The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1909-11-05

|old made possible, and which shall
prove to an expectant world that peace
has her victories no less renowned than
those of war!'
''The rudiments of empire are plastic
! yet, and warm;
The chaos of mighty world is round
ing into FORM"
"To relieve the congestion of teem-
ing cities, to make a place for the for
leigh hordes whom America supplies
with votes and homes-what, but Tex
as, of whom it has been said: She
offers better opportunities for the in
vestment of capital and labor in the
ordinary lines of intelligent enterprise,
either agricultural, industrial or COM
Imercial. than any other portion of
North America All the resources are
here! She needs but the good, clean
man with two willing hands, who has
been jostled by crowds and who wants
elbow room.
No Government Land in Texas.
! "When Texas joined the Union of
Estates, she reserved her public land
With the revenue therefrom, a capital
amounting now to forty-two million
dollars, she supports her schools and
Ipublic institutions without taxing her
citizens. Texas, menaced by Mexico
and in conflict with Indians, found
time to make provision for the en-
dowment of what is now the richest
and most comprehensive system of
gratuitous education known to man.
1t formulated that wise law of home
stead exemption, by which one person
| is allowed to own two hundred acres of
land exempt from any liability except
taxes. This was the gift of Texas to
the jurisprudence of civilization.
"She has, however, set apart land
amounting in area to the kingdom of
Belgium, to be sold at one dollar an
acre to incoming settlers.
A Diversified Domain.
"1eXas is diversified domain of di-
versified products. To the varied sur
face Texas adds a varied soil-the
farmers stock in trade; and, therefore
in connection with Il climate equally
varied, list of the products embraces
those of both the temperate and tro-
pie zones. II has sixty inches of rain
fall at the Gulf, and this precipitation
diminishes until we find but ten inches
of rainfall at Ell Paso. In the won
drous Pan Handle country, "the finest
COW country on earth,'' the Texas steer
has passed away and now we find
thousands of high bred cattle. Old
philosophers stated that Opportunity
knocks but once on any mans door,
but in the Pan Handle it plays re-
gular tattoo on the panels and lies in
wait for man around the corner with
stuffed club; and he must lie down
and die if he does not want to meet
it,
There is plenty of rainfall in the
Pan Handle for producing her crops of
alfalfa, cotton, corn, wheat, macaroni-
wheat, oats, milo-maize. sorghum and
katfir corn, and where formerly roam
cd the buffalo, the antelope and the
wild mustang, are farming lands
reached by railways-which may be
had for from fifteen to twenty five
dollars an acre, and which produce OH
the rich red chocolate or black soil
(said to be the sediment of a lake
which here existed in the tertiary or
chards of apples, peaches, cherries,
plums, aprieots, ounces, nectarines,
mulberries, crab apples, black walnuts,
cantaloupes; and such small fruits as
grapes, blackberries, blueberries and
gooseberries are Pan Handle crops. Mr..
Campbell considers the soil especially
adapted to dry farming.
Il know. farmer who has this year
harvested five crops of alfalfa from his
Pan Handle lands, which have been
irrigated by means of drain water con-
served in surface reservoirs The
ground in the Pan Hanoie will hold
water wherever a dam is built and the
ground slopes properly for reservoir
purposes. The Ranchman referred to
received $l4.5O per ton for his alfalfa
at the railroad, receiving therefore over
$50 an acre for his crop. He assures
me that any farmer in the Pan Handle
can construct simple reservoir which
will hold flood waters and irrigate his
alfalfa, and the first years crop will
twice over pay for The land and all
necessary improvements.
Strawberries Ten Months in the Year.
Between the Trinity and Brazos
rivers, flowing southwark, is a railway
parellelogram, paralleling the river
courses and encircling in its arms one
of the richest valleys in Texas lying
between the rivers. This is the Trim
ity and Brazos Valley railroad-'the T.
& B. " which some have paraphrased
as the Truck and Berry Valley
Strawberries are thick here from Feb
ruary until December, and in this won
/ drously fertile soil two crops of corn
are grown year, each crop averaging
fftyfve bushels-an output of one
hundred and ten bushels per acre, and
this | believe is the nations record
In this valley is Texas banner cotton
county which produced six million dol
lars worth of cotton alone last year
And here. with six to eight crops OF
alfalfa annually, as a raiser said:
l"Hogs grow spontaneous in Texas'