The Fann Servants in the North of Seotland 



97 



interest. But ail tlie landlords cannot afibrd 

 this, and few attempt it. The want of the 

 necessary funds is a drawback, which might 

 be more easily got over if it were properly 

 defined what portion of the outlay, if any, 

 the farmer should defray. But for the high 

 rate of interest charged by the Enclosure 

 Commissioners, more benefit would be de- 

 rived from these loans. Landlords and 

 tenants seem more alive now to the necessity 

 for better house accommodation to the 

 labouring classes, and when to this know- 

 ledge is added the hope that by providing 

 good houses, the most of the other recently 



announced demands of the servants may be 

 departed from, we are sanguine that much 

 will be done in the course of a few years to 

 supply the felt want. The progress of this 

 work, however, must depend a good deal on 

 the manner in which the servants approach 

 the employers with their shorter hours and 

 more wages requests. It is probable their 

 cause may be injured by an attempt to force 

 all these omnibuses abreast through the rural 

 Temple Bar, so to speak. True, the agitation 

 among the servants has been mostly con- 

 fined to Aberdeenshire, but such matters are 

 very infectious, and may be carried too far. 



TEXAS AS A FIELD FOR EMIGRATION. 



A CORRESPONDENT of the Scotsman, 

 who denies the " popular impression " 

 that Texas is a lawless and unsettled state, 

 gives the following account of its natural 

 fertility : — 



There are no beggars, and no poor-rates 

 and every one willing to work can always 

 sustain himself in comfort, and with ordinary 

 dihgence will earn a competency. This is 

 particularly the case in farming and stock- 

 raising districts. Emigrants from Germany — 

 very few visit us from Britain — come here 

 poor, and after a few years of hard work and 

 frugal living they are found in easy comfort- 

 able circumstances, possessed of tracts of 

 land, and owning large herds of cattle. Such 

 facts as these becoming known, together with 

 the opening up of the whole State by rail- 

 road communication, have a great effect, and 

 the consequence is that crowds are pouring 

 in, especially from the northern States, and 

 still there is room for hundreds of thousands 

 on the vast plains and river bottoms of 

 Texas. 



The peculiar advantages that the State 

 possesses are its immense extent of territory, 

 the salubrity of the climate, and the fertility 

 of the soil. An idea of its extent may be 

 gathered from the fact that it is estimated to 



VOL. IX. 



contain 280,000 square miles of arable land, 

 much of which is unsurpassed by any of like 

 extent on the American Continent, and is 

 capable of supporting in independence and 

 comfort a population of nearly one hundred 

 millions. The population at present is about 

 one million, and it will thus be seen what a 

 field there is for emigration. The climate is 

 extremely mild and salubrious, for although 

 the thermometer rises to 95 deg. and 97 deg. 

 in summer, and in Northern Texas a few deg. 

 higher, the prevailing south winds from the 

 Gulf of Mexico cool the atmosphere, and cases 

 of sunstroke are unknown. In winter the tem- 

 perature varies from 50 to 65 deg., and on 

 the whole the climate is very uniform, being 

 exempt from the extreme heat and cold of the 

 Northern States. Florida is well known to 

 be the resort of those in search of health, 

 especially consumptives ; but before many 

 years Texas will be quite as favourably 

 thought of in this respect. In the valley of 

 the Rio Grande, which has been well styled 

 the Italy of America, and eastward to San 

 Antonio, lies a stretch of country entirely 

 free from climatic diseases, and of the great- 

 est salubrity, where we find the inhabitants 

 living to advanced age, and not unfrequently 

 meet with persons enjoying excellent health, 



