The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1916-04-20
Texas in 1878.

as IN the early Gays anu tueSe Ae4ueo''
have been repeated since the publication
of nv Memories of Southern Cities,
concluding with San Antonio. But be-
fore relating personal experiences it
may interest my readers to learn some
thing of the general conditions in Texas
in 1873, in contrast with its position
today. Of course everybody knows that
Texas is a big State-more than three
times the extent of the six New England
States. The census of 1850 gave the
population of it's 80 counties as PIP, 592,
while today it is over 100000. The en-
tire coast, and extending 80 to go miles
into the interior, is practically level, but
with gentle rise. 1t then begins to un-
dulate, and farther back is broken into
mountains and table lands. Near the
coast were groves of pecan trees, and
the river bottoms were heavily timbered
with pine. walnut, hickory, pecan, null
bury, cedar, cypress, oak, ash and other
forest trees. Farther in the interior.
aside from the forest growth along the
streams, the principal tree was the mes
quite, whose wood in burning left bed
of smokeless live Goals, excellent for
broiling turkey or. venison steak. l
have before described the turkey steak,
which is the breast of the wild turkey.
Still farther on there were no trees, only
cactus and sage brush, and in the winter
there was no vegetation to be seen and the
hills or noun tains were brown and bare.
desert.
The rivers of Texas, except the larger
streams near the coast and the San An
tonic and San Pedro rivers, supplied by
boiling springs, were an uncertain guam
tity. They had a way of disappearing
in places, going under the ground to ap-
pear farther on, and of rising without
any warning from a nearly dry bed to
bank full. This was due to rain in the
mountains. Hence the rule was to cross
stream before camping; but twice, as
will be told later, that was impossible, as
the streams were bank full when reach
ed. On one trip we went through set
tlement of a dozen or more houses only
one CT which was occupied, the stream
nearby having disappeared and the peo-
pie were compelled to move away. In
the Llama Estado (Staked Plain) there
was a distance of 60 miles where there
was no water, and the U. S. government
imported in 1856 herd of thirty-rhree
camels from Africa for crossing this
desert. They We're landed at Indianola,
Texas, that year, accompanied by a
camel doctor, and in following articles
more will be told about them. In 1858
Capt. Pope, later Major General John
Pope of the Civil War, then of the Topo-
graphical Engineers, was in charge of
an expedition to bore artesian wells on
the trail across the Staked Plain. There
were vast areas where there was no
water to be had. There was a great,
dry, barren plain, larger than the whole
State of Massachusetts, between the
Rio Grande and Nueces rivers where the
pasturage was so scant that it required
ten acres to pasture one steer. A few
years ago it occurred to some one to
bore for water, and they found tin
minute and made lakes among the cacti
and mesquite. As result at least co.
900 acres are growing lie ttuce, spinach,
tomatoes, caulitlowers, on ions and straw
berries for the markets Of the North, and
the ten acres that two years ago would
feed but one steer will now produce from
So, 900 to 1000 in crops. On the Staked
Plain water has been found in great
abundance, usually from Is to so feet be-
low the surface, and the soil is rich and
capable of supporting a dense popula-
ton. A part of this great plain is to be
cut up into farms, and pra cticaly all of
it in the near future will undoubtedly
The United States Geological Survey
recently issued a report on ground water
in Lasalle and McMullen counties, an
area in southwestern Texas more than
twice as large as Rhode Island, In which,
according to geologist Alexander Deus
sen, underground water suitable for ir-
rigation and for domestic use may be OBJ
tanned at many places. Such eport is
of great economic value, for although
the average annual precipitation in this
region is about % inches, the rainfall in
some years is less than 10 inches. In
part of the area flowing wells furnish an
abundant supply of good water, but else
where the water has been rendered unfit
for use by the influx of salt water, which
rises from great depths along fault or
crack in the strata and mingles with the
fresh water at higher levels.
The change wrought in what was un-
productive desert land by irrigation and
modern methods is marvel Gus. An arti-
Gle in Everybody's Magazine few years
ago said: "There is more corn land in
Texas than in Illinois, more wheat land
than in the Dakotas, while in fruit lands
Texas has California submerged and