outside the fence. In this
S::ate, where twenty years ago the
cattle roamed at will, with never a
fence to turn their course, one may
travel one hundred miles and never
miss fence on either hand, and
while your old-timers may not like it,
to this complexion must it come in
Texas, though it will not be twenty
years coming. And when this time
comes you will have better and a
richer country and better society,
thnugh I am bound to say that u
hearted or more hospitable
people than inhabit Texas it was new
or my good fortune to meet. In
California the impression prevails
that Texas is settled up by rough
class of people, but this is q wrong
impression, MS / am able to testify.
! When Texas offers proper encour-
agement to actual settlers to locate
and improve her public lands; when
the large pastures are cut up and sold
in smaller bodies; when the lands are
fenced and proper provision made for
water and feed, you will have a grand
er country in Texas than is dreamed
of by the most sanguine of your peo-
pie.
The above seems to us to be de-
sirable solution of the problem un
der consideration, and also of others
of even greater importance. When
Texas was in state of nature, her
entire surface only sufficed to sustain
few nomadic Indian tribes. When
William Of Normandy conquered
England, he laid waste countless
farms and hamlets to constitute hunt
ing grounds for himself and fellow
marauders, and from that time on it
has been lamentable fact that
"The man Of wealth and pride
Takes up space that many poor sup
piled"
Such has been and is now more than
ever the drift of things in Texas.
But it cannot continue; one would
have to be a downright atheist to be.
lieve it can. 1t is moustrous to sup
pose that system akin to that of the
Comanches of former day, and to
that of William the Conquerer of
Mother England, can be established
in this great Empire State of the
Southwest to the exclusion Of the
actual settlers, their wives and little
ones-the real strength and glory of
every civilized land where free insti-
tutions prevail.
We say, then, let the California
system of stockraising, as above indi-
Gated, be substituted in Texas at as
early a day as possible, for the pres
ent worse than semi-barbarous plan.
Let the policy be, small ranches Of