Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1897-05-19
LETTER FROM TEXAS,
Something About the Crops, the Water and
What the People Eat.

combining A"o"t lHo drops, the water ana
What the People Eat.
MISSOURI CITY, TEXAS, May 3, 1897.
1t is very interesting indeed to read
the letters of Dhale and others from
the dear old hills of East Tennessee,
and see what a difference in the putting
forth of vegetation and planting Of
crops here and there, He speaks of the
stra berries just blooming while here
they are ripe and gone. The planting
OF early corn for roastingears, and
here they are just coming to the table,
although it is only the very first of
May.
Noah Dan Webster never saw Texas
or he might have made the blue back
speller different style. Who of your
readers or those who contribute to
your columns are willing to keep q
diary of every days doings from New
Year to New Year, keep an account
with the fields you cultivate, the num-
Der of days work you put on each field,
the amount of seed and fertilizer used
on it, the bushels of grain it produces
then run up the columns at harvest
time add where you are-see if O
make enough to pay the hired labor
you put on it aside from your W
labor, or see if you have made two bits
a day at your farming.
have planted fifty two acres of
cotton, three of millet and one of
sorghum; keep a diary of every days
doings, | put down every cen of ex-
pense, and this fall l will know Just
what I've made when the cotton is sold
and the account balanced l will know
whether | get anything for my labor.
o Uncle Fuller is the time for you
to begin counting up the housekeeping
right in the beginning and see if it pays.
| have kept a diary for many years and
often find it interesting to look over,
especially the dates of marriages,
deaths and many things recorded of
transactions, etc. Perhaps many of
your readers have thought of coming
to Texas, let them keep a diary as |
have suggested and see how they will
come out at the end of the year. |
will also keep one and give you the
items, then they can tell whether rails.
ing cotton or wheat, corn, bacon, ap.
pies, etc., pays best. We can raise
corn here but cotton is the money crop.
If fail to make a success I'll give the
reasons and give oil the items so they
can judge whether it will pay to come
to Texas. L have kept the cost of
raising my crops in Tennessee several
times and always came out behind,
but somehow always managed to get
a little ahead but never could tell why;
so 1T may be here-I can't tell till the
crop is gathered.
A man, wife and four children
camped here a few nights ago from
Oklahoma going to Central America,
where it it is summer all the year. He
said about two colonies would leave
Oklahoma this summer for that sum-
mel land of bliss. l wished him we'll,
but told him l wouldn't think it
strange to see o young single mar
taking such a trip but a mar and
family l thought it q big risk.
Cotton is growing we'll considering
it is so cold and no rain for the last
two months.
I've just got my Tribune and l see
Brother Dhale is after the rabbit. 1t
takes the very fastest of dogs to catch
one 80 l expect a fair and honest race
from alpha to omega. I'll tell the
truth in every word and give the proof
by the best citizens if necessary. l
farmed in good old East Tennessee
oyer twenty five years and know some.
thing Of it's successes as well as fail.
ures, but here goes the race for Texas.
I'll commence by answering his notes.
AS for mosquitoes we have none to
bother only about ten days after a
long continued rain, tadpoles and
wiggletails amt in it.
We get pure, clear water by boring
from fifteen to forty feet with a three
inch anger down to strata of sand and
get an endless supply of good water;
1t is not so cold as the springs and
wells there and l never heard of any
one killing himself drinking it, and it
is no more of a change of water than
it ls there for one that is used to lime.
stone to take a drink OF slate or free
stone, or any change he not being
used to it. 1t never gets quite cold
enough to hurt ones teeth. Flowing
artesian wells may be had at from five
hundred to two thousand feet, but the
water is warmer and don's taste as
we'll as shallow wells. When you find
Eden it will not be in Tennessee or
Texas. There has never been and