The Texas Almanac for 1870, and Emigrant's Guide to Texas Page: 94
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94 THE TEXAS ALMANAC.
spective commands at which cattle may be crossed. Inspectors will be ap-
pointed for counties or crossing places, or both, as may be required. Post
commanders will. recommend with the least delay practicable the names of
parties suitable for inspectors. For this important and responsible duty none
but the most reliable and experienced men should be recommended
Inspectors of cattle and hides will be paid as at present provided by local
authorities. If this compensation is not deemed sufficient to secure the ser-
vices of first-class men, full report, with suggestions, will be made in each
case by post commanders.
By order of Brevet Major-eneral J. J. REYNOLDS.
CHAS. E. MORSE,
S Acting Assistant Adcitant-Ge.nerai.
TEXAS COTTON CROP, 1869.
A BRIEF review of the current year's planting operations, with a. glance at
our present labor system, may not be devoid of interest to many of the read-
ers of your valuable annual.
Planters generally think that the year of their crop operations they are
just through, with is the most trying and baffling of any within their expe-
rience. This arises, doubtless, from the fact that every drawback, annoy-
ance, and source of harrassment, as the year draws to a close, is still fresh on
their minds. Be this as it may, the present one, to every cultivator of the
soil, has been fully up to any of its predecessors in toil, anxiety, and trouble.
After an unusually wet winter, the spring proved very unfavorable for field
work, bleak, raw weather prevailing even through the month of April, and
it was well into May before the young cotton plant began to grow vigor-
ously. In June, heavy rains fell, continuing up to the first week of July,
when they culminated in a glut of the pluvious element, unprecedented, for
the time of year, in the history of the country. On the 3d, 4th and 5th of
July, the rain fell in torrents throughout the State, but more especially toward
the sources of the Colorado and other western streams, all of which rose
to a fearful height, carrying havoc and destruction in their course. The dis-
astrous effects of this unexpected calamity, so late in the season, when crops
were nearly matured, fell heavily upon the sufferers. July, subsequently,
proved dryer than any previous one for years past, which greatly favored the
growing cotton. In the latter part of this month, the appearance of the cat-
erpillar began to alarm every one, but it was late in August before they did
any serious damage, and, inmany places, confined their depredations to the
leaves and very young bolls, of which they stript the plant clean. This year
has varied from many preceding it, in being too dry in some sections during
the important growing months of July and August, and too wet in others.
The drouth injured the crop more in the middle portion of the State than the
worms and wet weather in the lower. Cotton opened, as usual, two or three
weeks earlier on the uplands than in the bottoms, and picking was fair in
August on the prairie farms. Washington county sent the first bale of new
cotton to a Texas market, which was received at Houston on the 31st of July,
although a bale from the Rio Grande valley had been previously shipped.
September opened dry and continued so for eight or ten days, when the equi-
noctial gales set in, making a break in the month of some two weeks in which
no picking was done. The high winds and beating rains injured the quality
of the open cotton, besides causing a great deal of it to shed or fall on the
ground. The picking season has proved, up to the present writing (Novem-
ber 1st), about an average one. There is but little cotton anywhere likely
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The Texas Almanac for 1870, and Emigrant's Guide to Texas, book, January 1870; Galveston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth123775/m1/96/: accessed May 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.