48 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES 
proving to be rich and productive. It is controlled by one oil com- 
pany and had a production of 4,274,000 barrels in 1930. The derricks 
are plainly visible from the train. The oil comes from sands overlying 
the salt, which is at a depth of about 4,300 feet. 
West of Sugar Land are the extensive cotton and corn fields of 
the State farm “‘Sartartia,’”’ and half a mile to the north is a canning 
factory in which the State preserves vegetables of many kinds for use 
in State institutions. 
On approaching Richmond the railroad crosses the Brazos River, 
one of the largest streams in eastern Texas. It is more than 900 miles 
long and drains a wide area in the central part of the 
Richmond. State. Its headwaters are the Salt and Double 
reales roam Ray Mountain Forks, which rise in the Llano Estacado. 
New Orleans 387 miles. Its deposits are of pronounced reddish tint, owing to 
material derived from red beds far to the northwest, 
a feature which causes the marked change of soil that is observed just 
east of Sugar Land. The banks of this river are from 20 to 30 feet 
high at Richmond, revealing the sand and clay that underlie the 
adjoining plains. West of Richmond the river water is pumped to 
the top of the bank into a canal to supply water for irrigating rice 
fields lying to the southeast. In Richmond, where he died in 1837, is 
a statue erected by the State to the memory of Erastus (Deaf) Smith, 
one of the patriots active in the campaign that culminated in the 
Battle of San Jacinto. 
From this place a railroad to Corpus Christi passes through Goliad, 
about 120 miles to the southwest, near which is the ancient presidio 
of La Bahia (bah-ce’ah), located here in 1749. At Goliad on March 
27, 1836, three weeks after the fall of the Alamo, the entire garrison 
of 400, mainly Anglo-American volunteers, were slaughtered by order 
of the Mexican General Santa Ana. 
