El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-10-31
NARvELS WROUGHT IN RECLAIMING
VAST PLAINS COUNTRY Of TEXAS
Old Grazing Lands of the Llano EstacadO Are Being
Converted Into Fertile Farms More than 100000
Bushels of Wheat Raised in Plains Country this
Year; Is Fine For Orchards, and Cherries
Are Also Successfully Grown There.

water being obtained at depths rang
ing from as TO 100 feet Where pumps
are installed one of these shallow wells
affords a sufficient supply Of water to
irrigate 125 to 1T5 acres. Up to. this
time farming is practiced almost wholly
without irrigation in the South Plains
COcntry IN which IanOka IS situated
1t is claimed by farmers that they
grow, one year with another, as ahund-
ant crops as are produced upon the
best lands of the middle western
states.
Public Lands All Sold.
All of the state public lands in this
$1,000 square miles Of territory have
passed into private ownership. The en-
crOachment of the man with the hoe
aas been so gradual, however, that nOt
even the semblance of a boom has at
tended the wonderful Development that
has been going on during the last few
years Most of this land reclamation
and the incoming of new settlers have
been due to the construction of new
lines of railway through region thaS
was formerly far removed from these
modern transportation facilities So
far as any recognized hOmeSeekerS'
movement into the region is concerned
there has been very little of 1t done.
Most of the men who have come IN and
purchased lands IN small tracts were
individual prOspectOrs who had faith in
the ultimate and early recognition OF
the agricultural possibilities Of the
country. Each of these farms embrace
from 100 to $40 acres. Owing to the
fact that much OF the land is either
open prairie or SparSely covered WIZ
q low growth OF brush the cost OF con-
verting the tracts into cultivated farms
is small. the first blowing in the sec
ton around TahOka costing on an aV-
erage of about $3.50 per acre.
Some Big Ranches Remain.
There are still a number of ranches
gion. the largest of these being that
OF the Capitol syndicate Of Chicago
which originally embraced 3,OOO,O0J
acres, this enormous acreage being paid
by the state in return for the erection
OF the state capitol building at Austin
A small part of this original ranch
tract has been divided into acreageS
and sold to farmers and preparations
are being made for cOlOnlzing several
hundred thousand additional acres or
it. In Lynn county of which Iahoka
is the county seat there is only one
large ranch. On most or the oIher coln-
ties the ranches are also being rapidly
divided into farming tracts.
In no other part Of Texas or the
southwest perhaps Goes farming more
resemble in the method of operation
and of crops grown, together with the
Charac ter Of the soil and the tOpOgrapn-
icaI aspect of the land, that of Iowa,
Kansas and Minnesota than does the
Central and South Plains sections. Here
almost eery farmer is a hog raiser. 1t
is claimed that climate and weather
conditions are ideally suited for the
y
o. other hog diseases are as yet un-
known. The animals are fattened on
kaffir corn and milo maize Some OF
the farmers are growing peanuts on
a large scale for the special purpose Of
turning the hogs into the fields and
them to harvest the nuts in
the ground, thus placing the finishing
touches of fat on them.
Every Farmer Has n Garden.
Almost every farmer has his own
vegetable garden in which are grown
abundant crops of sweet potatoes, Irish
potatoes and nearly every other kind OF
produce adapted to the temperate zone.
and cantalOupes are also
produced in abundance.
The reclamation of the LlanO Esta-
cadO is an agricultural romance. Upon
land which is still strewn with the de-
aging horns and bones of the buffalo I
and over which rOamed less than 40 !
years ago countless numbers of these
animals and rowing bands of hostile in
1ians there are today hundreds of |
prosperous and cOntented homes which (
attest the civiliZing influence Of the !
railway and plOWshare.