AN ARTESIAN WKl.Iv 



Wide areas in Texas are underlain by water-bearing strata, from which an inexhaustible 

 supply of pure water can be obtained at little expense by boring a well of no great depth. 

 Such wells are an important source of supply both for drinking and irrigation. 



favorable. Some portions are semi-arid, 

 but parts of these can be reclaimed by 

 irrigation or will grow certain suitable 

 crops. Of its 167,924,720 acres, only 

 one-seventh is under cultivation, but this 

 yields farm products valued at $561,- 

 339,000 a year. The farms are large, 

 360 acres being the average as against 

 146 acres as the average in all the United 

 States. 



Much of the farming is not of a very 

 high standard, for the average value of 

 products per acre is only $1.43, while 

 Illinois farms, for example, average 

 $9.54 an acre, and they are by no means 

 up to the highest plane of productivity. 

 Considering the advantageous climatic 

 capabilities, the greater part of the farm 

 products are few in number and, omit- 

 ting cotton, rice, and sugar, which grow 

 in c. relatively small area, most of the 

 crops are articles of low value. This is 

 not stated disparagingly, but to show 

 that when there is more diversified farm- 



ing and the higher-priced crops are pro- 

 duced, Texas will make a wonderful 

 showing. 



The immigration into the State aver- 

 ages 100,000 a year, mainly for the pur- 

 pose of farming. Those who come are 

 mostly Americans, with more or less cap- 

 ital. It is claimed that about 50 per cent 

 of the farmers own their farms and 37 

 per cent of the families, urban and rural, 

 own their homes. 



Cotton, the greatest single item in the 

 world's agricultural production, is the 

 principal crop in Texas. The 1911-1912 

 output from the United States was over 

 16 million bales of 500 pounds each, 

 valued at about a billion dollars, and 

 about one-fifth of this was raised in 

 Texas. The 1912-1913 output was 13,- 

 703,421 bales, of which Texas produced 

 4,880,210 bales, or more than one-third 

 of the total crop. Most of the cotton 

 grows on the wide bottom lands border- 

 ing the rivers of the coast country, with 



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