392 



years, without being absent within that jjeriocl more than six months; 

 and that within the counties of Kerr, Kendall, Kimball, Blanco, Menard, 

 and Edwards there is now public domain on which thousands of 100- 

 acre farms may be advantageously located. 



The drawbacks which have hitherto operated to prevent this region 

 from being rapidly settled are nov/ fast passing away. Among these 

 were remoteness from any great thoroughfare, the ever-present tear of 

 depredations to which a frontier settlement was exposed from maraud- 

 ing Indians, the extraordinary occurrence of three '^ grasshopper- 

 years" in succession — a pest now passed awaj', and nob likely to return 

 for the same length of time, at least within the present generation — 

 and, to crown all, the decade of afflictions, crippled enterprise, and 

 impoverished resources brought on by the late war; consequences from 

 which the country is now happily recovering. 



To disabuse the public mind of the erroneous impression as to the 

 prevalence of drought in Western Texas, the following statistics of the 

 amount of rain-fall at Kerrville, Kerr County, for each of the fast four 

 four years is given: In 1868,40.60 inches; 1869, 49.03 inches; 1870, 

 35.13 inches; 1871, 24.85 inches. 



Cultivation by steaivi in Europe. — At an agricultural meeting 

 recently held in Scotland, some interesting statements were made re- 

 specting the origin, progress, and results of cultivation by steam in 

 Europe. In 1855, a Mr. John Fowler, of Essex County, England, started 

 his first steam-plow. He subsequently expended about $350,000 in 

 experiments in cultivating by steam, and at the end of this great ex- 

 penditure had to show for it only a lot of old machinery. But as early 

 as 1858 the question whether, under certain conditions, such as a sur- 

 face sufficiently level, free from obstructions, &c., plowing could be done 

 more profitably by steam than by horse-power was satisfactorily settled. 

 Now, in Great Britain, there are single establishments for manufactur- 

 ing steam-plows so extensive that they furnish constant employment 

 for not less than 1,200 men. In England, between 400 and 500 sets of 

 steam-plows, held, some by companies and others by individual owners, 

 are worked for hire, and are found to be a profitable investment. A 

 tract of 500 acres, near London, so unproductive that it could not be 

 rented for $3 per acre, was bought by an enterprising farmer who re- 

 moved the fences, under-drained, and, with a steam-plow, put the whole 

 into grain crops. Last year, after allowing 10 per cent, on the money 

 invested in the land, his clear profits were $18,000. The soil he thus 

 improved by deep steam-plowing is a stiff clay, that could not be prof- 

 itably worked by horse-power. Another tract of 5,000 acres, that had 

 been regarded as worthless, was bought by a farmer who plowed it with 

 steam-power to the depth of 3 feet, and was rewarded by crops of aston- 

 ishing thrift. In Scotland, cultivation by steam is becoming general, 

 and producing results equally marvellous. Joint stock companies are 

 investing in laud and steam-machinery and securing large dividends, 

 while individual farmers have invested from $6,000 to $10,000 in steam- 

 machinery with very profitable results. In Germany, also, steam- 

 power is working a revolution in agriculture. 



In connection with the subject, it was stated that the Pasha of Egypt 

 uov/ employ's on his extensive domain 400 steam-plows ; and further- 

 more, in prosecuting this feasible mode of cultivating on a grand scale, 

 is building, " on his farm," 400 miles of railway, and, for transporting 

 and manufacturing the raw material produced, has ordered thirty loco- 

 motive-engines and $3,000,000 worth of sugar-machinery. 



