The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-02-17
.SOUEHNBSq TEXAS
FARMERS PARADISE.
San Antonio District Offers the
Settler from the North Great
Opportunities to Provide for
Himself and His Sons.
CLIMATE AND SOIL
ARE OF THE BEST
Almost Every Crop That Is
Known Will Flourish in the
Rain and Sunshine Of Country
Surrounding City Of the Alamo.
az HERBERT vANDERHooF.

NJ BY HERBERT vANDERHooF.
While Texas is at present attracting all |
classes of immigrants from all parts OF |
the country and from all parts Of the |
world, the people who are attracted IN |
largest numbers to that state, and more
to the southwestern portion Of
it, are, strange to say, the people who
are to all appearances most comfortable
in their present locations-the farmers Of
the middle West-men of means, men of
men Of family.
To say that these people are discon-
tented with their present lot, or that
they are abandoning their old homes
cheerfully, would be to state an untruth.
They are not going to Texas because
they are restless, because they are ad
venturous, or because they are filed with
a desire for new and novel environment,
but Simply for the Identical reason which
impelled. their grandfathers and fathers
to plunge into the wilderness beyond
the Alleghenies, the Ohio, the Mississippi
and the Missouri. They are looking to
the future OF their sons and daughters
A small farm in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri or any of the
older states Of the Mississippi valley will
sell today for enough to purchase large
farm in the rich Texas districts which
are tributary to the city Of San Antonio,
and leave a. handsome surplus with which
to meet such necessities as may arise
until the new farm begins to, produce a
revenue. In a few. years the middle
Western farmer who has not land enough
to divide among his children, who sees
no prospect ahead save that his boys
and girls must be scattered, is able IN TINS
part of Texas to. give each OF them a
better start in life than he had, while
reserving for himself and wife enough
to maintain them independently and COM
fortably in their old age: . ~ J..
No Prairie Schooners There.
He goes to southwestern Texas, too,
without any of the insecurity as to the
| when they began life in the West. Texas
is not a Wilderness. Settlement there Is
not an experiment. None OF the conal-
lions that existed a half century ago
there. There are neither Indians nor
border ruffians to be dealt with he
does not ride to his new home in u
prairie schooner
The least populous of Texas counties
today are as orderly as the most popu-
fous counties of his own state. No mat
| ter how small the number OF settlers,
the schoolhouse is to be found IN tnei1
midst. He will meet there people Of his
own class, educated, Industrious. enter
prising people, impregnated with and i'm
pelled by the true American spirit.
And he will not be hampered by the
rigors Of climate that even. In the mos,
genial Of the middle Western states have
got to be taken>siTto serious account
He is not going s,nto "a land where there
are ''nine moflths Of winter and three
months late in the fall" He will moi
have to work his hands dr1sr on n, f9 he one one,
exist through the other three, r.. H.
In southwestern Texas he will be abls
to ! look forward, on every New Year
day to twelve months of open weather
twelve months in which he may plov
) and plant and reap. He may take hi Al!
choice as regards crops, Practical:
everything that grows anywhere grows y
southwestern Texas, and grows luxuri
emily. This is no careless statement
On the San Antonio plateau every plan,
that fiourishes in any part of the earth
with the exception of the few that ar
peculiar to the tropics and to the ex
s su9Ha ' Of the country lying round abou
| the city Of the Alamo. " va
r. What WI. Clay Says.
, We have 1t upon the unauestioned an
unuuestionable authority Of w. j. Clay
7 one of the ablest agricultural experts an
: statisticians In the country, that:
: $50 harmonious are the conditions q
Texas that as many as five OF tn
worlds prime products may be raised t
a complete fru1t1on In the same ne =.
. Long summers of growing Weatn
er mild winters and genial sly sly perm perm
\ twelve months of the year" "
'"This fact" he adds, may be SUI
prising to the farmers from the Norther
corn and wheat belts, who are accustome
to the rigors and the nconvenlences
- weather. when cattle must be housed an
= fed and the pillow, remains idle-.expens
II going on and the ground producing notf
i Ing but FROST + .
8 as,' he says, ''cassed as the dry cour
IL try While this is true, there are ter
of thousands of people In the Unite
J. States who are looking for dry countr
:, by moving to that portion Of Texa
- It would be well to not the fac
in passing, that we have an area IN Tex
II larger than any two states OF the ne -, I'M, e
a. which can be depended upon to vie
" crops equal to those Of any state in t
- - Union, with greater variety OF Gro
=, than are grown in any other state.
'd which bears out my statement In a pr
ceding article that it is absurd to JUDI
the great commonwealth Of Texas by t
conditions existing in a small portion Of
" Greatest Arteslan Well Belt.
ns The most desirable lands Of Texas a
I'll those In the district IN which all tn
n is best in climatic and soil conditio
ri are combined And nowhere in the sta
he are these conditions more perfect tn
~ in the country surrounding San Anton
~ ~. It seems to have been designed by Pro-
n dence to meet not only all the nee
IN but all the ideals of the agriculture
re Whatever of moisture may be lacki
rd above is provided In abundance belo
in The lands for scores of miles in eve
ad direction around San Antonio VIII
N tapped produce water in abundance. M!
A' Of them are In the greatest artes1
- we'll belt known to mankind.
- Gushing streams, sufficient to irrigs
re naanssarv nav he seoIired IN these lar