The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1891-03-26
Texas Letter.

EDITOR News. HERALD: Il suppose
most OF the readers of the News HERALD
have heard of the great Panhandle OF
Texas in the last few years, but will
attempt to give short account of my
trip through the country. Through the
kindness of the General Passenger
Agent of the Fort Worth & Denver R. R.
l was enabled to go from Fort Worth to
Panhandle City and return. left Fort
Worth at 9:2O Thursday morning, March
9th, with slight drizzling rain falling.
For the first fifty miles northwest Of the
city we passed through prairie country,
mostly fenced in. The soil here is as
black as in any of the bottom lands OF
Ohio with fine wheat fields as far as the
eye can reach, occasionally diversified
by corn fields and pastures. The land
along here within five miles of the rail
road sells from $40 to $50 an acre and is
fast increasing in value.
Fifty miles from Fort Worth you
strike the timbered country which ex-
tends along the line of the railroad for
about forty miles, but is fast being
cleared off for farming. From here on
you strike the rolling country with an
occasional running stream of water. The
country through here is being settled up
rapidly and within two years from now,
at the present rate of increase, you can
not buy land anywhere within ten miles
OF the railroad for less than $40 an acre.
They can be bought now for from So up,
according to location. In Donley county,
250 miles north of Fort Worth, there is
not school section but what has been
fled on, though in several of the other
counties there are several sections that
have not been taken up. The country
through here is destined to be the great.
est fruit and grain country in the United
States, as there is plenty of good water
and experiments have proven what can
be done. The climate here is somewhat
like that of Ohio, except that there is
less cold weather and a purer atmos.
phere.
The wells are from 10 to 200 feet deep
with an inexhaustible supply of good,
cool water. While here I was in what
the people here call "northerner," and
though they said it was the worst that
had been here for three or four years I
did net think it half as bad as some
of our snow storms. A northerner in
this country in winter consists of strong
north wind and a slight fall of snow,
which is also helped by the snow being
blown from the ground and forming in
great drifts. In summer it is a south
wind and considerable sand which
creeps in every place and fills your eyes
and mouth if you are in it. But COM
pairing everything here with everything
in Ohio I am sure that it has a great
advantage over it in everything-soil,
climate or anything else except lumber,
which is exceptionally high.
Corn sells from so cents to ST. bushel,
wheat from rs cents to $1.5O, and other
staples accordingly. Coal, of good
quality, sells here at $4 and $3.50 ton,
thus showing that it does not cost much
more for a man to live in town here
than in Ohio.
I visited several cattle and sheep
ranches Is to 25 miles from the railroad
and found the cattle in good condition,
though they have not been fed any this
winter but simply let run loose. In a
talk with cattle man here who had a
section Of land filed on and several hun.
dred head of cattle he said that four
years ago he had come there with but
$35 in his pocket and is now worth
about $40, 900, thus showing that poor
man can make living and save money
in this country. G. B.