The Texas Almanac for 1871, and Emigrant's Guide to Texas. Page: 90
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90 THE TEXAS ALMANAC.
ANDERSON COUNTY.-(By Jeo1t H. Orrison.)
COUNTY-SEAT, PALESTINE.-Area, 1098 square miles. Population, 15,000
-7500 whites, and 7500 blacks. This county is two thirds timbered. Acres
cultivated about 12,000 in corn, and the same in cotton, and 1500 in wheat
and other crops. Sugar-cane can be raised well, and all small grains and
potatoes. The castor-bean grows spontaneously as a weed. Sorghum is
raised by a few. Tobacco succeeds well. Average crop of corn on uplands,
20 bushels per acre ; of cotton, 1000 pounds; of wheat, 15 bushels. One hand
cultivates usually 10 acres in corn and 8 in cotton. About seven eighths of
the labor is done by freedmen. $25 coin is the usual wages per month. The
freedmen are improving and many of them buying and leasing lands and accu-
mulating property. The usual price of good farm-lands is $2 to $5 per acre.
Unimproved lands, 50 cents to $2.50 per acre. A small tract for a farm with
good land, timber, water, etc., usually sells for about $3 per acre. Farms
can be bought on a credit by actual settlers. The net profits of a farm with
gooI management will more than pay for it the first year. Leases are made
either to divide the crop equally, the lessee finding himself and the lessor
furnishing tools, land, and corn ; or when the lessee furnishes every thing but
the land, he then pays the landlord one fourth of the cotton, and one third
of the corn. The prices of farm products are, 50 cents for corn per bushel;
potatoes, the same ; sorghum syrup, $1 per gallon ; butter and lard, 10 cents;
bacon, 12J cents ; beef, 21 cents per pound ; mutton, 3 cents; honey, 10 cents ;
poultry per dozen, $1.50; eggs per dozen, 10 cents; stock cattle, $5; milch
cows, $10; oxen, $50; farm-horses, $50; mules, $75; hogs, grown, $5. An-
derson is more devoted to farming than stock-raising, but every farmer has
his st,,ck, which really costs him nothing but a little trouble. Any industri-
ous farmer can easily make money; but few make the necessary effort. One
man, wounded at Gettysburg, cleared with his wife in one year $750 gold
over all expenses. I could name many similar instances. The nearest dis-
tance to a railroad is 90 miles to Bryan. We have navigation by the Trinity
River to Galveston about four months in the year. Freight to and from market,
$2 per 100 pounds. The county produced last year 7500 bales of cotton, and
there will be probably 8500 this year. Iron ore is abundant, and was
worked during this season. We have about 20 churches and as many schools
in the county.
ANGELINA COUNTY.
COUNTY-SEAT, Hom0E.--Common schools and churches are found in all
parts of the county. Petroleum is very abundant in Angelina, and in the
south-east part of the county it runs in springs from the surface called tar
springs. Companies are commencing to bore for it. Corn, cotton, sugar-cane,
potatoes, and all kinds of products, except small grain, with rice and tobacco,
are also raised. The soil is black and sandy in the bottoms, and one third
of the uplands nearly as rich. Some of the uplands are poor. The whole
county is covered with heavy timber, such as all kinds of oak, pine, beach,
magnolia, holly, hickory, sweet gum, sugar maple, ash, sassafras, mulberry,
cypress, cane-brakes, etc. The rivers are the Angelina and Neches, which
are navigated by small steamers, as high up as Marion and Clark's Ferry, all
the winter and spring. Cotton is very good this year. Corn is not so good.
last (Twelfth) Legislature, will be found put down in alphabetical order; but aswe have re-
ceived no statistical information from any of them, (there being, as yet, none to furnish,) we
must refer chiefly to the counties from'which they have been formed for such general infor-
mation as will apply to them. It must also be borne in mind that the boundaries as well as
the areas of those counties from which the new counties have been formed have been
materially changed since the following descriptions were sent to us.--EDs. Amt.
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The Texas Almanac for 1871, and Emigrant's Guide to Texas., book, 1871~; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth123776/m1/92/: accessed May 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.