30 TEXAS STATE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Pine Belt: Polk, 75 per cent; Trinity, 60 per cent; Angelina, 60 per 

 cent; Tyler, 72 per cent; Hardin, 85 per cent; Jasper, 82 per cent; 

 Sabine, 70 per cent; Newton, 75 per cent; Orange, 90 per cent; Jeffer- 

 son, 95 per cent. These estimates are based upon my travel and ob- 

 servations in these counties. 



"These lands will produce corn, cotton, peas, peanuts, potatoes, grain, 

 sorghums, and the lands of lower Jasper, Newton and those counties 

 are especially well adapted to the growth of sugar cane. As to their 

 fertility, this varies in a very marked degree; however, I would say 

 that the average long leaf piney lands are principally sand, and that 

 they will compare in production, very favorably, with the very deep 

 sandy soils of your count}^ (Kusk). Some of these soils, however, have 

 a very good subsoil and can be made to produce great crops. Their 

 yield per acre of corn or cotton would be from one-fourth to one-half 

 bale of cotton per acre, and from 15 to 25 bushels of corn. This is in 

 their virgin state, and without fertilizers. 



"Prices on that part of the cut over lands that are on the market 

 will range from $5 to $15 per acre, depending upon distance from 

 market, grade of land and acreage purchased. If bought in large tracts, 

 it could likely be bought as low as $5 per acre. 



"At this time the timber is being cut slowly and most of the timber 

 is held by very large lumbermen, so it will probably be twenty-five years 

 before all the present supply of these mills is exhausted. 



"These lands are well supplied with springs and clear running creeks, 

 and health will be good if water supply is kept pure and flies and mos- 

 quitoes are avoided. 



"In a general way the lands you inquire about are not considered to 

 be very good, yet if you will use care in the selection of these lands, 

 and get where you have a good subsoil, I consider them the best cheap 

 lands in Texas today. 



"Yours very truly, 



"T. 0. W'ALTON." 



By reference to the map of Texas, it will be observed that this Long 

 Leaf Pine Belt is luckily situated in many ways. Bordering on the 

 Gulf of Mexico, far from the prairies, it escapes the northers of winter, 

 and the long summers are modified by the Gulf breeze. Beaumont is 

 a city of more than twenty thousand population; P'ort Arthur and 

 Orange are in a navigation district which has advantages superior to 

 any other district on the Gulf. Beaumont is situated on the Neches 

 river, fifty miles from Sabine Pass. The Neches is one of the best 

 rivers in Texas and passes through the center of the Long Leaf Pine 

 Belt. Orange is a good town situated on the Sabine river about thirty 

 miles from the Gulf of Mexico. The Sabine river forms the eastern 

 boundary line between Texas and Louisiana, and is, of course, the east 

 line of the Long Leaf Pine Belt in Texas. Port Arthur is nearly thir- 

 teen miles from the bar at Sabine Pass, and the government has already 

 spent $4,000,000 in building the canal and otherwise improving the har- 

 bor at that place. Last year the total commerce of Port Arthur 

 amounted to nearly fifty millions of dollars. Its exports consisted prin- 

 cipally of grain, cotton seed meal and cake, sulphur, oil and oil prod- 

 ucts, logs and lumber. The Neches and Sabine were the only mean's of 



