The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-01-24
TEXAS FREE GRASS.
The Supremacy of the Cattle Kings
in Western Texas.
Lease Law COntrOversy-Farmi OF
the SIaked PIains-Future OF
the PanhandIe-AQ Quaker
Settlement.
Texas Cor. Globe-Democrat.1

There is no doubt that the fencing of
western Texas means supremacy to the
cattle kings. The stockman, in inclosing
his pasture has gobbled up every piece Of
watered land within his reach, i'd you
will find fence lines running Zig-Zag to-
ward every point Of the compass, so l1at
every little water hole and pond be in
closed and taken away from any stock
there may be on the outside Of the pasture
When continued drouth (and that h. pens
often in this country causes the water on
the high prairies to dry up, the cattle king
will round up his stock, run them into his
fresh pastures, where there will be an
abundance of grass and water, but the
poor outsider who is not wealth enough
to fence, has either to see his stock die or
drive them into some other locality for
for winter, and that in this country, in a
drouthy time is sometimes formidable
undertaking. Taking the fenced districts,
as a general thing, they are unsafe ground
for cattle herding, for a man who has no
pastures to fall back on is liable to be
starved out at any time for lack Of water,
and even grass.
1t is claimed by the advocates of free
grass, also, that the leasing of these state
lands for twelve years will retard emigra-
ton and poor men will be kept out of
cheap homes. With our experience of
this country we do not think it possible
for poor" emigrant to make living by
farming these lands. True, the soil is
first-class, but the rainfall is not here to
make crops, and no water for irrigation
purposes. Taking these facts, it is ques-
ton whether the advocates of lease law are
not right when they claim that the law is a
good one, for it enricheS the state school
fund by the amount of rents paid by the
lessees, whereas with free grass these same
stOckmen would have the use of the range
and pay nothing for it.
THE sTAKED PLAINS.
If you look on a map of the United
States you will find a scope of country
marked Llano Estacado, or the Staked
Plains This locality to-day is attracting
great deal of attention from settlers.
Only three or four years ago and it was an
undisputed conviction that nothing could
live on these plains from lack of water.
To-day any one can obtain an abundant
supply of the precious fluid by digging
for it, and in no case has any well been
sunk more than twenty feet The water
is excellent in every respect. What the
result of this discovery will be to these
plains is hard yet to foretell, but a good
class of settlers are f1ocking into Midland,
a small town on the Texas & Pacific rail
way, about sixty miles west of Big Springs,
and certainly if enterprise and capital can
accomplish it, then at no distant day we
will see the famous Staked Plains of the
American desert become a blooming
paradise.
We were conversing a short time ago
with member of The Quaker colony
which was settled about three years ago
on the Staked Plains, and he reported
good crops of grain, millet and corn every
year and said that fruit trees were thriving
remarkably well. The colony is located
about $50 miles northwest from Colorado
City, Tex. and contains about thirty or
forty families. There is one section of
this state which will, without doubt,
prove a bonanza to settlers when the
country is opened up by the railroads. I
refer to the Panhandle territory of Texas
This PAL of the state, with its great nat
ural advantages of good climate, an album
dance Of good pure water, rich soil and
luXuriant grasses, will be in few years
filled with fine farms and gardens, and is
destined, we believe, to be the great dairy
region of the southwest.
CROPS AND CLIMATE.
We have not fbeen blessed this season
with very good crops in eastern and mid
die Texas, and this coupled with the fact
that presidential elections give US an of
year in commercial matters, makes bust.
ness slow and money scarce, but we al
ways live in hopes of something better.
mechanics to stay away from Texas this
winter. That is the honest advice Of one
workingman to another.
I can not close this without speaking q
good word for the beautiful climate we
have in western Texas. We have lived in
camp all summer and from March 1 to
Sept. never slept under a roof except
one made of canvas), and l must say a
more delightful summer ne 'er spent Id
any country Fresh breezes during the
day tempering the heat down to IS to "a
degrees, and nights so cool that blanket
covering after midnight became a neces.
sity. Sportsmen would find western
Texas a fine place for hunting expeditions.
| Certainly the buffalo has become rara
avis in ferris, but there are still left herds
of antelopes and deer, with plenty of wild
| turkey. American and Californian quail,
hares and rabbits, with an occasional
black bear or panther, and numerous
other smaller specimens of the feline genus
which man delighteth to chase and put to