First settlement by French on the Lavaca, 1685; admitted 1845; seceded February, 1861; re-admitted 1868.

Area, 265,780 square miles; extreme length, 825 miles; extreme breadth, 740 miles; coastline, 400 miles; number counties 230. Temperature at Galveston: winter, 53° to 63°; summer, 82° to 84°. Rainfall at Fort Brown, 33 inches.

Brownsville, El Paso, Indianola and Galveston are ports of entry. Houston, important railroad centre; pop., 16,513. Galveston, metropolis, has best harbor, and is chief shipping point; pop., 22,248. Austin, the capital; pop., 11,013. San Antonio, oldest town; pop., 20,550. Pop. Dallas, 10,358.

Number farms, 174,184; average value per acre, cleared land, $8.98; woodland, $4.

Cotton most valuable crop; acreage, 1883, 3,034,922; crop, 1,118,000 bales. Latest reported products, 4,951 hhds. sugar, 13,000 bbls. molasses, 1,460,079 bu. sweet potatoes, 5,560,600 bu. wheat, 60,290,000 bu. corn, 35,528 gals. wine, 13,899,320 lbs. butter, 50,600 bu. salt, 3,600 tons iron ore; coal area, 6,000 square miles.

Salaries of State Officers.
Governor $4,000
Lieut. Gov. $5 a day
Sec'y of State 2,000
Treasurer 2,500
Attorney Gen. 2,000
Adjutant Gen. 2,000
Land Com. 2,500
Railroad Com. 3,000
Chief Justice 3,500
2 Asso. Justices 3,500
Senators,
Representatives

 $5 a day
and mileage.
3 Dist. Judges 3,500
Colls. Inter. Revenue 2,500 to 2,750
17 Deputy Collectors 300 to 1,850

Presidential P. O.
Austin $3,000
Brenham 1,900
Corsicana 1,900
Dallas 3,000
Denison City 2,200
El Paso 2,100
Fort Worth 2,700
Gainesville 1,900
Galveston 3,200
Houston 3,000
Laredo 2,000
Marshall 2,000
Palestine 2,400
San Antonio 2,800
Sherman 2,300
Waco 2,500
54 Offices 1,900 to 1,100
7 Offices 1,000

Cotton picking, July to December; corn planting, middle of February; grain harvest, May; corn harvest, July.

Ranks first in cattle and cotton; second in sugar, sheep, mules and horses; sixth in miles railway; seventh in milch cows; eighth in rice and hogs.

Value flouring and grist mill products, $7,617,177; sawed lumber, $3,673,449; total number industries, 2,996; capital invested, $9,245,561; value products, $20,719,928.

Pop., 1,591,749: male, 837,840; female, 753,909; native, 1,477,133; foreign, 114,616; white, 1,197,237; colored, 393,384; Chinese, 136; Indians, 992.