The Texas revolution and subsequent border warfare gave the finishing touch to this country. And when the United States troops under General Taylor marched from Corpus Christi to the Rio Grande, in 1846, not an inhabitant was to be found between the Nueces and that river. It had the appearance of an immense desert to the army, unused as they were to such treeless pampas. The immense herds of cattle and horses, left to take care of themselves, had become wild, and had greatly increased; and as "mustangs" grazed over those plains in almost countless hosts, it was entirely dangerous for a man to approach them, particularly on foot, and much more so even on horseback. The old king mustang, and his male subordinates, would first drive the herd into corral by making a rushing, neighing circuit around them, and then make a fearful dash at the human intruder, striking, kicking and biting him to death.
In 1850 the repopulation of that country fairly commenced. The mustangs were killed or caught and tamed, and "that so-called" desert has been steadily filling with a hardy and active race of stock-raisers.
As the country now stands, the climate is decidedly unfavorable to agriculture. And unless some plans, on a magnificent scale, can be devised and executed, by which to irrigate that vast and rich country, the main dependence will always have to be, as heretofore, on the flocks and herds. The climate is unseasonable; but not so much for want of rain; for take the seasons through, ample supplies of rain fall for all purposes, if they only came at the right time, and in proper quantities. The planting time is from January to May, and that is the dry period of the year. It often happens that not sufficient rain falls during those months to "wet a pocket handkerchief." When it rains it rains. And during the other months of the year the torrents that fall upon the country will aggregate twenty-five to thirty inches. It is not extravagant to affirm that if the water could be utilized in some, as yet undiscovered way, that country would be the finest in the world. The desert (?) would "bud and blossom as the rose," in all temperate and semi-tropical products. The climate, on account of the dryness of the winter and spring, is as healthy as could be desired.
We think something might be done by making earth tanks on a large scale, thereby creating immense artificial lakes at convenient points, and at proper distances, to be used for irrigating purposes when necessary, and thus redeem that beautiful country from agricultural waste. It can not be done, however, by private capital and enterprise, nor by small corporations, but might be by heavy ones, under the material encouragement and patronage and aid of the General and State governments, by money and land grants, as to railroad corporations. And doubtless, in time, something of the kind will be done when the public good shall demand it. The gardens in and around San Antonio, and along the river for miles and miles, are irrigated from its waters, by little ditches running in all directions, from a big ditch or canal, that was originally built by the Spanish government when its various missions were established along the San Antonio valley. But if nothing of the kind should be done in the future, that country will forever remain the finest stock-raising section in the United States—the paradise of horses, sheep and cattle. There is little doubt that the tame cattle herds of to-day outnumber the wild ones of half a century ago. And one day southwestern Texas will export half a million of beeves yearly.
OLD LETTERS.