The Texas Almanac for 1873, and Emigrant's Guide to Texas Page: 119
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LEADING CHARACTERISTICS OF TEXAS.
should give a foreigner. We advise the native born to select a location at
once and proceed to erect shelter for himself and animals, and after that to
plant corn and vegetables enough for at least one year's subsistence; while
we shall advise the foreigner to hire out on some one else's farm for the first
year. The native born immigrant is familiar with our language and habits.
He is accustomed to our modes of culture. He knows the times and seasons
for putting in crops. He knows almost as much as the old Texan, and is of
course prepared to take hold on his own account at once-which the for-
eigner can not so advantageously do. But the foreigner should settle in the
neighborhood of his own countrymen, who have become familiar with the
proper mode of cultivation. He may then safely go to work at once on a
farm of his own, under the advice and assistance of his neighbors.
SURFACE OF THE COUNTRY.
The coast counties for a distance of fifty to one hundred miles interior are
quite level, but beyond the country becomes rolling, with alternate gradual
elevations and depressions, and this inequality of surface increases as we
proceed towards the northwest, until it finally becomes hilly and then moun-
tainous in some of the northwestern counties. In fact the whole of Texas is
an inclined plane, with a gradual descent from the northren or western
boundary to the Gulf, Austin and San Antonio being six or eight hundred
feet above the Gulf surface, and the country farther north being still more
elevated. The highest of the mountains do not, however, exceed two thou-
sand feet above their base.
STrEAMIS.
Nearly all the streams run in a southeast course, emptying into the Gulf
of Mexico, or rather intd the bays that separate the Gulf from the mainland
nearly the whole extent of the coast, with narrow islands and peninsulas in-
tervening between the Gulf and the bays. These streams have nearly all
deep channels, and are subject to overflow in comparatively few places and
at distant intervals. The banks of the rivers being generally high, usually
afford good drainage for the bottom lands, and make them comparatively
healthy and free from malarious diseases, as well as valuable for farms.
They are the richest lands in the world, being nearly all alluvial to the depth
of fifteen or twenty feet.
Very few of the rivers of Texas afford reliable navigation, and though sev-
eral have been usually navigated by steamers several hundred miles in the
winter months, yet most of this navigation will probably be abandoned as
our railroads are extended.
TIMBER.
There is scarcely a stream in Texas that is not bordered on both sides with
a growth of timber extending from a few hundred yards to six or eight miles
in width on both sides. There are generally, also, groves of postoak and
other timber in the interior prairies between the rivers of greater or less ex-
tent, even in the poorest timbered portions of the State, which embraces the
western counties, but this timber is not generally suitable for building pur-
poses. The eastern counties are however unsurpassed by any portion of the
old States for the abundance and excellent quality of their timber, consist-
ing chiefly of pine and cypress, and many other varieties, black walnut, ash,
whiteoak, with nearly a dozen varieties of oak, mesquit, bois d'arc, etc. Some
of these are the finest grained and most durable timb, r known, and afford
the best material for agricultural implements, wagons and furniture. Though
the timber in most of the western counties is unsuitable for building, yet it
is used for that purpose by immigrants on their first arrival, and until they
are able to procure a better quality from abroad. It is also generally used
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The Texas Almanac for 1873, and Emigrant's Guide to Texas, book, 1873~; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth123778/m1/121/: accessed May 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.