The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1902-12-05
ENORMOUS REVENUE
FROM TEXAS,

EDITOR LINES:
The weather here is the rainest
in years at this season; and it is un-
usually warm. As I write all vege-
tstion is green with 10 immediate
prospect Of FRI :, ..ere is young
corn growing in various places. A
farmer told me last week down at
Bailey he had corn sjlking and tas-
selling at the time. Great quanti-
ties Of rain have fallen during the
last Is days flooding the whole coun-
try, and damaging the crops, corn,
cotton and all growing crops. There
is some corn not yet gathered which
will rot very fast, especially where it
falls to the ground, and, possibly,
you may have some idea how diff
cult it would be to haul through the
mud in the black waxy land if it
we're suitable weather for gathering
corn overhead. The cotton crop was
very short in this section of the
State, this year, caused by the de-
structive boil worms, then the con-
stant wet weather coming on both
rotting it and stopping the maturing
of the late bolls or top crop has
played havoc with the yield for 1902.
In short We are gathering less cotton
this time than for many years. The
country was pretty we'll drained of
money to buy feed to make the crop
for this year. Added to this the
short crop and continued wet weather
have almost put stop to business.
There is less doing in the line of
merchandise trading than 1 have
ever observed since coming to this
State nineteen years ago. People
on the black land cannot come to
town in wagons, for in empting to
do 50 they would stick fast in the
mud with their vehicles; they can
come on horse back or on foot until
the roads dry sufficiently to drive
over them. As a consequence the
merchants are having hard luck in
business affairs. Most of the mer-
chants here do business in such q
tense strain, caused by the credit
system and speculation mania, that
when a time like the present one
comes, not many are prepared for it,
and as a result many failures among
merchants follow. This winter will
not be an exception on that score, 80
we will have many and perhaps some
heavy failures; in fact they have COM
menced already. 1t seems that if a
little more caution and cool judg-
ment were used in business matters.
the country over, the results wGnld
possibly be better.
RISE IN THE PRICE OF LAND.
In the face of the fact that this
part of Texas has suffered from the
effect oftwo short crops in success
sion, lands have gradually gone
higher each year for three years.
Black land that three years ago
would have sold for thirty-fve to
forty dollars per acre, this winter
VIII SOL t0r anywhere from sixty to
seventy-five dollars. Some lands are
even higher. One gentleman near
Hickory Grove in the upper edge of
Hunt county II miles southeast of
Bonham was offered thirty thousand
dollars for three hundred acres early
in the summer aud refused to sell at
the price. Speaking of the rapid
rise in the price of land fercibly re-
minds the writer of the skyward
tendency in that direction, listen one
moment and he will give you bit
of bis experience ON that score: One
year ago on the first day of the present
month, he sold small farm, receiv-
ing therefor fifty dollars per acre,
Il u \