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fusely and surely. Until lately no profit was derived from them, and now only 
on the line of railroad running lengthwise through the State. Formerly peaches 
were pecuniarily profitable only in pork-making. The crop is very sure in the 
southern part of the-State; in the northern it is sometimes injured by frosts. 
Apples do pretty well, if kinds are selected which are suited to the climate. 
Small fruits produce in great abundance. The pear is apt to blight, but is favor- 
ably mentioned in some localities. Grapes do well in the poorest soils, and are 
free from disease. The Hartford, Prolific, Lenoir, Diana, Concord, and Catawba 
are mentioned with approval in the southern part of the State. -Our correspond- 
ent in Washington says : : 
The peach succeeds here remarkably well; the trees are often from a foot to 15 inches in 
diameter, and I know some 18 years old. One tree will yield more fruit than four in New 
Jersey. , 
TEXAS. 
1. The decline in the value of farm lands in Texas since the census of 1860 
appears not so great-as-in most of the southern States, though the same causes 
which have been active in depreciating real estate in the latter have been seriously 
felt in many counties of Texas. Anderson and Victoria report an average 
decrease of 70 to 80 per cent.; Dallas, Falls, Nacogdoches, Goliad, Blanco, De 
Witt, Colorado, and Lavaca, about 50 per cent.; Collin, Cherokee, and Hardin, 
25 to 33 per cent.; Houston and Navarro, 25; Ellis, 20; Williamson, 10 per 
cent. Bell, Gillespie, Lampasas, Burnet, Nueces, and Cameron report no ma- 
terial change since 1860, while Washington reports a general increase of 5 per 
cent., though in some localities it is over 100 per cent., and Hays and Coryelle 
about 10 per cent. From the estimates of reporters the average decline in 
values of farm lands in the entire State is from 25 to’30 per cent. Many cor- 
respondents express the opinion that the depreciation is but temporary, and 
that lands generally will soon command the prices of 1860.. Our Hopkins 
reporter says : xy ; . 
If the cotton crop had been good, or if it had brought a good price, I think lands would 
now stand as high as before the war; but as it is, they are 25 per cent. lower. 
From Fayette, one of the central counties, our reporter writes : . 
Tn 1849 the general assessed value of lands averaged $1 33 per acre; 1850, $1 24; 185], 
$1 70; 1852, $2 33; 1853, $2 35; 1854, $2 70; 1855, $2 84; $1456, $3 23; 1857, $3 44; 
1858, $4 97; 1859, $4 23; 1860, $5 42; 1861, $7; 1862, $6 15; 1863, $6 27; 1864, $5 83;. 
1865, $4 23; 1866, $4 50; 1867, $5 50. Total.number of acres asséssed 400,000, valued at 
$2,200,000 in 1867. Average of improved lands $10 per acre. y'* ; 
From Cameron county, the extreme southern point of the State, our corre- 
spondent writes :. 
Farm lands as they exist in other parts of our country are never sold here. The only 
lands worked are the river bottoms, and as our lands were originally granted to settlers and 
sold to purchasers by the authorities of Spain and Mexico, previous to the extension of our 
boundary to the Rio Grande, they were donated in tracts or rights containing on an average 
about 4,500 acres, with an average frontage on the river of about 1,000 yards. These lands 
are held by the descendants of the original settlers and their assignees, and where they remain 
in common or have been partitioned the right of the heir or assigns bears the proportion in 
frontage to the original tract that the heir bears to the original grantee. Many of the fami- 
lies have been very prolific, and it is not rare to find a person who owns from 10 to 15 yards river 
front, with a depth of 15 miles. The consequence is, if a man wishes to purchase a farm of 
300 or 400 yards frontage on the river, he must buy 1,200 to 2,000 acres of land, 19-20 of 
which is wild land. Such lands are worth at present about the same as in 1860. 
2. Wild or unimproved lands range in price from 124 cents to $10 per acre, 
and embrace a very large proportion of the total area of the State, less than 
two per cent. being under cultivation in 1860, the census figures standing : im- 
proved land in farms, 2,650,781 acres; unimproved land in farms, 22,693,247 
acres; wild or waste areas, (including water areas, &c.,) 126,541,412 acres. 
These lands, when owned by the State, may be had for the price of the certifi- 
