THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



timber, consisting principally of forests of 

 pine, oak and hickory." 



That portion of the state lying east of 

 the timber region and north of the Gurf 

 coast is a vast open plain, composed of 

 gentle rolling prairies and gradual eleva- 

 tions. It is covered with a luxuriant 

 growth of native grasses and dotted by an 

 occasional mass of timber, and extends to 

 Bed river on the north and the mountains 

 ranges on the west and northwest. The 

 water courses and ravines are usually 

 fringed with a growth of hackberry. ash. 

 elm, cottonwood. pecan, walnut and the 

 various oaks. 



In the extreme northwest, bordering 

 Kansas on the south and New Mexico on 

 the west, is the elevated table land desig- 

 nated as the Panhandle of Texas. On a 

 Hue north of Austin and San Antonio and 

 running in a southwesterly direction, 

 there is a low range of hills that mark a 

 change in the topography of the country. 

 Westward it is more broken and the ele- 

 vations more abrupt. The valleys are 

 broad and the lands very fertile. The 

 ."it is described as of greater variety and 

 richness than any other state in the Union. 

 The Commissioner says: "The black 

 waxy, black sandy, black pebbly, hog 

 wallow, gray sandy, red sandy, sandy loam 

 and alluvial soils are each to be found in 

 the state, the majority of them in greater 

 or less quantities in each section. " But 

 the principal soils of Texas are the black 

 waxy, black sandy and alluvial lands of 

 the river bottoms. 



We often hear Texas spoken of as a 

 vast timberless country, but that impres- 

 sion is wholly erroneous. In the prairie 

 region the bottoms along the streams and 

 ravines are skirted with timber, and in 

 most places there is a happy admixture of 

 prairie and timber land that so delights 

 the heart of the farmer. Besides this, 

 portions of the state are covered with a 

 dense forest of fine timber, embracing 

 nearly every variety grown in the south, 

 aggregating 35,537,967 acres of timber 

 land. 



Texas has a wide range in her climate 

 as well as in her productions, it is in fact 

 this wide range of climate, rich soil, fer- 

 vent sun and pure water that gives her so 

 wide a range of productions. In addition 

 to this it has often been suggested that 

 Texas should become a health resort as 

 well as a refuge for people seeking to es- 

 cape the rigors of winter in more northern 

 latitudes. 



Schools, churches and newspapers con- 

 stitute an infallible standard by which 

 any country or any people can be judged 

 and the character and convenience of the 

 schools is always a paramount question to 

 every home seeker. In this Texas takes 

 first rank, her school endowment is, I be- 

 lieve, much the largest of any state in the 

 Union, embracing 7,500,000 in interest 

 bearing bonds. 14,000,000 in interest 

 bearing land notes, and about 23,000.000 

 acres of unsold lands. Of the unsold 

 school lands 'JO. 000,000 acres are leased 

 at 4 cents per acre, and the funds thus 

 derived added to the annual available 

 school fund-: aggregates a total state and 

 county fund of 73.454,868. 



In the face of such facts as I have pre- 

 sented in this and a former letter we are 

 still reaching out and annexing new terri- 

 tory in the Eastern as well as in the 

 Western hemishere. Some of these come 

 by gift, some by purchase and some by 

 conquest. But if we examine all. the old 

 and new, from the Penobscot to the Yu- 

 kon, none of them can offer to the honest 

 industrious young man any more, or even 

 the same, inducements that Texas does. 

 Here we have unequalled climate, rich 

 soil, with a guarantee of seed time and 

 harvest for all our products, and our loca- 

 tion is central, with not only desirable 

 ocean service, but railroads radiating in 

 all directions, affording cheap and rapid 

 transportation to the markets of the world. 



Eastern people don't appear to under- 

 stand existing conditions in Texas; they 

 don't realize that during the past fifteen 

 years the *stat has been filling up with 

 the best blood of the East and South ; the 



