Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 407 



Chairman Ely— •- Ad vising a man where to settle is like telling him 

 which girl to marry. He must inform his mind and get the data for 

 forming a sound judgment for himself. This next letter may help 

 his case. 



Mr. William M. Long, Yeal's Station, Parker County, Texas. — 

 Allow me to inform the destitute and homeless thousands who are 

 now toiling upon old, worn-out lands, which compel them to observe 

 the strictest economy to barely make a living, that there are, and 

 always have been, sufficiently good inducements to warrant a whole- 

 sale emigration to north-western Texas. There are thousands of 

 acres of land here that the State is now offering for settlement, 

 which, as respects convenience to wood, water and fertility of soil, 

 are as good as could be desired. This is the place to secure home- 

 steads, ye starving thousands who have been rendered houseless by 

 the late great fires of the north ! It is a well-known fact that it 

 does not require one-half of the labor here to make a living as it does 

 in the old States ; therefore we are unable to see why the destitute 

 thousands will not use a little exertion and economy, and move 

 west. In fact, all this country lacks for being settled up is the 

 introduction of railroads and protection from the Indians. Allow 

 me to assure you that all the rumors about Texas being notorious for 

 its cut-throats and ruffians are simply untrue ; no Ku-Klux ; plenty of 

 good vacant land out of the Indian range to be given away. 



Mr. J. B. Lyman — If a man has money, say from $2,000 to $5,000, 

 he can go and buy out a range and begin business at once. But if a 

 young, unmarried man has nothing but his hands, is it not better 

 policy for him to work and save, and go with say $500, than to ven- 

 ture empty-handed into those remote countries ? Those south-western 

 people deal too much in glittering generalities. We don't care to be 

 told that Texas is the most fertile and magnificent State the sun v 

 shines on, that she is the empire republic of the sunny South, and all 

 that. What Higgins wants to know is, how much a month he can 

 get, how much his boots will cost, how much a day he must pay to a 

 carpenter, how much he will give for a good span of plow horses. 

 If he makes twenty bushels of wheat on an acre, how much can he get 

 for it ? If he drives three hundred head of four-year-olds to Abeline, 

 how much will he pay for them in 'Waco, how much will it cost per 

 head to drive them, and how much will he get in Kansas ? Another 

 question of great importance : How much does it cost to go from 

 New York city to Parker county, Texas ? 



