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pg 043: Second annual report of the Geological and Agricultural Survey of Texas Publication 25425061.

 
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between San Antonio and Seguin, where the former prairies are covered with a luxuriant growth of trees in a soil as rich as the best lands near New Braunfels, now made so productive by the Germans. Throughout most of the State, the heat in summer is seldom more than one hundred degrees. In central Texas; and westward from Fort Concho to Fort Stockton, south winds prevail during the day in the summer time, beginning about 9 a. m. They are generally cool and pleasant. In the valley of the Rio Grande, above Presidio, such winds are far from being of daily occurrence, nor are the cold north winds of winter common there. Below is the range of the thermometer for 18 years at Austin, condensed from Prof. Nostrand's observations:

High'st. Low'st. High'st. Low'st. High'st. Low'st High'st, Low'st. 1858.. 98.. 22 1863.. 99.. 17 1868.. 96.. 15 1873.. 96.. 13.. 1859..101.. 10 1864.. 99.. 6 1869.. 97.. 19 1874..104.. 28.. 1860..107.. 18 1865..106.. 18 1870.. 96.. 11 1875 to Aug. 1, 99-10 1861..100.. 23 1866.. 96.. 21 1871..102.. 22 1862..104.. 23 1867.. 98.. 17 1872.. 99.. 15

BAT CAVES.

We again visited the bat cave in the western part of Burnet county, not far from Bluffton. This cave has large quantities of bat guano, good for the manufacture of saltpetre, or it can be used as a fertilizer, being equal, if not superior, to much of the imported guano.

In the southern part of Llano county there was a bat cave which would have been valuable for its contents had it not been intentionally or carelessly set on fire, which expelled the bats and destroyed the guano.

There are said to be other bat caves still farther west. They are more or less valuable, and should be preserved.

BONES AS FERTILIZERS.

Over the prairies of Texas, especially in the cattle regions, are large quantities of bones scattered on the ground. As is well known, these bones are valuable as fertilizers. In some of the northern counties, buffalo bones lie here and there at short intervals on the plains.

It is said that many of the settlers in Kansas, in the valley of the Arkansas river, have made the gathering of buffalo bones profitable; especially along the railroad lines, to the distance of forty miles on each side of them, these

 

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