The Texarkana Gateway to Texas and the Southwest Page: 82
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1bowarb Count , Ccrae.
THIS county is situated on the Texas
& Pacific Railway, between the
101st and 102d (lctrees of west
longitude.
Big Spring, the county seat, is 301
miles west of Dalltl>. The county was
named in honor of Volney E. Howard,
a famous orator and congressman from
Texas; it was organized in 1882 and has
about 1500 inhabitants of whom 1200 are
resident at Big Spring. The area is 900
square miles, the elevation above sea
level 2400 feet at Big Spring and about
2800 at northwest corner of the county.
The annual rainfall is from 20 to 25
inches, being most abundant between
April and October.
Howard is essentially a stock raising
county. At Big Spring, a considerable
part of the population is employed in the
service of the railway shops, the town
being a division terminus. The rest of
the population is interested almost ex-
clusively in stock raising, the farming
operations being almost entirely subject
to the needs of the stock.
There are 6 churches, 8 school houses
and 13 teachers in the county, the num-
ber of pupils enrolled being 403. Lands
range in price from $1 to $10 per acre,
the unsold lands of the Texas & Pacific
Land Grant in the county amounting to
94,927 acres. There are in the county 2
banks and some 12 mercantile houses.
and the repair shops of the railway
which employ a considerable number of
people. The value of taxable property
for 1894 is assessed at $1,242,194.
There are about 60 farms in the
county; most of them form part of larger
stock ranches and are necessarily small,
their entire acreage amounting to only
1,239 acres. The value of the crop,
consisting of cotton, corn, sweet pota-
toes, peas, hay, sorghum molasses, cot-
ton seed and fruits, was $9,290. The
number of sheep sheared was 18,450,
yielding 149,600 pounds of wool valued
at $13,312. The live stock consisted of
2,150 horses and mules, 9,041 head of
cattle, 28 jacks and jennets, 7,035 head
of sheep, 62 goats and 153 hogs, the
whole valued at $108,677.
The surface of the county presents
high, rolling prairies, broken in places
by hills 200 to 300 feet high, and inter-
spersed with beautiful and fertile valleys
of great length and width. The soils
vary from a heavy black loam, to blacksandy loam, chocolate and ash colored
loams; red sandy loam is also found on
many of the uplands. All of these soils
are of the greatest fertility. In favor-
able seasons, wheat, oats, rye, barley,
millet, corn, sorghum, potatoes, melons,
etc., yield as well as in any part of
Texas, but the rainfall is too irregular
to assure good crops often enough in
succession to make general farming
profitable. As a part of stock farming
agriculture will pay, as there is no dif-
ficulty in producing sorghum, African
millet, Egyptian corn, Kaffir corn, or any
of the common forage plaiits in the
greatest abundance. There are a num-
ber of small irrigations in the county,
tanks, wells and windmills being gen-
erally used. Wherever applied, most
satisfactory results have been obtained,
and fruits and vegetables grown in this
manner cannot be excelled. All the
fancy European table grapes grow here
to perfection.
There are no constant living streams
in Howard County, but a number of fine,
large springs and permanent water holes
furnish abundant water for live stock.
The most important of these are Big
Spring, Moss Spring, (one of the most
charming spots in the county,) Cedar
Spring, Robert's, Wild Horse, German
and Rattlesnake Springs. There are
numerous places in the county where
immense quantities of water could be
stored for irrigation and in time this
will be done. The various water courses
in the county are tributaries of the Col-
orado and Concho Rivers. Excellent
water for domestic and ranch uses is
found in nearly all parts of the county
at a depth varying from 10 to 100 feet.
There is no timber for building purposes,
but mesquite trees of sufficient size can
be found in places to supply fence posts.
Fuel is abundant. The varieties of
grasses are here more numerously rep-
resented than in the counties further
east, and generally afford good summer
and winter pasturage for cattle, horses
and sheep. Building stone of good
quality is abundant, and salt deposits of
unknown magnitude have been found in
the western part of the county. There
are several large lakes of brackish water
in the county that are much frequented
by water fowl during the winter months.
Large game is scarce, but quail, curlew,
rabbits, etc., are abundant.82
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Texas & Pacific Railway. The Texarkana Gateway to Texas and the Southwest, book, 1896; St. Louis, Missouri. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth61116/m1/82/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .