The Texas Almanac for 1867 with Statistics, Descriptive and Biographical Sketches, etc., Relating to Texas. Page: 83
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DESCRIPTION' OF COUNTIES. 83
planters will not again contract with them, unless upon the distinct under-
standing that they may discharge them if they do not work better. The
mortality among them, owing to dissipation and having no one to take care
of them and their children, as formerly, has increased 25 per cent. But one or
two plantations have as yet tried white labor. One of these, cultivated in
cane, and worked by laborers just from the south of France, has produced
better than it ever did when worked by the same number of slaves. These
white laborers enjoy good health, and are well pleased with their change of
country. The wood for fuel and firing is in great abundance. Live-oak and
cedar furnish the material for building. Milk, butter, chickens, etc., are had
in every family, at scarcely any cost. The range for Logs is excellent, as the
mast is abundant. The cost of raising consists in the trouble of marking
them. The usual markets are Houston and Galveston, each fifty miles distant
from the county-seat. The transportation is by rail to Houston, at $1.50
per bale for cotton, and by water to Galveston, by the canal or on the Gulf, at
75T. to $1 per bale. The planters frequently ship their cotton from Galveston
to Liverpool, and their sugar to New-York. The native wine grows lux-
uriantly, and nearly every family makes an excellent wine from the grapes
for their own use. Land is worth from $1 to $50 per acre. The average value
of good unimproved land is $8 to $10 per acre. The average yield per acre
is, in cotton one bale, and in corn 35 bushels. 'One hand can cultivate, on an
average, 16 acres in cotton and corn. But the negroes now do as little work
as possible. They, however, behave very well, so long as they are not made
to work and have enough to eat. The time of planting corn is about the 10th
of February, and of cotton the 10th of March. The corn usually matures
about the 1st of July, and the planters commonly commence picking cotton
about the middle of July, and the picking has to continue, as the cotton con-
tinues to open, till Christmas; and even then, when the planter has to begin
to prepare his ground for another crop, the fields are often white with cotton,
which is lost for want of hands to pick it. Cistern-water is universally used
in Brazoria. The usual price of corn is 50 cents to $1 per bushel; potatoes,
25 to 50 cents. A good beef, weighing 500 or 600 lbs., is worth about $10;
pork is worth three to four cents per lb.; butter, 15 to 25 cents; bacon, 15 to
20 cents, though these articles are sold by but few.
BRAzos CouNrY.--(By J. W. Weaver, Rep.)
CoUNTY-SEAT, BooNvLLE.-Brazos county is bounded on the north by
Robertson, east by Madison and Grimes, south by Washington and Burle-
son, west by Burleson and Robertson. The Navisota flows along the eastern
boundary, swollen by the tribute of many small streams in the county in
its course. The Brazos River forms its western and southern boundary, and
is also the recipient of many tributaries from the county. Water for drink-
ing purposes is good and abundant. The surface is undulating, more than
half of whichis covered by a growth of the various species of oak. The soil
in the bottoms, which compose a large portion of the lands, is red loam, and
for productiveness is unsurpassed by any in the South. We have several
private, though no high, schools or colleges, which is, in a great measure,
owing to the fact that, in the adjoining county, Washington, there are
several schools of the highest order. There are two mineral springs in the
county, whose principal property is sulphur and magnesia. Cotton and corn
are the staple productions of the county. The climate is mild and healthy,
seasons generally regular. The cotton and corn crops are not altogether
as good as of former years, because of too much rain in the months of May
and June of last spring. Sheep-raising is quite a success. Stock of every
description get fat during the spring, and do not decline much until the win-
ter months set in, at which time they go to the Brazos and Navisota bottoms,
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The Glaveston News. The Texas Almanac for 1867 with Statistics, Descriptive and Biographical Sketches, etc., Relating to Texas., book, December 1866; Galveston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth123772/m1/85/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.