34 TEXAS STATE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



APPENDIX. 



EXTRACT FROM A LETTER OF JUDGE NORMAN G. KITTRELL ; ALSO LETTERS 



FROM PROFESSORS H. NESS, E. J. KYLE AND J. C. BURNS OF THE 



AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL COLLEGE OF TEXAS. 



Professor Ness is Horticulturist in the Experiment Department, Pro- 

 fessor Kyle is Dean of the School of Agriculture and Professor of Hor- 

 ticulture, and Professor Burns is Professor of Animal Husbandry and 

 head of that Department. Judge Kittrell was raised in East Texas T 

 and was district judge for many years of an East Texas district. 



Judge KittrelFs letter : 



I put the following thirty counties in a group and denominate them 

 East Texas: Anderson, Angelina, Cherokee, Freestone, Gregg, Grimes. 

 Hardin, Henderson, Houston, Jasper, Leon, Liberty, Madison, Mont- 

 gomery, Nacogdoches, Panola, Polk, Robertson, Rusk, Sabine, Shelby, 

 Smith, San Augustine, San Jacinto, Trinity, Tyler, IJpshur, Van 

 Zandt, Walker and Wood. I name them alphabeticallv, not geographi- 

 cally. You will observe that none of them cross the H. & T. C. R. R., 

 and none touch the coast, and that on the west or southwest the line 

 stops on the north line of Harris county. The area is 25,500 square 

 miles. I will proceed to show you that these counties have practically 

 stood still as to population, while people seeking homes have gone else- 

 where. 



These thirty counties contained, in 1900, a population of 537,594,. 

 and in 1910 a population of 588,430, an increase of only 49,364, or 

 a fraction over 9 per cent for the entire decade. 



The population per square mile is slightly in excess of 23. 



Eighteen counties within 100 miles of Dallas, including that county, 

 contained, in 1900, a population of 722,674, and in 1910 a population 

 of 899,209, an increase of 176,535, or nearly 25 per cent for the decade. 



Eighteen counties lying northwest of Dallas, commonly known as the 

 Panhandle, had, in 1890, a population of 17,666, and in 1910 a popu- 

 lation of 62,949, an increase of 45,283, or about 259 per cent. 



These figures show that East Texas increased less than 1 per cent per 

 annum in population during the last census decade, and has 23 popula- 

 tion to the square mile, against 400 in Xew England, Xow, you know, 

 as well as I do, that taking it year in and year out East Texas will pro- 

 duce more surely a greater varietv of those products used to feed and 

 clothe the human race than any other territory of like area in the world. 

 Then why does it stand still? It is because all over it in Rusk county 

 as in all the rest far the largest part of the well-established farms- 

 were cleared by slave labor, and because the average white small farmer 

 will not, if he can, find prairie land, cut clown trees, pull out roots and 

 dig stumps. He had rather dig out a sodhouse, take a coil of barbed 

 wire and a few mesquite and cotton wood posts and begin on the prairie,. 



