EAST TEXAS. 19 



i:\ST TEXAS BOTTOM LANDS. 



The bottom lands of East Texas are., as a rule, exceedingly fertile, 

 producing corn, cotton, sugar cane, sorghum and Bermuda grass in 

 abundance. It is easy to find land adjacent to streams which will pro- 

 duce 40 and 50 bushels of corn per acre and a bale of cotton, and as- 

 many as 900 gallons of ribbon cane syrup is not an uncommon crop. 

 Those portions of bottom land subject to frequent overflows should be 

 sodded in Bermuda grass, Bur clover and Rescue. The intrinsic value 

 of such lands planted to these forage and grazing crops will equal the 

 famous alfalfa lands of the West, and at the same time the banks of the 

 streams will furnish an annual supply of timber for fuel and other pur- 

 poses. The ever-running water of the streams obviates the. necessity of 

 spending a cent for providing for stock water, and the convenience and 

 value of a well selected and properly prepared East Texas pasture for 

 hogs, cattle, sheep and goats cannot be excelled. 



These fertile bottoms are found on what is termed the inner margin 

 of the Coastal Plain and rise from 200 to 500 feet above the level of 

 the sea, and are generally well drained. The soil of these bottoms is a 

 deposit of the numerous types to be found on the uplands, there being 

 over twenty types in the average East Texas county, as given by the Soil 

 Surveys in the few counties where surveys have been made. The bot- 

 tom soils of this country, belonging as it does to the Sabine formation 

 of the geological Eocene age, and bounded by the Trinity series on the 

 west, are of the alluvial division and consist of a surface-soil varying 

 from brown to nearly black, dark-gray and dark-brown; and a subsoil 

 varying from mottled brown-yellow, yellow and gray, mottled-yellow 

 and gray. In years when it does not overflow it is easily cultivated, 

 and rarely suffers from drought. If this land existed in large areas 

 not subject to overflows its value for the production of corn would be 

 equal to the Illinois corn lands. 



THE AVERAGE PRICES OF LAND IN THE VARIOUS COUNTIES THEN- 

 ORGANIZED (1861) IN TEXAS. 



The basis of a country's wealth is land. The pioneers in Texas, like 

 all new-comers, pursued the course of least resistance, or to what ap- 

 peared to them the least. They settled in East and South Texas be- 

 cause to them those sections offered the greatest opportunities and were 

 easiest of access. In these sections abounded water and timber, and 

 climatic conditions were most congenial. The Texas Almanac of 1861 

 ,?ives the value of lands per acre for the year 1859, which are suggestive 

 of the above fact?. They are as follow? : 



Anderson $ 3.07 



Angelina 1.75 



Atascosa 1.13 



Austin 4.69 



Bandera . 1.14 



Bastrop 4.26 



Bee . .' 67 



Boll 2.17 



