SUMMER MEETING AT BROOKFIELD. 139" 



worthy of good cultivation in corn, wheat, oats or grass ; other soil 

 still, where the small, short stalks of cotton seem to indicate a good, 

 fertile land, but as if the climate for cotton growing had been a little 

 too cool and they had been trying to stretch the cotton belt too far 

 north. 



Entering the Territory near Chetopa, Kansas, we passed through 

 Vinita, Waggoner, Gibson, crossing the Arkansas river at Muskogee,, 

 then the north and south forks of the Canadian river to McAllister. 

 Here we find a branch road running out to the coal mines, where an 

 abundance of good coal is found. 



At Atoka we find another branch to the Lehigh coal mines, where 

 there is to be found plenty of the best of coal, and we saw train loads 

 of it going north and south to supply the railroads and surrounding- 

 country. 



Crossing Eed river we find ourselves in the great State of Texas 

 at Denison. The continued down-pour of the cold rain of the 13th 

 prevented us from spending even the hour alloted us in looking at the 

 growing young city. But enough has been written of that city and 

 country so that it is well known. 



Part of the journey from Denison to Austin was in the night, so* 

 that we could not tell of it at all ; but if what we passed over, and did 

 have an opportunity of seeing, is a good specimen of Texas, I do not 

 wonder that Texans are proud of the State. Leaving Denison we went 

 through Whitesboro, Denton, Fort Worth, Waco, Echo and Taylor to 

 Austin, crossing the Brazos river at Waco, and coming to the north 

 side of the Colorado river at Austin. 



Texas is certainly a State of wonderful distances and grand possi- 

 bilities. When we begin to get it into our heads that Texas has an 

 area of 250,000 square miles, larger than the Austrian empire and 

 34,000 square miles to spare, larger than the German empire and 62,000 

 more, greater in extent than France with her millions of inhabitants 

 and 70,000 square miles to spare, we can get some faint idea of her ex- 

 tent. Xo wonder Texans are proud of their State. 



The extreme length of Texas from north to south is 750 miles and 

 from east to west 800 miles. The State is probably as varied in its- 

 topography as any in the United States. Eastern Texas is timbered. 

 Southeast Texas is a vast open plain. West and northwest are the 

 hills and mountains, and the extreme northwest is what is known as 

 the Staked Plains or Panhandle. 



The soil is as various as the topography. The Commissioner of 

 Agriculture of the State gives eight varieties of soil — black waxy, black 



