"settlements" for the purpose of stealing the descendants of the bulls of Bashan ever horses and scalps.

A few hardy pioneers, fond of adventure, and impatient of the restraints of civilized society, have sought scenes and events congenial to their rough natures and rude tastes, Ly penetrating far into the frontiers, where the wolf's howl and the panther's scream are their favorite music, the elk's haunch their delicacies, the buffalo-skin their bed, and the savage red-skin their companion. But little has been done toward testing the capabilities of the country for agricultural purposes, above where cotton has been successfully grown, but enough is known to settle its character as a fine grain-growing country. There is a portion of the cotton region, where small grain has been experimented on with the most encouraging success. All of what are denominated the Red River counties, all the country from that to the upper Trinity, extending two hundred miles on that stream above and below the three forks, reaching beyond the Cross Timbers, is a scope of country of surpassing fertility, and pronounced by the best judges superior to Missouri as a wheat country. Between the Red River and Upper Trinity, there is a larger body of rich land, without any admixture of poor, than can probably be found elsewhere on the continent of Ameri

ca.

This description of country extends to most of the Trinity, taking in the Navissotto, Brazos, Colorado, and sources of the Guadaloupe, with occasional interruptions, to our western boundary. Some of the tributaries of the Colorado are represented as surprisingly beautiful and rich; in the valley of the San Saba, grow luxuriantly, wheat, rye, barley and oats, in nature's form, planted by the same hand that planted the tree of life in the first garden, watched over by no eye but that which surveys the universe, and harvested only by the bison and the wild deer. The spontaneous productions of a soil is considered unmistakable proof of its adaptation to those productions-better intimations could not be given; it is the voice of nature untaught by the husbandman's art, speaking through her own acts, making indigenous that which is peculiarly suited to peculiar localities. If we regard this indication, then Texas, we must conclude, is pre-eminently adapted to the growth of small grain, since rye and other descriptions of grain grow in rich luxuriance over a territory as large as some of the European kingdoms, or states of the American Union.

Texas Stock and Prairies.-There is no portion of Texas but where horned cattle can be easier and cheaper raised than in any portion of the Union or the globe, except on the pampas of South America. In many portions of the state, the muskeet grass affords the richest and most enduring pasture that

luxuriated on. There the broad meadow stretches beyond the reach of vision, bounded only by the blue horizon, broken occasionally by a lazy stream or dry bayou," with here and there a water-hole, and a small skirting of timber to mark its course. There innumerable herds of cattle, happier and prettier than ever were pastured by Virgil in his pas torals, enliven the otherwise oppressive loneliness of the scene. Other portions of the state are beautifully diversified with towering mountains and laughing valleys, with roaring rapids and smooth gliding streams, presenting to the eye some of the loveliest scenes that Nature, in her most fanciful moods, has ever marked out. These, too, are covered with the richest, sweetest herbage, and variegated with innumerable wild flowers of every hue and form. The hilly portion of the country is admirably adapted to sheep raising, as some experiments have fully demonstrated. Sheep-raising gives fine returns upon invested capital, as has been tested upon the rolling lands of Texas, and we hesitate not to believe that ours will, before a great while, be one of the finest wool-growing states in the Union; our belief is founded on the fact, that sheep are found to be very healthy and multiply very rapidly, and like almost all other descriptions of stock in Texas, can be reared without expense.

Many of the river bottoms of this state afford the finest winter grazing in the world. Not such as is found in many other southern bottoms, consisting of tall reeds covered with an evergreen foliage, on which cattle may browse, and sustain life until the coming spring carpets the highlands with its vernal covering, but affording pasture of a widely different character. On the Trinity are extensive gamma-grass prairies; the Brazos furnishes a species of wild rye, where the bison, the elk and the wild horse feed and fatten through the entire winter. In Texas, it is never thought necessary to feed any description of stock, but such as are kept in constant service, so bountifully has nature provided for their wants the year round.

There is another description of stock that succeeds admirably. It has for years been tacitly conceded, that it was the peculiar province of the western country to supply the American market with pork, and the metropolis of the West has been a great "swinish" emporium, on which every section of the broad Union might draw ad libitum. But no portion of the entire country can successfully rival portions of Texas, in this very important item in the provision market, either in the quality of the article or in the cheapness of its production. A few grains of corn thrown to the porkers to keep them gentle, being all that is necessary un

til the fattening process is commenced, which is generally effected by turning them upon the pea field, after the maize is harvested, or to glean in the sweet-potato patch.

loupe, that will soon attract public attention, and be converted into profitable sugar plantations. A vast amount of the richest land in the Union now lies in Texas, untouched by the hand of the husbandman, in lower latitudes than any portion of the United States, save Florida, offered at a mere nominal price. Now is the favored moment for procuring a good sugar plantation in Texas, for the land must inevitably, in a short time, command ten times its present price.

Texas Sugar Lands.-As a sugar-growing country, Texas is unequaled by any portion of Louisiana. True, in Louisiana they have rich alluvial soils, and the mighty Mississippi bearing upon its bosom the commerce of half the Union, favoring the occupants of its shores with hourly intercourse with the metropolis of the South. But that Texas Navigation.-It is quite fortunate portion of Texas where sugar has been suc- for the residents on Trinity and Brazos, that cessfully raised, and which will be distin- they now enjoy the facilities by the pioneer guished as the sugar region, possesses ad- steamers, which have lately commenced a vantages and facilities for the production of new era here, in the transportation of merthe article, unknown to any portion of Louis-chandise to the interior, and their products iana. The soil of the lower Brazos, San to a market. Three small steamboats now Bernard and old Caney, will bear a favorable ply upon each of these rivers advantageouscomparison with the parishes of Terrebonne and Lafourche Interior, whether the test is made the yield per acre, or in the chemist's laboratory. In Texas there is no fear of crevasses and inundations. The planter here is never under any apprehension of having his crops wept off with the flood. Here, too, at no expense, and but little trouble, the planter raises his own pork and the oxen for his teams. The land here is unrivaled in the production of corn by any southern soil-from forty to sixty bushels to the acre being an ordinary yield-enabling the planter, with little trouble, to supply himself with this indispensable article at no cost. Another important consideration for the man who intends to embark in the sugar the principal being the raft, a few miles business while land in Louisiana costs from thirty to sixty dollars the acre, a better quality of land may be had in Texas for five and eight dollars.

We have not instituted this comparison, for the purpose of disparaging Louisiana. It is well known, its character as a superior agricultural region is established and its advantages appreciated-those of Texas but partially known.

We know not the precise amount of the sugar crop of Texas the present year, nor the amount of land on which it has been raised, nor yet the largest amount produced on a single acre, but the result of the past year's crop has been entirely satisfactory to those engaged in it, and so encouraging as to induce the planters, generally, in the four counties of Brazoria, Fort Bend, Matagorda and Wharton, to engage in its culture, and to draw attention to this section as particularly well suited to the production of this article. We do not pretend to say, that the section above specified is the only portion of the state where the sugar culture will be found profitable; there are lands of great fertility, and admirably situated for this branch of business, on the lower Trinity, on the San Jacinto, the Lavacca and the GuadaVOL. III.

22

ly; besides, the staunch steamer Ogden makes weekly trips between Columbia, on the Brazos, to the islet city of the gulf, Galveston. But the unfortunate citizens of the Colorado valley, though favored with the noblest river in the state, are doomed, for years to come, to plod their weary way through the prairie mire, and mud, and boggy bottom, to reach anywhere. They have long addressed their prayers to Hercules; they are like those of the ancient wagoner, of no avail, until he put his shoulder to the wheel, when the application proved successful. It is now twelve years since a charter was granted, by the Texan congress, to remove obstructions to navigation in that river

above Matagorda. The steamboat Kate Ward, some years since, ascended the Colorado as high as Austin, the capital of the state; and by a trifling expenditure upon the river above that place, the navigation, it is asserted, may be extended one hundred and fifty or two hundred miles further by steamboats, such as are at present employed on the Trinity and Brazos. The towns upon these streams already feel the cheering impulse of the first energetic effort, and a determined improvement is evinced by all. Success is ever the result of putting the shoulder to the wheel-it must roll onward.

TEXAS. THE BRAZOS COUNTRY.-I have recently visited that portion of Texas above Huntsville, between the Brazos and the Trinity rivers, as far up as the Three Forks of the Trinity, which, until since annexation, has been the range of the buffalo and the Indian. It is now being laid off into counties of 900 square miles, and is settling rapidly. In the upper counties none of the settlements are more than three years old, yet most of them already have established churches and schools. Some of the schools are very promising.

The land above Walker county is, for the

they have been caught by the hand. This
last fact I have learned from others, not from
my own observations. The grass killed by
this dew I see daily. So the bees fill their
hives almost without effort, at least that is
the case this season.

After crossing the Brazos at Waso Village,
and proceeding to the head-waters of Little
River, a change comes over the face of the
country on your right. On the left, to Aus-
tin, is the same beautiful prairie country;
but near at hand, on the right, the country
becomes rocky and wooded-on the San
Leon, Lampases, and Salado; and between
these beautiful streams, which, by-the-by, are
as clear as crystal, and abound with fine fish,
easily caught. These streams are formed
from large springs, and afford numerous ex-
cellent mill sites not subject to irregularity
and overflows. On the white, soft clay rocks,
of which I have spoken above, lie other
rocks, much of it limestone, but also present-
ing many specimens of flint, crystals of vari-
ous kinds, and many minerals. I have seen
indications of sulphur, iron, lead, copper, sil-
ver, and some gold. It would be a rich re-
gion for a mineralogist to examine.
county seats of Bell and Williamston coun-
ties, Nolansville, and Georgetown, are in the
midst of this region.
places, a few good mechanics would do well
to locate and grow up with the country.
This whole line from Dallas to Austin (200
miles) is now frontier, with few or no settle-
ments above. Locations are being made daily
above, and will soon be occupied.

most part, open, gently undulating prairies, covered with rich grasses, undisturbed by man or beast since the buffaloes have left. which was since the commencement of the settlements. Springfield and Ty worrana, (no two persons spell this name alike,) in Livingston county, are good places to select as residences. The last presents one of the most lovely and extensive prospects I have ever seen in this state, or, indeed, in any other. The soil is of the first quality, and the water There is also an abundant, pure, and good. abundance of excellent building stone and cedar timber, near at hand, for fences. It is destined to become a place of importance as a healthful and delightful place of residence, combining, with the extensive cattle range, advantages to the emigrant greatly to be desired. As I proceeded northward, I found the same excellent quality of land, with a convenient amount of timber, throughout Navarro county to Porter's Bluff, on the Trinity. In some parts of this country the water was bad and scarce: the health of the people suffered in consequence. From about 15 miles north of Porter's Bluff, in Ellis and Dallas counties, although the soil appeared much the same as in the counties below, there is a sub-stratum of a white, soft clayey rock, which is easily cut with a saw, and which can hardly be made available for building purposes if exposed to the weather, but which may be made to stand by giving it a coat of plaster. Wherever this rock was found was also found an abundance of springs, and water may also be obtained by digging a few feet, say from 12 to 20. I traced this TEXAS-HER NATURAL ADVANTAGESrock from Dallas to this place, a distance of 175 miles. The whole country has much the WOOL AND FACTORIES.-The resources of same features; a gently undulating open Texas are almost without end, and in the prairie, soil generally rich, and with but little hands of her present population, we have an land of no account, greatly deficient in tim-abiding hope that the best use will be made ber, except along the Trinity and Brazos ri- of those resources, and that Texas, one of the vers; everywhere presenting prospects of latest, is destined to become one of the great beauty and a healthful climate-where, besides having an abundant range for stock, wheat, rye, barley, oats and corn can be raised with little labor, and the whole of this vast region the best of upland cotton.

The planters in the South and West who are not well situated where they now are, cannot fail of being suited here, except they wish to grow sugar-cane. Many might come also from the North, especially mechanics, and do well, if they can be conservative enough to mind only their own business. One thing I had well nigh forgotten to say is this, that this country literally abounds with "milk and honey. Honey is raised without scarce an effort, and of the best quality. It is no fiction that, during the late dry weather, the honey dew has laid so thick upon the grass as to stick upon your clothes when you walked through it-often killing the grass, and, in some instances, so smearing the wings and feathers of the prairie hens that

The

At either of these

brightest stars of the American Constellation. The following interesting article upon Texas wool and factories we extract from the NewOrleans Picayune :

The western section of Texas is admirably adapted to the purposes of the wool-grower. It is destined to be, in this respect, a forinidable rival to the northern farmers. ParticuEven on these, larly will this occur in the region back of the low lands on the Gulf coast. however, where experiments have been made on a small scale, and the flocks partly of the poor Mexican breeds fed almost eutirely upon the sea-weed thrown upon the beach, we know that the wool, when sent to the New-York market, was pronounced equal to the average quality of the article received from the northern folds, and brought very high prices.

Western Texas possesses every natural requisite to place it, as a wool-growing country, on an equal footing with New-York,

Vermont, and other states. The high-rolling prosperity of this flourishing state. Texas country, the purity of the air, the continual is no doubt destined, in the popular language supply of excellent nourishment in the mus- of the day, to become the "Empire State of quito grass, the number of small streams, and, above all, the absence of deep snows and chilling blasts of northern winters, are her qualifications in this respect. The climate is not too warm, either, by which the fineness of the wool might be injured; there is sufficient bracing quality in the atmosphere to preserve the pristine vigor, even of animals imported from colder climates; and little care and less expense are necessary to keep the largest flocks of sheep in the best condition.

mals.

the South." When her present debt shall have been extinguished, as it speedily will be, I hope, to the satisfaction of all her creditors, and the balance of the ten millions appropriated to internal improvements, railroads, the clearing out of her rivers and harbors, and the purposes of education,-for which last, by the way, the state has already funded nearly a million of dollars-her resources will begin to be rapidly developed.

ther south.

Texas is almost the only state in the Union having a diversity of soil and climate Indeed, this is the case with all kinds of suited to the various products of our widestock in Texas, but chiefly in the western spread country. Embracing in her territopart of the state. Horses, cattle, &c., left to rial limits an area of several hundred thourun free in the prairies and valleys, grow to sand square miles, with several degrees of the largest and most vigorous dimensions, latitude and longitude, we find her producand in the depth of winter present the aping, in one district, all the grains and fruits pearance of stable-fed and well-groomed ani- of the North, and in another, all the staples of the South, and the luxuries of the tropWe have been led into this train of re-ics. Cotton, tobacco, wheat, corn, rye, oats, marks by meeting an announcement in a late San Antonio paper, of a new and extensive potatoes, &c., in the northern range, and woolen factory soon to be established within Red River district, of the 31st degree of latitwo or three miles of that city, on a branch tude and upwards, and sugar, cotton, toof the San Antonio River. Woolen fabrics, bacco, rice, and all the tropical fruits farof a substantial character, are to be manufactured-jeans, kerseys, blankets, satinets, &c. A substantial stone building has been erected for the purpose. The machinery has arrived, and consists of one Pekin and two cardingmachines, of ninety spindles each, with three power-looms. The persons at the head of the enterprise are Messrs. Harper & Martin, of San Antonio, one of whom is stated to be an old hand at the business. It is the first establishment of the kind west of the Colorado, and will give a powerful impetus to the wool-growing business and the prosperity of Western Texas. The San Antonio River is surpassed by none of its size in its waterpower for mills and factories. The wheatraising and wool-growing capabilities of the country surrounding it, will doubtless soon lead to numerous trials of its velocity and volume of water for factory purposes.

Texas begins well, and has taken the right track. Let her avail herself properly of her great natural advantages-let her cultivate her own manufactures, and there will be no necessity for secession. She will acquire power by learning to depend upon herself, and, with power, her rights will be respected.

Let the whole South follow upon the same path. Western Virginia, by the way, ought | to surpass Vermont as a wool-growing country. May we not hope that the time is near when she will avail herself of her great advantages in this respect?

TEXAS-GROWTH OF, ETC.-Much has already been written upon the growth and

An in

At the battle of San Jacinto, Texas scarcely numbered ten thousand souls; she now has nearly three hundred thousand. She has upwards of one hundred organized counties, and is well supplied with newspapers and post-offices throughout the state. telligent traveler, who has made a recent tour to the Upper Trinity, " represents the emigration to that part of the country as far exceeding anything he had imagined. This immense influx of immigrants had produced the natural consequence of giving an unusual demand for provisions, and enhancing the value of land to an extent that Lands which is almost unprecedented. were offered last year for three or four dollars per acre, can now be sold readily for eight or ten; and such as could be had ten months ago for fifty cents per acre, can now be sold for two dollars in cash."

The Brazos plantations have been gathering a bale of cotton per acre, at the first picking, but since the heavy rains, the yield is much less. The sugar crop is, this year, very fine. Cotton and sugar will be much earlier to market than usual.

The city of Galveston, the island city, the chief commercial mart of the state, has a population of about 4,000 souls. She commands, at present, two-thirds of the state trade. Besides regular lines of steam packets to New-Orleans, she has a line of superior sailing packets to New-York and Boston, and it is in contemplation to run a line of steamers to New-York and Mobile. Ten emigrant ships are daily expected here, on