March 1904

Concho Valley

July 1904

Rice Industry in Texas

Sept. 1904

Concho Valley

Oct. 1904

Southeast Texas

Nov. 1904

Cameron

"Roses bloom every month of the year."

March 1905

San Augustine

Tobacco - Federal project

Employee Circular - Galveston January 1, 1905

Exhorting G.C.&S.F. employees to invest in Texas lands. "In order to encourage thrift, and assist employees to accumulate something as the result of their earnings, the undersigned wishes to recommend that employees purchase, on time, of the present abundance of cheap farm lands in Texas, as much as their earnings would justify their attempting to pay for..." Ry Co. trying to reduce the proportion of employee "floaters" (boomers). Lands had to be within 8 miles of line, company would deduct payments from paycheck and forward to vendor of land. Speaks of land at $5.00 per acre, giving an example of payments. Very interesting. Says railroad laborers as a class unusually disinclined to save for the future. Shows management's view of its workforce at the time. Note that if you assume a 7% interest rate, a $5.00 investment would double in value every five years, so as to be worth $2560 in 1995. No Texas land has performed this well - so the employees would have done better to put it in the stock market.

July 1905

Cane Belt - Boomer Letter

Oct. 1905

Farmers' letters, many regions

Coleman

Cameron

Morgan

Hitchcock

Alvin

"Melons for shipment at Ballinger" (2)

Feb. 1906

Fort Worth

Reached by T&P July 19, 1876, remained terminus until 1880. (helps explain G.C.&S.F. choice to target Fort Worth rather than Dallas) 1900 census 26,688. Description of industry in city.

April 1906

Texas General

Booming the state. "There is no place in this wide world where the man who is willing to work can do better than in Texas, and if he can have a little cash capital so much the better...he will not have to work so long for others. down here he need not fear that if one opportunity fails no other will be offered...I would advise no man without capital to go to Texas, but the best capital he can have is good health, willing hands, and stability and integrity of character." Dallas - 1900 census 42,000 "Dallas is to the magnificent territory of which it is the center what Chicago is to the northwest." "Mosquitoes are unknown in this section." Interesting comparison of the cost of raising cotton, and expected yields, in Hall County, Texas vs. Alabama. "The soils [in North Texas] are very rich. A proof of this is found in the fact that though this country has been under cultivation for forty years NO FERTILIZERS HAVE BEEN REQUIRED. (emphasis original)

Farm Scene - Victorian Home. "Scenes Like this are numerous".

"Orchard with strawberry beds between the rows of trees - Property of W. H. Crawford near Dickinson, Texas."

"Tomato Growing in the Truck Garden Section of Texas"

"Irrigating an Alfalfa Field in the Conch-Colorado Valley, Texas"

Cotton averaging from half a bale to a bale an acre, and as the great altitude prevents its propagation, THE BOLL WEEVIL IS NOT A PROBLEM HERE. (This is in the Concho-Colorado Valley area of Brown, Coleman, Runnels & Tom Green Counties.

For many years San Angelo has been recognized as the greatest primary wool market in this country, if not in the world.

Tobacco grown in East Texas said to rival the best that Cuba produces.

Sugar cane 16 feet high, grown near Alvin, Texas

These [Concho-Colorado] valleys range from 1500 to 2200 feet above the level of the sea. This altitude, together with perfect drainage, makes it entirely free from all miasmatic conditions.

The principal products of the coast country are rice, cotton, figs, fruits, vegetables, and berries. The native grasses make excellent hay. . . . This section of Texas has been fitly described as the "TRUCK GARDEN OF THE NATION." The Coast Country strawberry is the finest in the country and is marketed in January and February, at a time when the highest prices are paid. Many of the truck farms are not more than 20 acres in extent; a great number have only half that acreage. It has been demonstrated time and again that the intelligent grower can make from $100 to $250 per acre out of his truck farm.

Article: Culture of Sugar Cane

Scene in the lumber district of East Texas

Get verbatim beginning "No land is too low . . . to end." Note heavy fertilizer called for vs. "no fertilizer" comment earlier.

Article: Big Profit in Pecan Culture in Texas.

General article - lacking facts.

Article: Fig Culture

General article - "An industrious family, owning ten or more acres of land near any depot town, can plant out 500 or more fig trees.

Article: Tobacco Growing in East Texas - some price information

The Property Recipe:

"Every time you go to town, sell more than you buy: your poultry yard, dairy, fruit and vegetable garden surplus will furnish the things to sell."

Truck gardening helped provide back hauls.

Article: Galveston, Texas

Ranking of port in value of exports on Sept. 1, 1904 (against other U.S. ports)

Cotton, 1st

Cotton seed products, 2nd

Wheat first

Livestock 4th

July 1906

Tobacco Growing is a Success in Texas

Sept. 1906

Estimated that 2000 carloads of cattle will be shipped from this point this season. San Angelo ships annually $500,000 worth of wool, $2,250,000 worth of stock, $75,000 worth of pecans, 125,000 sheep, 15,000 horses, and this past year about 8,000 bales of garden.

Advertisement "Texas Farms"

March 1907

Texas General (6)

W. J. Clay, Commissioner of Agriculture, writes:

"The mild winters will admit of outdoor work almost every day of the year. The "norther" occasionally moves the thermometer down rather precipitately, and puts fires and overcoats in demand; yet they are always of short duration and exercise a healthful and bracing effect upon the people.it is a country free from the blighting blizzards, tornadoes, cyclones, and the oppressive heat of the north and midwest.

[check tornado history for 1907, and entire first ten

Sept. 1908

Article: Rice Irrigation in Texas

"The methods employed in the cultivation of rice. . ."

"Harvesting Rice in Texas"

"A Rice Canal Lateral in Texas'

"Another Sample of Texas' Wealth" (cotton)

March 1909

Gainesville - home of the biggest sad iron factory west of the Mississippi.

Missing 1907

March 1909

The National Good Roads Association, which was organized in Chicago in 1900, . . . urged as a national recognition of the centennial [of Abraham Lincoln's birth] the beginning of a system of national highways to connect Washington with the capital of every state and territory.

April 1909

Mayhaw Bayou, which is not a bayou but a purling brook save in time of heavy rain, when it performs valiant service in draining a large section of the country. [near Stowell, on Gulf and Interstate, 25 miles SW of Beaumont][so it floods now and then!]

Every issue contains a column called "Letters for You - From Prosperous Southwestern Farmers." Reproduce a title block? This one contains a reference to arrival of boll weevil in San Augustine in 1904. Map showing progression somewhere?

Dec. 1909

Texas Cotton - Statistics. Very good list of interesting facts. Also on population - 190 people moving to Texas every day. These folks bringing with them $100,000,000 annually. 69% living in the rural districts.

Cotton field

Gulf Coast Country, Texas

Article - Tobacco Growing in East Texas.

Article - Figs in the Gulf Coast Country. Fairly general. "Figs must be handled quickly . . . in operation. "At Algoa there is a sixty acre orchard. The orchard is young, the oldest trees scarcely reaching four years. Last season the gross returns per acre amounted to $168 and the net returns per acre to $127.60 . . . the net returns will undoubtedly reach above $200 per acre within two years."

Stacking Hay

D.C. Giddings Farm, Brenham

A Christmas Harvest, Strawberries, South Texas

Winter Cabbage Near Alvin, South Texas

Article: More Creameries in Texas [Texas consumes four times as much butter as it produces][Texas has about forty-five creameries in operation, and seventeen of these are located in South Texas.]

Article: Texas Sugar Statistics on U.S. Supply and Demand. "During the year 1907, the production of beet sugar in the United States exceeded the production of cane sugar for the first time in history . . . beets grown for sugar thrive in all states of the Union."

Sugar Cane, South Texas

Dec. 1909

Galveston statistics

Cotton-foreign exports: 3,253,678 bales

Coastwise trade: 500,000 bales

corn: 6,931,211 bushels

wheat: 6,990,190 bushels

oats: 18,519 bushels

Article - Profits in Poultry

Loading potatoes

Brenham, Texas

"It was discovered that a drove of turkeys turned loose in a cotton field would quickly clear the plants of the boll weevil . . . in order to protect their cotton fields from the weevils many farmers began to raise turkeys.

"The "one crop" idea has given place to modern policies"

Article - Sheep in South Texas.

Tomato Harvest

South Texas

"in Texas the shepherds follow their sportive flocks over hills, plains and valleys bathed in genial sunshine and garments of living green."

Article - Texas Oyster Industry

May 1910

Article - Byproducts of Texas Rice and Cotton

Discusses possibility of pulp mills to make paper from rice straw.

Rice Harvest in South Texas.

Cotton field, Gulf Coast Country, Texas.

"No crop will equal cotton for distributing cash among all classes in the states where it is produced. It leaves some cash with all who are engaged in some useful occupation, from the little girl who helps to gather in the fields, to the ginner, the merchant, the compress man, oil mill operator, the wharf hand, the ship owner, the railway, the factory magnate, and, in fact, to all who touch and handle it . . . it is a wealth producer and prosperity builder when the production is kept within due bounds, and the supply is not in excess of the demands. It will always be one of the South's greatest staples."

Article - A Texas County of Great Possibilities.

Written by Mayor of Conroe, in Montgomery County.

Yields in corn, sugar cane and tobacco as to latter "owing to the fact that there were no facilities for handling it, and the free importation of cigar tobacco from Puerto Rico, the acreage today has decreased rather than grown.

Cornfield owned by Daniel Ross, near Carthage, Texas

Bozarth apple orchard, near Conroe.

Bozarth persimmon orchard and vineyard.

May 1910

Carthage has an electric light and ice plant.

"Such a thing as an entire failure of crops has never been known in this county since the year 1860, and that year there was nothing whatever made anywhere in the State of Texas."

"The Negroes that we have among us do not number one fourth of the population of the county; they are polite and obedient, and such a thing as a race riot was never known here."

"One mule or horse will cultivate as much corn, cotton, potatoes, ribbon cane, and peas as four men can gather. Corn will average twenty bushels to the acre; cotton from one-half to three-fourths of a bale; sweet potatoes 250 to 300 bushels per acre, and ribbon cane will make from 200 to 500 gallons per acre."

"Lands are cheap and can be bought on easy terms by actual settlers, but there is none whatever to sell to speculators."

"There has never been as many as twenty people that were born and raised in Panola County that had tuberculosis or consumption."

Article - Burleson County, Texas

Sandy Chadwick's home near Carthage, Texas

Article - Quick Wealth for the Fruit Grower - Beaumont area [read p. 12]

Farm home of Daniel Ross, Jr. near Carthage

"For years the old settlers were satisfied with cultivating, mainly cotton, corn, and the raising of cattle. Recent years have forced some changes. Lands got too high for cattle; many pastures have been turned into agricultural farms. The boll weevil shortened the cotton crop, forcing the farmer to more diversified farming. . . . They learned that there was money in raising cabbage, beets, onions, lettuce, and other winter-grown goods . . . They have learned that spring-raised truck goods -- beans, peas, cucumbers, watermelons, cantaloupes, celery, and other things, pay much more and surer money, than in the old methods of cotton and corn.

Article - Houston, Texas

"Houston handles more cotton than any other city in the world." "Has a ship channel undergoing improvement at a cost of $4,500,000."

Article - Oil Wells in Texas

Orchard and garden belonging to W.H. Cranford, Dickinson, Texas

"Unless other great fields are discovered, the 1905 record will probably stand."

Good summary of early history and development to date.

Advertisement - Rapid Development of the Gulf Coast

July 1910

San Saba Country of Texas

Eden, temporarily to be the terminus of the line.

Description of communities.

The ordinary pecan sells for from 4 to 6 cents . . . however

. . . the crop is not half gathered, and the hogs get the most of them. But the Santa Fe is coming to make a market for pecans, as well as for other products, and then every surplus scrap will be shipped out.

Dec. 1910

Letters

S.S. Linn, at home to his friends, Alta Loma, Texas (p. 13)

"I never spent a cooler summer in my life. The gulf breeze is blowing all day and any shady spot is nice and cool. Here, we always sleep under a cover, and in Illinois we would sit outside in the yard and fan ourselves and fight mosquitoes until we were worn out." -- Mrs. John Mohr

Manvel, Texas

Farm Home near Milano, Texas (p. 14)

"On January 25, 1910, we left Minnesota in the throes of a snow-covered winter, when blizzards and snow storms held supreme sway, and January 29 we arrived at Winnie, Texas, amid flowers, fruit, and garden vegetables. Oranges fresh from the trees were brought to us . . .

-- Mrs. I.G. Haycraft

Winnie, Texas

"There is but very little sickness of any kind here . . . I know of people who have poor health in the north, and in less than two weeks they begin to gain new life here." "It is an intelligent class of people who are coming here . . . one of the unusual things here is that there are no Negroes in our locality."

Mrs. M.L. Alleshouse

Arcadia, Texas

Fat Lands of East Texas, Jasper County

A little maid of West Texas (p. 17)

We do not claim that San Augustine County is an Eldorado, as is claimed for some sections, or that farming is a get-rich-quick scheme; but we do claim that one can with energy and right management, make for himself a comfortable home and put aside a little each year for the inevitable rainy day."

North Texas Home and Farm (p. 19)

Valleys of West Texas

Letters from San Saba, Richland Springs, Ballinger, Carlsbad reporting absence of boll weevil.

"There is a strange fascination about the new and rapidly developing west."

Article - Mrs. Tucker writes of Garland.

July 1911

Longview in East Texas

A busy town of future great commercial importance . . . 

Eagle Lake invites settlers potatoes, sugar cane, rice, figs & oranges

The Concho Country

"It has not been a community for the booming land agent; it has not been a profitable field for the colonizer; and has not lent itself to any of the great land development schemes . . . 

At this date it cannot be described as a country for a man absolutely without means . . . However, it is a a country for a man with a few hundred dollars in cash, a man who has the means to farm thoroughly in a modest way, who has a few necessary implements and reasonably good

Sept. 1911

East Texas: Seat of Future Empire

- agriculture on lands.

Louisiana Long Leaf Forest

Inspection report.

Howe in San Augustine

Ikes name origin.

description of turpentining

La. Sawmill and Mill Pond

melon shipment statistics - IG&I

iron district. Contract to Bethlehem steel

3 yr. old Satsuma orange tree, Alvin, Texas

Sept. 1911

Galveston Gateway of the Southwest port export statistics product descriptions and destinations.

Cotton.

Houston and her District

"The farmers are making money by gardening

"truck farming" they call it love, and ill name for so profitable a business. At Alvin, the center of market , the gardeners paid railway freight charges of $44,000 the first six months of 1909"

"Oh yes, we us an automobile down it this country you know we have over 400 miles of the finest shell roads to be found anywhere in the world."

The Beaumont country of Texas.

1911 to date, 213 cars of garden crops have gone out; divided as follows: cabbage 130, cucumbers 30, sweet potatoes 50, Irish potatoes 8, tomatoes 4, cantaloupes 6, (some from G&I branch)

Panola county and Carthage.

(report of an earlier article.

"such a thing as a race riot has never been known here."

Tomato Garden, East Texas p. 13. Try to copy this.

The Brisk Town of Jasper

crops and yields . . . 

Sabine - Neches Project

William Wiess proposes use of federal funds to improve the Neches and Sabine rivers for shipping access.

Advantages of San Augustine County

East Texas: Habitat of Hogs

"Today, when the busy East Texan can spare the time from his growing business and travels, no matter when, he finds many a man and lots of women, who want to know if it really be true that East Texas is a fit place for a white man to like . . . "

Longview, an Industrial Center

"on the trunk line of the Texas and Pacific from New Orleans to El Paso; the Terminus of the I.&G.N. . . . 

Crop yields . . . 

Bronson, on the Santa Fe

"If we could only get our Northern brothers to realize the true advantages and dispel those evil ideas about swamps, shills, and mosquitoes, we would have 5000 good farmers immigrate to this county in the next 12 months . . .  land is cheap, health good, and crop failures unknown . . . 

Hardin County in East Texas

Sept. 1911

The Onion and the Railway story of Community efforts for a branch line. [San Saba]

Panic of 1907 delayed construction. Statistics on carloadings of onions & pecans.

Story of first train.

First agent W.F. Burger.

In Fertile McCulloch County

Gary in Panola County

Oct. 1911

Again, the San Saba Valley

“A new Eden officially was linked to the world yesterday…[Reprint of Houston Post Article]

"The Earth is devoted to the region which has come to be known as the "Santa Fe Southwest" -- its soil, reclamation by irrigation, "dry farming", or natural rainfall, climate, natural resources, and opportunities of getting on in the world. A class of settlers, peculiarly American, yearly going in and making farms and cites, are establishing an empire of industry and wealth in a region which, until now reclaimed by these new means of agriculture, has been neglected, and it is the mission of The Earth to invite the attention of the landless and other people seeking a change of opportunity, scene, or climate to settle in it."

"Letters narrating the actual experiences of settlers, especially of farmers; and more thoughtful contributions on the opportunities and natural resources of the country, generally are invited. The columns of the paper are open to all men and women, who may have friendly words to say of their new homes and the fortune which have come, personally, by the change.

Masthead

Jan. 1912

Eden to have a new broom factory. For two generations, Eden, happy and race free in its innocence, has been content with a modest local trade and its own joys, but now the San Saba Valley branch of the Santa Fe Railway has arrived to make it a terminus, with round long, turn-table, repair shops and depot, and new people coming in, the business now begin to prick up their ears, and plan for future growth. It is far enough away from San Angelo and from Brady, and why not? So the new growth as begun.

Use this as caption for Eden Photo with men and bicycles in the snow.

Line projected to move 15,000 bales of cotton this winter.

Gulf Coast Country of Texas. General article. Five navigable rivers. No recollection, or record, of a general crop failure within this area. Lots about crops and yields. "A land of market gardens"

"For from Texas the great North gets its early vegetables." "Something always is growing, although the greatest production is in December, January, February, March and April.

Discuss Satsuma oranges

Plantings focused in the district surrounding Alvin.

"a small orange with a very thin skin, and, practically is seedless. It is a hardy orange, and thrives in a humid atmosphere.

 . . . If lives to be 100 years old. It is fall bearing in its tenth year, and a tree often yields 2000 to 3000 oranges. The trees are planted from 125 to 160 to the acre, and the annual production from a well established orchard is from $500 to $1000 per acre.

 . . . Few Satsuma oranges find their way beyond the confines of Texas. Indeed, a greater portion of the crop is consume within the Gulf Coast Country and perhaps it is true that the people of Alvin consume more of the crop than is shipped to the populous cities surrounding, as Galveston Houston, and Beaumont. This is because this orange is of a peculiarly delicious flavor and sweetness, and people who get in the habit of eating it will have no other . . . 

Fig orchard in Gulf Coast Country of Texas p. 6.

Orange Tree, Gulf Coast, Texas.

Grape vines Gulf Coast, Texas p. 9.

Also discusses figs at length. "The Pullman Company is one of the best customers"

Also discusses potatoes & sugar cane

Roads of shell rapidly being built.

July 1912

Tarrant County

The way wheat flourishes in Tarrant County, Texas p.7.

Ducks . . . Moral: Go to Tarrant, County and raise ducks.

Vineyard, Tarrant County, Texas, 1911

[Both evocative photographs]

Sept. 1912

Hardin County

Demonstration Farm by Santa Fe on cut-over land

"In the midst of the forests, lie the cut-over areas, and to these the railway and the lumber corporations invite settlers. The interest of the railway is to make the soil productive, and the country prosperous, thereby causing traffic."

The lands, which our demonstration farm contemplates opening, are suitable, especially, for men of small means . . .  We opened our demonstration farm here last December. This was late, but we could not get ready before . . .  however, our experiment was enough to prove that ten acres would keep a family, and give the head of it time to work some outside . . .  we are assured that a family can make a profit of $50 per acre on ten acres.

The market gardens have make a great deal of money, if they grow clean stuff, and put it up in attractive bunches, crates, or boxes.

His house built, ground fenced, well drilled in, and ground planted, the settler buys a milk cow, a few pigs, and poultry. This fixes him. He may devote his entire time to the farm and make money, or he may make the farm a "side line", and work outside.

The land is so cheap, the terms so easy, and the soil so productive, that it is an opportunity for all; for the clerk, the traveling man, the stenographer, the seamstress, the laborer, no matter what one's vocation here is an opportunity to fix a stake to ??? to  . . .  for men without means, especially for men who do manual labor, there is work outside, and, while getting day's wages, he may be sure that the soil and the cow, the pigs, and the poultry will pay for his house.

Sept. 1912

Livestock in Concho - Colorado Valleys

"If a stock farmer going to central west Texas is able to purchase from 640 to 1000 acres, for from $6 to $10 per acre, properly stock and equip it he has ideal farm 160 to 200 acres, and using the remainder for pasture.

April 1913

Resources of East Texas

16 1/2 years of lumber industry

[remaining] at the present maximum cut.

Saw mill East Texas - La. District.

Story of German Colony on Gulf Coast

- Drainage improvements in Winnie area mentions that in 1910 and 1911 "Frosts severely injured the young orchards in the Gulf Coast Country, but they were unprotected absolutely . . . 

July 1913

Farmers of Gulf Coast Country non diversify

[insert block indicated on pages 10 & 11]

ironic - The earth boomed Satsuma oranges. Interesting note that no cotton grown since 1902. Statistics on shipments from Alvin to May 25th, 40,000 crates of strawberries to June 1, 1408 crates of eggs

Nov. 1913

How to get a good farm without money

A. Johnson, who lives eight miles . . . 

subject to drought.

June 1914

Galveston, Greatest Cotton Port of the World

Port Bolivar - Extensive Article

Houston

Beaumont

Santa Anna

Jan. 1915

New and Better Central West Texas

To even the casual observer, central west Texas presents a greatly changed aspect this year, a landscape covered by fields which are evenly divided almost between cotton and feed crops, instead of 90% cotton as was customary a few years ago . . .  which it serves. p. 13.

Turkey drive at San Angelo

April 1915

Northern Texas Invites New Settlers.

Cooke County

"It is the habit of planting cotton, almost exclusively, thereby flooding the market, which has inspired the Gainesville Chamber of Commerce to open a campaign, designed to bring to the county settlers from the North, with their custom of diversifying crops. However, until northern settlers come to set a new pace for farmers, cotton will continue to be the chief staple of the county. In 1914, there were grown in this county nearly 30,000 bales of this product . . .  A bale contains 500 pounds, and March 1, the price on the platform was 8 cents per pound. . . .  Cooke County contains a population of 30,000, in round numbers . . .  19,000 live on farms.

Photo of bale, p. 7.

The highroads are unexcelled. In the Gainesville district, the board had invested $100,000 in thirty or forty miles of rock roads, and one half million more to extend these roads is contemplated. Nothing beats good roads in building up town or country.

In 1914 Cooke County grew 30,000 bales of cotton, 1,000,000 bushels of wheat, 500,000 bushels of Indian-corn, 750,000 bushels of oats, and 85 carloads of small fruits and garden vegetables, and shipped 120 carloads of hogs, 455 carloads of cattle, 61 carloads of mules and horses, and 398 carloads of flour.

 . . . The yield of wheat was twenty-two bushels per acre, all over the county. The markets for farm products, shipped from Gainesville, are on the seaboard; Galveston, Houston, Beaumont; except for orchard and garden products, which go north.

June 1915

Forward to the farm . . . rural credit banks p.2.

Cheap Farm Lands in East Texas . . . $35 per acre.

June 1915

Farming cut-over lands in East Texas.

In East Texas, where sawmills fast are cutting away the primeval forest, settlers are coming in to take the lands cut-over for farms. Theses lands, enriched by the vegetable mold of ages, and washed by numerous perennial streams, it has been demonstrated, if the timber be removed, make production farms, unsurpassed by any soil on the face of the globe.

 . . . This [San Augustine] is famous tobacco land, and plants grew rich by the product until, a few years ago, the Trust put on the screws, and the independent plants stopped short and grew no more; save a little for home consumption.

In the lower counties, the orange tree will grow, but, if planted, it only is in the door yard for ornament, or to proclaim the equable climate and peculiar quality of the soil; never with, the expectation of its bearing ripe fruit.

The rough aspect of the country in its native state, seen from the railway train, may discourage him a bit, but let him witness the comfort and plenty of Center, which has been cut out of this same great forest, and his misgivings will end . . .  The aspect is rough, but in ??? forbidding; for, in East Texas, Nature, with her abundance of rainfall, flowing streams, responsive soil, varied plant-life, and bright sunshine, never is forbidding. The dead stumps near the landscape, perhaps, but they, easily, are plowed around, and fields of cotton and corn soon hide them.

(!) - makes for a difficult harvest!

The Pineland Colonization Company . . .  eventually make good.

April 1916

Coleman (9)

10,000 turkeys shipped out Fall 1916 (seven cars).

Sweetwater (9)

Shipped 54,000 turkeys (32 cars)

Brown County (9)

Land sales $11 to $20 per acre “for fertile land in its native state” sweet potatoes yield from 300 to 500 bushels per acre. There are farmers here who make money by both hogs and turkeys finding their own food in the woods. The trees are quite tall, and the downwood of 160 acres is enough for the family’s fuel.

Feb. 1917

Some points on Texas

[Descriptive Masthead ceased by 1917]

39 carloads of Satsuma oranges shipped from Alvin.

30 cars of preserved figs shipped last fall.

Satsuma oranges, Nov. 11, 1916, Alvin, Texas.

May 1917

Beaumont's Deep Waterway

July 1917

Where Tide and Rail Meet - Galveston, Texas

The import trade of Galveston centers about seven principal commodities -- sugar, sisal, zinc ore, crude oil, creosote, coffee and bananas. Sugar constitutes the principal item (imported from Cuba) amounting in 1916 to $3,228,360 in a total of $8,363,434.

Sept. 1917

Pineland District

"It is a safe and sure section for general farming  . . .  it is an easy place to make a living.

 . . . There is a machine for boring a ore and one-half inch hold into the heart of the stump, at a cost of from one to one and one half cents per stump, so that they may be split with a small charge of dynamite. The rich heart pine stump is then easily burned out. The number of stumps ten inches and over in diameter will average about seventy per acre. The cost of boring and blasting is about $8.50 per acre, including the labor.

The soils vary from sandy loams to heavier black lands under laid at a depth of from a few inches to more than a foot with a good clay subsoil. Sandy soils throughout the country have in recent years demonstrated their value. If underlaid at shallow depths with a good clay, they are best for holding moisture and all fertility put into them.

[i.e. fertilizer required!!!]

The staple crops are the surest and most profitable. Cotton, corn, sweet and Irish potatoes, sugar-cane, peanuts, peas, beans with the fruits, and all kinds of vegetables, are grown here . . . 

Feb. 1918

Weatherford

Gathering Berries

Weatherford, Texas.

In 1917 Parker County produced >400 carloads of Spanish peanuts and >507 carloads of watermelons.

Bringing in the watermelons

Weatherford, Texas.

Served by ATSF & T&P

May 1920

The important port of Beaumont, Texas

Threshing Rice, farm three miles from Beaumont, Texas p. 13.

July 1920

Texas cotton at Alvin, Texas, Ready for Shipment on the Santa Fe. p.9.

Aug. 1920

In Mills County, Central Texas

Oct. 1920

A story of the Texas Pecan

Nov. 1920

A report from Temple indicates a yield of 75,000 bales of cotton this season in Bell County, which will be the county's high record.

Dec. 1920

Wonderful Record of Weatherford, Texas.

Panola County, East Texas

While the total cotton crop this year near the forty thousand bale mark, there will be marketed forty thousand bushels of sweet potatoes.

Feb. 1921

Industrial Importance of Longview.

March 1921

Fort Worth

Prospering beyond any city of its class in America . . .  a city of beautiful homes, pleasant parks, wide streets, and magnificent churches . . .  modern, law-abiding and progressive.

April 1921

Superior passenger service of 868 trains operated in January, 814 or 93.7 on time.

June 1921

* Ranch in the Black water valley (13).

July 1921

* Klattenhoff home, Slaton (15)

Sept. 1921

Negro Colony at Easton (3)

* San Augustine Products (3)

Galveston - The great "second port" leading cotton & grain port "natural outlet for that part of the United States lying west of the Mississippi River and East of the Rocky Mts. Major portion of the wheat crop of the U.S. is grown in this area.

"shortest and most economical route for food stuffs and raw materials originating on the west coast of the United States destined for points in Europe.

During the war, the business have fell off to alarming proportions, and the facilities were practically idle. This was due to the fact that tonnage was very scarce and that all the business of the nation was forced through one big artery of trade - the Atlantic seaboard.

The Port of Texas City (5)

Houston's Port (6)

interesting graphic (6)

The depth of the Houston ship channel is 25 feet from the turning Basin at Houston to the Gulf, a distance of 54 miles. On May 24, 1919 the citizens of Harris County voted a bond issue of one and one-half million dollars to contribute their share to the cost of the further enlargement of the channel . . .  will cost approximately $3,850,000 and when it is completed more than $10,500,000 will have been spent on the actual construction of the channel. Congress will appropriate 1/3 of a million dollars annually to maintain the depth and with authorized. Work will result in a channel 30 feet deep.

Beaumont's Big and Busy Port (7).

* Texas Cotton Ready for shipment (7).

Earlier Alvin photo?

Situated 50 miles above the Gulf of Mexico on the Neches River. Its harbor is landlocked and hence immune from storm menace, while the existence depth of water from the municipal docks to the Gulf -- 26 feet at mean low tide -- is to be increased to 30 feet . . . 

Gulf Coast Harbor of Orange. (8)

Port Arthur, Texas -- Harbor and City (8)

Oct. 1921

Dairy herd on Fred Harvey Ranch

Nov. 1921

Thriving Negro Colonies Easton. (12).

"The Negro is a natural farmer, and generally makes a success of farming when he has an opportunity"

*South Texas Corn and Kiddies Carthage, Texas (12).

Lampasas has handled over 1,000,000 pounds of twelve-month wools.

San Augustine produced 50 cars of sweet potatoes this season.

There are 436,033 farms on Texas on which 9,048 tractors are used. (12) (!).

Nov. 1921

Wilson Shook, of San Saba.

Killed 1,225 rabbits in 90 days with a target rifle. Shook says his record was 85 in one day. (13). (Send to Jimmy Shook).

Approximately 100 automobiles are sold in Dallas every business day of the year. Perhaps 2/3 of this is for the whole sale trade for other dealers in the southwest.

Jan. 1922

A Barbecue Party given by Judge William Capp, of Fort Worth, in his Pecan Grove (?) near Brownwood, Texas.

July 1922

Dallas - City of Prosperity and Progress

Graphics (4)

Waco, Texas A Live Wire City

Fort Worth, Texas City of Fulfillment

During the first four months of 1922, Ballinger shipped 225,000 lbs. of poultry and 175,000 dozen eggs.

= 27 carloads.

A land craft in an ocean of grain (7)

Aug. 1922

"Farming Cut-over Land of Southeastern La.” (7)

DeRidder, La. (7)

The Long-Bell lumber Co. has done a great deal of colonization work. It has established 200 families, or more, on homes within a radius of nine miles of DeRidder. The Long-Bell land in this section sells for $20 to #35 an acre; $15 an acre down; no further payment for three years; then one-fifth every year for five years; interest, six per cent. Clearing can be done for $8 to $12 per acre under the Long-Bell plan.

Elizabeth

Elizabeth is a well built modern town all on the payroll of the Industrial Lumber Company, which has a sawmill and a turpentine plant there. Seeing the inevitable passing of the forest, R. M. Hallowell, president of the industrial company, started a movement to build up a farming community around Elizabeth. He established tow demonstration farms…The proposition of President Hallowel of the Industrial Company appeals to prospective settlers. It is to sell to the right kind of homeseekers what land they need at $15 per acre; clear what land they want cleared at actual cost, build a house, barn and chicken house; do the necessary fencing and drill a well; one fifth of the total amount to be paid down, the balance in ten years at 6 per cent. What is meant by the “right kind” of a homeseeker is a man with experience, the quality of “stick-to-it-ive-ness,” and enough money to make his initial payment, and to live till the first crop is ready for the market.”

Industrial Company installed a canning plant, also a sweet potato curing plant. J. V. Linzay manufactured 3,037 gallons of syrup from seven and ¾ acres of cane, receiving a net profit of $2400.

(4)

Sept. 1922

Wool at 40 cents/lb. Mohair at 50 cents/lb.

Jan. 1923

15 carloads pecans shipped from Lometa in 1922 (11)

Feb. 1923

Schedule for Cow, Sow & Hen (1)

(pushing this hard-diversification)

Graphic (2)

April 1923

Graphic (10)

River Crest Farm (10)

May 1923

Lometa Paper - Cow, Sow & Hen

Special train a "cold-blooded business proposition:.

cow, sow & hen crowd at Bangs (2)

at Lometa (3)

at Lampasas (3)

July 1923

Mohair 60 cents/lb. (4)

* Plant of Texas Gulf Sulphur Company at Gulf, Texas. (4)

Aug. 1923

* Marketing 50,000 bushels of wheat daily at one elevator - Plainview.

Oct. 1923

Large panhandle tracts being subdivided - prices (10)

Dec. 1923

Graphic (6)

Feb. 1924

Figs - Facts & Figures (10)

Mar. 1924

Graphic (6) (7)

Magnolia Fig orchard near Alvin (7)

Cow, sow & hen at Dallas (15)

April 1924

5500 acres in potatoes along Cane Belt (4) Eagle Lake, Sealy & Peters in 1923 shipped 832 cars of watermelons from about 4700 acres. Move queen bees shipped from Lane City than any other in America (5)

May 1924

Local company recently shipped 100 cars of cedar posts out from San Saba.

June 1924

cartoon (8)

May 1924

Celeste ATSF Agent growing sweet potato/squash hybrid (9) Also in June Issue (9) with photo & more detail.

June 1924

Opportunities for strong men on the farm (10)

Interesting exhortation - Kansas Director of Extension attempts to stem tide of youth exodus from farm backgrounds to corporate careers.

June 1924

About Elizabeth of Louisiana. A sawmill company town looks to the future as the mills close. (11)

July 1924

Navasota...(16)

Alvin...(17)

A live little city. Ships to Houston and Galveston 2,350 gallons of milk daily...also 400 gallons of cream.

Aug. 1924

Top 25 crops of the state listed with anticipated harvest. (8)

Cotton 4.4 million bales

Corn 100,000,000 bushels

Oats 50,000,000 bushels

Wheat 20,000,000 bushels

Make a table of this, listing in order of yield. How much % did GC&SF carry? First see table in square at Nov. 1924 (14)

John Smith, 105 years young at Brady, boosts for the beautiful climate. (8)

graphic (9)

Oct. 1924

Weatherford (8)

Watermelons in Parker County

see also Nov. 1924 (15)

700 carloads melons shipped by Sept. 1

Also Dec. 1924 (15)

sugar beets of high quality. (9)

Plainview.

Use in Cane Belt chapter to show what displaced sugar cane?

Nov. 1924

Texas leads Nation in cotton (14) 3.5 times production of any other state.

Dec. 1924

Cleburne Farming Scene (14)

36 varieties of grapes on the W. J. Pickey Farm. Further on this farm at April 1925 (12)

In the land of Magnolia, figs & jasmine blossoms

Brazoria County (16)

Picture of figs, Alvin depot & blossoms

Adv. at Aug. 1924 (16) has picture of fig picking woman, speaks of fig preserving plant.

Rice in the Beaumont District (14)

graphic (18)

Alvin wants fig plant (17)

3000 acres of bearing figs between Alvin & Hitchcock. Prices, yields. See Also May 1925 (11)

S.F. Railroad has been big factor in Houston's Development (18)

350,000 bales shipped in 1923 on Santa Fe. 21% of total brought to Houston. The hope of Houston lies in the development of its "back country" which contributes business to it.