Shiner gazette. [volume] (Shiner, Tex.) 1893-current, 1907-06-20
FROM RANCH TO FARM.

ONdiue On, yes, part OF
the great breeding grounds of
Southern Texas, then called
Southwest Texas, incorrectly, of
course, the greatest cattle pro-
ducing country in the world, a
country intended by nature as
the breeding ground of cattle to
be kept till two or three years
old, then driven or shipped a
shipped a thousand or two miles
northward to feed on the buffalo
grass of the western plains for a
season before being fattened in
the feeding pens of the great
corn growing states and then
sent to the slaughtering houses
of Omaha and Chicago.
Uvalde, a county of hills and
plains, covered with cactus and
mesquite, its hills, politely term
ed mountains, covered with ce-
dar and along it's streams the
cottonwood and the pecan, it's
verdant plains variegated with
wild flowers in the spring time,
from whose sweets the bees gath
cred the honey that has made
Uvalde known wherever honey
is bought and sold.
Uvalde for farming? No. He
would be a hardy son of toll in
deed who would try to win from
its soil fair living by the cul-
ture Of a few acres under pre-
carious rainfall when nature in
tended that its thousands of
acres should be forever an I'M
surpassed range for cattle.
But the years have wrought
the change. Nor has it taken
MANY. Two years even have
seen the towns like Uvalde and
Sabinal double in population.
and the entire county make al
most or quite as good a showing.
A half dozen years with good
crops of corn and cotton and
cane, Of all kinds of garden and
truck crops, have sufficed to show
beyond question that Uvalde
county by reason of its achieve
ments and its potentialities must
be. reckoned as one of the good
agricultural counties of the state.
On this score the man of East
Texas, where too often there is
& too much rainfall, of the black
lands of North Texas, of the rice
fields of South Texas, may be a
bit skeptical. But it is so.
I What has brought about the
change in this county, and this
county is but a typical one in
the former great stock raising
country of Southern Texas? Two
factors have been at work. One
is a clearer knowledge of the
principles of soil culture, of the
conservation of rainfall and the
making of it all available for
plant growth, in short, scientific
farming. The other is the
bringing to the surface and use
of the water that needs but an
outlet through an artesian well
to make possible farming under
irrigation, the safest and most
profitable farming in the world.
In one or both of these ways
by far the larger percentage of
land can be put into successful
cultivation. Prosperous farmers
all over the county attest the sue
cess of this.
In general farming the i'm
mense acreage of cotton, corn,
sorghum, show clearly enough
what is done with great profit.
In truck growing few figures
in regard to what actually has
been done will not be amiss. Net
earnings per acre have been re-
allied as follows: Bermuda on
ions, 500 to $500; Irish pota-
toes, $75 to $3.50; tomatoes, 500
to $500; caulifiower, $50 to $3.50;
cantaloupes and watermelons,
SIS to $3.50; cabbage, 500 to
$3.50; Strawberries and dew
berries, 500 to $500. Surely
these figures are enough to show
why and wherefore such a coun-