LETTER FROM H, ¥, RAVENEL, ESQ. 



I 



To the Commissioner of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. : 



Sm: In accordance with an invitation to accompany Professor Gamgee 

 to Texas, and to make an examination of tlie botany of the country where 

 he investigated the cattle disease, and especially to direct attention to 

 the lo^^■QV cryptogamic flora, the fimgi, and algae, and also to examine 

 the grasses and other plants furnishing food for cattle, I reached Gal- 

 veston on the morning of the 28th of March, and proceeded at once to 

 Houston to join Professor Gamgee. 



After making a cursory examination into the pastures in the neighbor- 

 hood of Houston, I accepted an invitation from Colonel Ashbell Smith 

 to visit his farm at Galveston Bay, Harris County,* and reached that 

 place on the 30th. Here T had an opportunity of seeing a variety of 

 soils, prairie as well a*s heavily timbered land, the latter rather rare 

 in this part of Texas. Colonel Smith offered me ample facilities for 

 investigation, and from his long residence in the country, and exten- 

 sive information, I was enabled to derive much benefit. I spent five 

 days at this place, and made large collections of fungi and some few 

 grasses. I made an examination also of hay which had been cut last 

 summer and stacked in the fields. It was perfectly sound, and of bright 

 and healthy color, without any indication of mouldiness or parasitic 

 growth. The hay was cut from a body of prairie land inclosed by a 

 fence, a portion of which had been biu^nt off for the purpose. The 

 remaining portion in the old dried grasses of the last season presented no 

 different appearance from dried grasses in similar situations; nothing to 

 indicate any increased growth of parasitic fungi, or of having suffered 

 from that cause. Colonel Smith was good enough to furnish me with 

 notes of his place, which I append, to give an idea of the quality and 

 situation of his lands : 



"The Evergreen estate is situated in the 29° 42' north latitude, at the 

 head of Galveston Bay, within the debouchure of the united waters of 

 Buffalo Bayou and the San Jacinto River, over Clopper's Bar, and on the 

 east side of the river. It is washed in its rear by the Cedar Bayou, which 

 empties into Galveston Bay some two miles lower down. This bnyouHs 

 from tweuty-five to thirty feet deep. There is scarcely any swamp or 

 bottom, properly so called. The g<M)logical formation is alluvial. The 

 soil on the San Jaciuto or bay side is chiefly a sandy loam. That at the 

 Cedar Bayou is a very black, stiff soil, and commonly known in this State 

 as ' hog wallow,' from numerous depressions of the surface as if made 



