The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-15
. N~ORTHERNER IN TEXAS.
BIG THINGS HE FINDS IN A BIG
STATE.
Bass and Trout That There's No Use IN
Lying About-Fortunes in Rice. For
tunes I'm Cotton, Fortunes In Timber
-Vegetarian's Paradise-Eariy Spring

HOUSTON. Tex, April 14.-After reading
In Tar SIN the account OF the fierce winter
that had come down upon New York n
tba ortlyine districts along about the mid
die OF March, a Northerner sojourning IN
Texas went for a drive about the countf
adjacent to Houston. Everything was
looking fine. The corn was well up on
MANY farms, four inches high in some
places. but some OF the farmers had been
a little late In planting and here and there
it was Just peeping its head through
I'VE will nave roasting ears, though
said the Northerner, along about the
time our folks get their planting under
way up in York State
big pin oak tree, verdant in its fresh spring
foliage, and gazing around on the ran1pIng
radiant testimonials to the potency OF the
salubrious climate and the fertile SOIL ne
pondered a moment on the wonder OF it all
knowing that his folks at home were. at
that same moment getting in their ice.
shovellinR snow or yelilhg 10 eome oie
to shut that doorl"
tt has cost him 81 for stove wood since
November. A severe winter, indeedl But
he Is compelled TO acknowledge that the
same quantity OF wood up in Orange county,
N. Y, or IN flKe county, H. "ouo V
| cost not more than N.50..
He Jaw an icicle early one morning in
| February. Ii was actually az big around
as a rye straw and 1t lasted about as long
as certain mixtures that are inveigled INTO
the system through a straw would last
under the influence OF a thirsty i?VeieieE'
Black bass are biting down here some-
what lust now. A couple OF Houston
snortsmen went out on March % and were
Obliged to land S15 before the bass would
let them 90. A pair Of the fish we're put
on display in a Houston fishing tackle
store window as an evidence Of good faith
They weighed seven good pounds each.
But the black bass season Is only he gin
ming. There will be some fair to middling
6sbiug by and by. There are a dozen
or two lakes within easy reach Of Houston,
IN sav nothing about rivers, bayous and
bays, and there isn't much IN them put
There ia no satisfaction In a mans lying
about tho size Of the fish he catches down
here, for no matter how big he nay say
they were, folks will believe him; Inc only
line would be to say his fish were all little
ones. Then folks would look at him with
gratifying suspicion.
Black bass are not the only. game
fish these waters contain; There Is a tsh
| suit the angler mighty we'll. It is game
from the word go, smells exceeding good
in the pan and dishes up the same.
Then the trout the fishermen go out
after isn't to be sneezed at. either. The
Northerner says 1t isn't the
memory, but has much the appearance OF
one. It thinks nothing. at all Of weighing
ex pounds; and fight! When the Northerner
got hold Of one for the first time, he said
It made him think OF bone sure u
bite at almost anything. Capt. I'd Davis
of Orange. Tex, who is a hardshea Baptist
in good standing, tells Of landing ffty-four
Of these trout in twenty minutes over In
Phenix Lake. Showing that they bite
some.
The fish men dress from this trout
il IL is a trout, which is d~oubtful-what
they call the tenderloin, and the Northerner
wants to tell his folks that IT one pretty
near to capturing the unqualified approval
Of ones palate as completely as does the
choicest portion Of a Delaware River shad
fresh from the upper waters IN mid-April-
and better COMMUNICATION cannot be given
to any edible thing that lies under fur, fin
or feather!
The farmers are busy now planting their
seed for the rice crop Of 1908. Maybe
folks generally don't know that Texas anc
Louisiana grow about all the rice hat il
raised in this country; but they do.
This hasn't been going on 30 many years
though, for 1t is less than twenty since they
found out what they could probably do ir
that line. In 1889 Texas had 17S acres in
rioe, and only 5000 acres ten years later
but in 1905 there were SIT 900 acres of hei
prairie land open to the cultivation Of
rice.
Taking Texas and Louisiana together
they scatter the seed now over 10000 acres,
and last year, although there was only q