San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-10-04

timber, stone, and building material
of all kinds, and there are less than
5000 acres of the entire county under
crop.
Kendall county, adjoining Kerr,
presents much the same characters
tics as Kerr, and is rich in valuable
deposits of granite and other rocks.
There are many places of interest in
this county, and in its caves, water
falls, springs and mountain heights
the lover of natural scenery will find
much to engage his atten ton and de-
light his eye.
These two counties lie northwest
from San Antonio. 1t is between
San Antonio and the coast, however,
that the great cotton fields, market
gardens. and fruit orchards of the
future will be found. Beginning
with Bexar county, this road travers-
es Wilson, Karnes, Bee, San Patricio,
Nueces and Arkansas counties to the
Gulf of Mexico, which it touches at
Corpus Christi and Rockport. In
every one of these counties the cotton
planter, the farmer, the gardener, the
dairyman and the horticulturists will
find in the soil q veritable mine of
wealth. The horticulturist, of New
York, California, Kansas, Iowa and
Colorado have sent representatives
into this whole region, and the testi-
mony of these practical fruit growers
is unit as to the unsurpassed ex-
cellencies of soil and climate to be
found in this coast region and it's
adjacent territory. At Corpus Christi
opd of Pook mort ond II, tho porthorn
part of Nueces county along the Nue..
ces river, and inBee county, thousands
Of acres are being converted into
grapsries and fruit gardens. Mr..
Williams, Of Dover Delaware, an
authority on all horticultural matters,
fruit grower of experience, and
with q national reputation, has pur-
chased 600 acres near Corpus Christi
and his statements are in evidence
that no climate in Europe, Japan,
California or Mexico is superior to
this region as affording the best con-
dltions for fruit culture. At Rock
port, under the auspices of the Aran-
sas Pass Colonization company, a
large colony of italian fruit and vege-
table growers has been established,
and Arkansas Pass will be the leading
early vegetable market of Texas this
coming spring. Orange groves. ba-
mana plantations and grape arbors
will soon cover that whole live-oak
peninsula and rival Florida in the
value and variety of its fruits. Care
full comparison of temperature, frost
belt, humidity, ETC., show that no
where on American soil is there To-
cality 80 well adapted to the growth
of these semi-tropical fruits as this
Gulf coast, lying, as it does, so near
the gulf stream, that great equalizer
of temperature. At the same time
there is no section in the world that
will yield greater returns to the
planter of cotton, tobacco, rice, sugar
and corn. This whole country so far
from being fiat, stagnant and swampy
as is the Florida region, rises rapidly
from the coast attaining an altitude
Of nearly 1000 feet within little more
than 100 miles from the coast. The
acreage of unimproved lands in the
counties mentioned above is simply
immense, and to the industrious
farmer and fruit grower they offer
possibilities unsurpassed in any coun-
try. The impetus given settlement,
by the efforts now being made by
large capital and invincible energy to
open a deep sea port in the vicinity
of Corpus Christi and Arkansas Pass,
has revolutionized the ideas of the past
and brought an army of prospectors
into this southwest that will change
its whole face within the next few
years. Now is the time for profitable
purchase, before these lands are
IAV,h lAI IT, Ina nrfn In
to be IN very short time. Already
where operations have been begun
lands are quoted higher, but the
millions Of acres still unbroken, pre-
senting every attraction possessed
by those already taken, insure the
purchaser, who makes his selection
within the next few months, of a
home in the falrest region Of this
great land at prices undreamed of in
the north.
But the counties heretofore men,
toned are only a small portion of the
immense domain brought into market
by the opening up of the San Anto-
Mo aud Arkansas Pass road. Leaving
the Gulf branch of the line at Kene-
dy, in Karnes county, 90 miles below
San Antonio, the San Antonio and
Arkansas Pass turns eastward and
in reaching Houston, 200 miles distant,
traverses the finest cotton, cane
and corn land that was ever spread
beneath the genial sun. Counties
that three years ago were almost
virgin soil produced. thousands of
bales of cotton last year and will add
fully twenty-five per cent this year to
that amount. Cotton and corn plan
tations are multiplying every year as