The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1901-10-28
FROM THE RICE COUNTRY.
PROSPERITY ON EVERY HAND SAYS
A VISITOR.
Cane Belt Road Is Doing Well and So Is
the New Branch of the Southern
Pacific Railroad.

Mr.. A. r. Mayes Of this city has lust
returned from trip of ten days or more
through the Matagorda county rice section
and down Old Caney' below Wharton
lie said TO a reporter; 81 spent days. tray
cling over that section and talking 10 the
planters and their tenants. Everybody is
prosperous and happy, and they ought to
be- for | never saw such Yield 81 grain,
and that Is what every rice man talked
with said There are some few small
tracts that the canals were unable to fur
nsh water In time that are not MS good
as the most, but even those tenants made
much more money with less work, and in
a shorter time than II they had planted
cotton on Caney, and they are not com
planning. These however, are few, and the
balance of the 10000 acres in rice on Bay
Prairie. as far as they have threshcd, have
averaged eighteen sacks 10 the acre. ! do
not know how much they are getting for
It, but ! heard a good price
"The Cane Belt railroad is doing an i'm.
mensc business for new roads first year.
They are hauling all the rice, and 1t is
pouring out of Bay city daily. almost by
The tralnload.
Cane Belt people are highly elated over
their success and confidently expect to he
in Quintana at the mouth OF the BraZos by
next fall The road passes through Colonel
Hawkins old sugar plantation, on lower
Cnney, through Governor Wells Thumpson's
ana several other large plantations on
Caney and Cedar lake, will cross the San
Bernard river about twelve miles from its
mouth, near or through the Clemmens
STATE farm and down to QuintAna. 1t W i'll
run through one of the dnest rice, cane.
cotton and corn sectlous In the world, and
| have on or very near its line some OF
Texas richest and most famous antc-bel-
| lum slave plantations, many of which have
been turned out on account Of the scare
| lty of reliable labor and the difficulty of
| getting the crops to market Before the
war this section was known as the garden
( spot of Texas. The building OF this road
will cause their resurrection and the see
| tion will again blossom. The Cane Belt
/ Ia prepared TO haul thousands Of tons OF
cane 10 Captain Dunovant sugar mill al
/ Eagle Lake, 20 be ground and made into
sugar, and the Cancy Valley railroad a
| hrauch of the SouthCsn Pacific, built from
| Wharton Immediately down Caney, have
| fitted M over 500 cars to haul the cane
along It's line TO Cunningham's min al
| Sugar Land.
|One can make no estimate or form nc
| idea OF the amount Of sugar cane In that
| section, where there Is no mill, unless he
/ drives through the plantations anu farm,
and approximates the acreage IN each.
| knew that there was much cane planted all
| through that section but had no ldeS
| OF Its extent Nearly, n not every, plac,
has some, and Il iU-all splendid crop, too
] should safely estimate Il at an averag,
OF twenty-five tons an acre. What they
need down there now worse than anything
! else IL sugar mill, and when they get on,
| for every acre In caue now there Will theI
| be 100 Yes. more.
| watch that rice section next year, VII
| your The canals are finished and pleu
| tIfnl supnlv Of water Is assured. EottnT
| Will no longer be their king. Cane will b,
king and Miss Rice will become his queen.