39

charming views of varied scenery from their tops. It is just the place for invalids to get strong, and for the healthy to become more robust. Much time and money is spent annually in visiting places abroad far less attractive.

The agriculture of Texas has made rapid and decided improvements during the last ten years. Large plantations have been divided into smaller farms, and those farms have been better cultivated and better managed. Improved. agricultural implements and machinery are now in common use. These things lessen the labor of the farm and make it a pleasurable pursuit. One man and two or three horses or mules can now plow from three to four acres a day with a sulky or riding plow, sitting under an umbrella if he chooses; besides the plowing can be done better and at a more uniform depth than by the old method. The increased crops resulting from the use of these plows is often more than sufficient to pay for them; besides, there is a saving of time and labor, one man being able to accomplish more work than was formerly done by two or more. With improved plows, cultivators, etc., one man can cultivate fifty acres on the prairie lands of the State, and more than this has been done.

Even now the old, very old methods of farming are prevalent in Texas between the Pecos and Rio Grande. In that region the plows in common use are similar to those used by the old Greeks and Romans. The plow consists of a long stick or pole, of from four to six inches in diameter. Another short stick of a little larger diameter, and sometimes no larger, is joined to the first at an angle of about forty-five degrees, and on the lower portion of the short stick a small shovel plow is fastened, and at the upper end are one or two handles. This is the Mexican plow. With this and the hoe, crops are made, and very good crops, on light soils, but on stiff clays, not so good. Grain is cut with sickles or large knives. One Mexican (an expert) will cut and put up, in little stacks, about five hundred pounds of hay in a day. Twenty-five cents, without board, is the, ordinary price per hundred for cutting and hauling to market. Four hundred tons of hay for the Government (military) at Fort Davis was thus supplied last year. This was the price paid by the contractor. What he received, I do