4 AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL COLLEGE or TEXAS. 



information given and help rendered by county officials and the agri- 

 cultural demonstration agents in all of the counties where this impor- 

 tant position has heen created. 



The practice of forestry is not only related to the great business of 

 agriculture, but the handling of farm woodlots at least, is an important 

 part of it. This is especially true in Texas, where the clearing of new 

 lands in some sections and the reforestation of lands already cleared in 

 others are coming to be questions for the consideration of every farmer 

 and land owner. Each farm should have its timbered portion. The 

 great forest belts of East Texas will eventually become woodlot sec- 

 tions, where the best soils will be in cultivation and the poorer ones 

 devoted to the growing of forests. Farmers and ranchmen throughout 

 Central and in Western Texas should protect their naturally wooded 

 areas and plant new forests on land not needed or of little value for 

 cultivation, thus bringing added returns in wood products for home and 

 local use and protection, comfort, and pleasure to farm dwellers. The 

 future ownership as well as the future welfare of Texas forests must 

 rest largely with those who occupy the land. 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS. 



Persons unfamiliar with distances in Texas scarcely realize that about 

 one-twelfth of the area of the United States, or 265,780 square miles, 

 is included within the boundaries of the State. The magnitude of this 

 area is better understood when one realizes that it is equal to the com- 

 bined area of all the northeastern States, including New England and 

 the States west and south from there as far as Indiana, Tennessee, and 

 Virginia. Its extent is about equal to that of France. The railroad 

 distance across Texas from east to west is about 900 miles, or about 

 the same as from New York to Chicago or Atlanta. Its width is more 

 than one-half the southern border of the United States between the 

 Atlantic and Pacific; The north and south distance is nearly as great. 



In respect to location and natural conditions, Texas is the most 

 southern of all the States except Florida; it is one of the great tier 

 of States which forms the central part of the Union. It is a Gulf State 

 and has one-fourth the shore line of the Gulf of Mexico. It is a 

 western State, its extreme western border being nearer the Pacific than 

 the Atlantic. In interests as well as in geographical location and nat- 

 ural conditions, parts of Texas typify the southern, central, and western 

 United States. 



Within the State the natural conditions are of the most diverse char- 

 acter. The climate varies from the even warmth of the coast lowlands 

 to the rigors and extremes of the mountainous and elevated interior, 

 and from the heavy rainfall and moisture laden air of the east to the 

 arid conditions of the far west with its hot, burning winds. In relief, 

 the State rises from sea level by diversified terraces to high plains, 

 4000 to 5000 feet above the Gulf, and then to rugged mountains of the 



