The Texas Almanac for 1873, and Emigrant's Guide to Texas Page: 139
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HOW TO FIND A HOME IN WESTERN TEXAS. 189
and preserving beef, now in operation at Corpus Christi, Powderhorn and
many other places, secures you a certain and lucrative market for all you can
raise.
The cultivation of the grape and the making of wine can be easily and prof-
itably carried on throughout the whoc west. The valleys of the Colorado,
the Guadalupe and the San Antonio, and their tributaries abound with the
native Mustang grape, from which good wine is manufactured by careful and
experienced persons, especially by the Germans. But all experiments go to
prove that every variety of grape, whether from Germany, France, Italy or
Greece, or from Mexico or California, can be produced luxuriantly in this
favored locality, the question in regard to foreign vines being, not which will
grow or do well, but which will do best and yield the finest fruit, and the
richest and most delicate wine.
Now, if the person designing to come to Texas expects to find all these
advantages combined in any one place, he will, of course, be wofully disap-
pointed.
Oysters and sea fish are not found in the interior, the orange and banana
do not grow on the mountains, heavy pine forests and extensive prairies do
not occupy the same district. A dense population, with close cultivation of
the soil, are incompatible with a wide and unoccupied stock range. Nowhere
out of Paradise, that we are aware of, are all desirable things congregated;
and the expectation of finding them all bunched together in one favored spot,
unreasonable as it is, has led hundreds to loss and disappointment in their
search for a home in Texas.
The purpose of this article is not to instruct those who have wealth and
leisure how and where to select a location, but to give to men of limited means
and with whom the waste of time and of money in traveling is an object, a
few practical directions as to what to do and what not to do, and to confine
those directions more especially to the choice of a home in the West.
I do not claim for the west pre-eminence over the rest of the State, except
in the important items of health and its fitness for the raising of live stock ;
but I regard the country west of the Colorado as enjoying the most delightful
and salubrious climate in the world, and affording the best possible conditions
for breeding fine horses and mules, fine cattle and fine wooled sheep. With
these natural advantages it happens that, from a variety of causes; property
in this section is just now at the lowest point of depression. The tide of emi-
gration flowing into the north and east of Texas has halted, satisfied with the
convenient and productive fanning lands of Eastern Texas, or gone a little
farther and found all that it required in the wheat growing counties ; and but
a very trifling portion of the thousands arrived has yet come out West, conse-
quently lands are low ; the best and most productive farms are offered at from
$2 to $5 per acre, while the finest sheep and horse range, unimproved, can be
had at 25 to 50 cents per acre. The owners of the stock met with severe
losses from driving their animals either to the southern States where there
was no money to pay for them, or to the northwest where they werestopped
and harrassed by rules and exactions, imposed under the color of law, until
in not a few instances, they were glad to give up their whole venture for
money enough to pay their way home.
For this reason, stock has been below all reasonable valuation, but the late
demand to supply the numerous beef packeries has caused some advance in
the price. Improved horse stock-that is, mares, colts, yearlings, and two and
three-year-old animals, have been offered'at from $15 to $20 per head. Infe-
rior stock-mostly Mexican-can be bought still lower. Stock cattle have
been sold at $4 to $5 per head, taking the brand. In this sort of sale it is
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The Texas Almanac for 1873, and Emigrant's Guide to Texas, book, 1873~; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth123778/m1/141/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.