Studies in the South

III.

I HAVE seen much of the life of the Southern people of all classes in their homes, in regions remote from the railroads, as well as in the cities and towns and those portions of the country which have been most affected by the influences of commerce, travel, and other forces of the modern world. As the agriculture, manufactures, and trade of the Southern States are the chief sources of their wealth, and constitute, in large measure, the material basis of their civilization, I have studied these industries everywhere with great interest.

Southern agriculture presents almost everywhere highly dissimilar or opposite conditions and characteristics existing side by side. In every State the traveler sees farms or plantations on which the modern and improved methods of work and management are in use, with the result, usually, of a marked increase in the quantity and value of farm products. The improvement in farming has been greater here during the last fifteen years than in any other portion of our country. Of course this is due in great part to the fact that the room or need for improvement was greater here than anywhere else; but the progress made since the close of the war has been very great and wonderful, and the hearty interest and energy displayed by the leading men of the South in connection with the cultivation of the soil make it certain that these States will contribute their full share to the advancement of agriculture, and, by this means, to the nation’s wealth. Indeed, it is plain that agriculture is speedily to have a great and varied development in the South, as this portion of our country possesses some marked advantages, in climate and position, over the North and West. Probably no country in the world has a greater variety of soils ; certainly, no territory of equal extent now occupied by civilized men is fitted for the cultivation of a greater number of important agricultural products.

AN ATTRACTIVE REGION.

The northern zone of the South, embracing Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee, with the northern portions of Georgia, Alabama, and Arkansas, is a region of vast extent, and has great interest for Northern people accustomed to farming who may desire to emigrate to a country suited to this industry. There is much excellent land here, with soils adapted to the cultivation of most of the important farm products of the region lying between New York and Pennsylvania on the east and Iowa and Kansas on the west, as well as to those of the South. The climate is favorable, not being so different from that of the States north of it as to cause immigrants from them any considerable inconvenience or discomfort. In the hilly portions of this zone there is cold enough for Northern people, while the mildness of the winter and its brief duration render farming and stock-raising more profitable than they are farther north, as the shelter and feeding of domestic animals require comparatively small expenditure. The summers are of course much longer than in New York or Iowa, but the heat is not usually so great as it is in New Hampshire. With proper attention to sanitary conditions and requirements, this is a very healthy region, the proportion of malarious diseases for the uplands being less than in some of the finest portions of New England. There is much beautiful country, with pleasant scenery. In Northern Alabama I observed a close resemblance to the appearance of the hill regions of Southern and Central New Hampshire.

By attention to the selection of seed of the most suitable varieties, and to methods of cultivation, some of the vegetable products of regions farther north, which are supposed to be unsuited to the South, can probably be made profitable throughout the zone now under consideration. Such acclimation of esculents from other portions of the country would be a great benefit, and is especially desirable for immigrants from the North, who are apt to be impressed by the lack of variety in the bill of fare at the tables of the planters as well as at Southern hotels. But many vegetables and fruits which belong to the South are rarely found on the table, or are in use but for a very brief portion of the year, simply because people do not care to take the pains to produce them. “ It’s too much trouble to raise ’em,” is the usual answer, when I inquire about them. Little attention is given to gardening on most Southern plantations. It is regarded as a trivial employment for the time and labor of men ; entirely unimportant in comparison with “ the crop,” which is usually cotton, tobacco, sugar, or rice. “ We like a few messes of green things in the spring,” the people say, “ but for summer work we need something more substantial. Give us the old stand-bys.” These are commonly bread, bacon, and greens, as the ordinary fare for laborers.

COOKERY.

There is no effort to secure a succession of fresh vegetables during the summer. I think most Southern people of all classes care less for variety in their usual diet — less, perhaps, for the pleasures of the table as a matter of habit or constant experience — than Northern people, with equal means for living as they may desire. “ I am told that the Northern people are very particular about their eating,” was a remark frequently addressed to me, after considerable acquaintance, by gentlemen and ladies who wished to learn something of our Northern civilization and methods of living. Most Southerners certainly eat plainer food than we do, and require less effort in their cookery to make it appetizing. But the women of “ good Southern families” are admirable cooks, as they are trained to this work when young. Far more importance is attached to the education of young women in household employments and duties in the South than in most Northern communities ; and when Southern people “ have company,” as the phrase is, — when they entertain guests, — the dinner is a feast. No other word adequately describes the richness and variety of the repast, or the serious delight and high spirits with which it is eaten. (It has not happened to me to hear better conversation anywhere than at many Southern tables.)

COMPARISON OF ADVANTAGES.

The attractions and rewards of agriculture appear to me to be greater at present in this northern zone of the South than in any other part of the United States. Perhaps Virginia is, all things considered, the most desirable of all the Southern States for the Northern farmer who has money sufficient for the purchase of land and farm machinery. The advantages of soil and climate are supplemented here by such proximity to the best markets as few other regions of our country enjoy. The natural advantages of this State are probably not surpassed in any part of the world. For emigrants of moderate or slender means, Kentucky presents noticeable inducements to settlement, in some of the newer regions of the State. There is much highly fertile land here, which can be purchased now at low prices. Many immigrants have recently been attracted to this State by the earnest and intelligent efforts of the state geologist, a far-seeing, patriotic officer, whose services are of greater value to the commonwealth than those of all the partisan politicians within her borders. Kentucky sets an admirable example to the other States of the Union by maintaining an excellent geological and mineralogical collection in the State House, with an exhibition of agricultural products. Both these States have some disadvantages, chief among which may be named the vulgar dishonesty which of late, in so great degree, dominates the politics of Virginia, and the crimes of violence and bloodshed in portions of the State of Kentucky. These evils have the effect of discouraging emigration to the two States named, and will continue to do so until they are removed by positive advances in civilization. Emigrants to the South should acquaint themselves with the material and social conditions of life there before they leave their old homes. I do not forget that the spirit of repudiation is not confined to the South, nor that in Northern towns, where colleges and churches crowd each other, mobs of thousands can gather, overpower the officers of the law, break down jail doors, and murder prisoners in most revolting fashion, all before the militia, the pride and boast of the place, can be assembled. I advise Southern people, who may think of emigrating to the North, to mark the regions in which these mob outrages and lynchings occur, and avoid them.

THE YAZOO DELTA.

In Northern Mississippi there are large areas of rather sterile soil, and in other districts much land, once good, has been spoiled by neglect and bad management. But the great Yazoo Delta contains between six and seven thousand acres of very fertile land, a tract larger than the whole of the great plateau of East Tennessee. The central prairie region of Mississippi is also rich. I was told of plans for colonizing these and other Southwestern districts by bringing in thousands of settlers from various parts of Europe. This will probably be done, or attempted, in some instances, and as a result these wild tracts will ultimately be subdued and cultivated. This will only be accomplished, however, by unmeasured toil and hardship and the sacrifice of many lives. European immigrants have far less power or vitality for resisting the malarial influences which haunt the low-lying lands of the Southwest than is possessed by the natives of those regions, who themselves suffer greatly from diseases of this type. In Arkansas the primeval forest still extends unbroken over leagues and leagues of richest soil, and the State is certain to be extremely populous in time, and possessed of great agricultural wealth.

METHODS OF EMIGRATION.

The question of the best methods of forming settlements or establishing companies of immigrants in the South is an important one, but it is probably one upon which little light can be thrown except by experiment; and even experiment seems less valuable here than in most other human interests and affairs, because the circumstances of different attempts are in so many ways unlike that even repeated failures do not always plainly point out the way to success. I have visited a few “ colonies,” as they are called in the South, which have been organized or planted with the purpose or object of securing for their members “the benefits of a higher civilization and more perfect social development and relations than can, as yet, be found in society in general.” I think all such enterprises are foredoomed to certain failure. The best object for a settlement, and the highest that can be profitably sought directly, appears to be simply the opportunity to make a living by hard work. Labor is far more potent in producing a better civilization than fine sentiment and eloquent declamation about a more perfect organization of society and provision for the higher appetites of human nature. The people who work hard and steadily will be much more likely to develop whatever is necessary or best for them than the philosophers and idealists who construct plans for “ social reform ” or “the satisfaction of the finer faculties.” Modern reformers have generally underrated the value and creative potency of hunger or unsatisfied desire. It is want, not attainment, that stimulates men to the fullest life and best actions. Men have usually been more noble while they strove for freedom than after they obtained it. Few men in any age have had sufficient intellectual and moral development to enable them to make a good use of either wealth or leisure.

LIFE IN COLONIES.

I have found the intellectual life and conditions in such colonies peculiarly unwholesome and unpromising. There is uniformly much contention, extreme sensitiveness regarding all criticism or expression of unfavorable opinion respecting the enterprise or its management, with greater carelessness or ignorance in relation to sanitary interests and conditions than I have observed in any of the settlements where people are at work simply to “ make a living ” and establish homes for themselves. I think the experience of the past has made it plain that few things are more dangerous for the mass of men, even for a large proportion of people who are regarded as intelligent, than eloquent, vague talk about a more perfect organization of society, social reform, and the development of a higher civilization. It always attracts the unpractical and indefinite people, who have sublime aspirations, but no sense of the value of facts, no firm grasp upon realities of any kind. It would be far better for a man to be the slave of an intelligent master, who would hold him to some useful work, and flog him for idleness, than to be the dupe of sentimental schemes for the reconstruction of society.

OLD SOUTHERN LIFE.

In the same neighborhoods with plantations on which the best agricultural methods are employed, often in sight of them, the traveler observes, nearly everywhere in the South, discouraging marks of ignorance and slovenliness on the part of those who cultivate the soil; of such wastefulness and want of foresight as would be fatal to any industry or enterprise, even if all other circumstances were of the most favorable character. Plows and other utensils are left in the fields, exposed to the weather, all winter. No adequate shelter is provided for horses or other domestic animals, and they are often insufficiently fed. In consequence of such neglect during the winter, many horses, mules, and oxen are feeble and sickly in the spring, when their work is required in preparing the ground for the new crop, and they are soon broken down by labor too severe for them in their exhausted condition. When a poor man sees his only horse or cow die of exposure or neglect, he accepts the result of his own indolence as a mysterious dispensation of Providence, an occurrence for which he is in no degree responsible. The indifference of many Southern people of the poorer classes to the plain and certain consequences of their own inefficiency and folly is frequently astounding. I have often tried to analyze this stolidity, to discover its elements and sources, but have usually found it impossible to determine whether these people do not know that they cause their own misfortunes, or whether they know but do not care. The apathy of many persons in Northern towns, regarding dangers to health and life arising from neglect of the most elementary sanitary requirements, often appears to have a similar origin and character. Perhaps the best explanation in such cases is the lack of sufficient intellectual vitality to modify the familiar environment, the personal force of such individuals being barely adequate to the demands of their present condition and methods of life, and too feeble to supply the impulse which is necessary for the production of any considerable change.

“THE BACKWOODS PEOPLE.”

Many of the “ small planters ” are always late in “ getting the crop into the ground,” as they phrase it; and when it is ready for cultivation they give it little attention, spending most of their time in fishing, hunting, and visiting. The failure of the crop which naturally results causes little complaint or lamentation. “ ’Pears like I hain’t no luck this year,” or, “ My things did n’t seem to do much, nohow.” The poor white people do not appear to be a complaining class, but take ill-fortune with stoical silence. Work for improvement, such as the construction of good bridges and roads, seems to be avoided as if it would be an impiety.

A large proportion of the men who are, in a way, “ engaged in farming ” in the South belong to this class. They work and live with apparently the least possible use or application of intelligence, judgment, or forethought. It is hard to see how the older men are to be improved. They are not so degraded, morally, as most Northern people believe, but have many social virtues and fine traits of personal character, being to the last degree kind, helpful, and faithful to one another. But they are wanting in vigor and force, and are likely always to he hustled about, and crowded out of all places regarded by others as worth having, as long as there are poor and sparsely populated regions into which they can be pressed back. Some of the younger people will be redeemed, I trust, from this unhopeful destiny, and aided to become members of a better class, by being employed on the farms of men of means and energy; but this will depend, in great measure, upon the wisdom and earnestness of the prosperous proprietors, many of whom will be Northern men. The conditions of life and society in the South are in some respects peculiar, and to deal with them successfully will require a new development and advance in public spirit in the dominant classes, both North and South. The existing state of things at the South will probably be modified very extensively by the ideas, spirit, and methods of the people of the North, of New England. But these Northern influences are not now of a character to supply the wholesome elements and forces which are needed for the regeneration and guidance of Southern society and life. Our Northern intellectual superiority is evident enough in some directions, but the moral equipment of the Northern people for the work required at the South is, in various ways, sadly inadequate.

THE FORTUNES OF THE NEGROES.

Many of the negroes are acquiring land, and are farming successfully and profitably, in nearly all parts of the South, while multitudes of others still work as “ hired hands,” and save nothing, consuming a large proportion of their wages for intoxicating drinks. The general inclination of the negroes to leave the plantations and congregate in the towns is injuring the race seriously, in many ways. There is not sufficient employment in the towns for those who are already there, and great numbers become idle, dissipated, and vicious. Most of the colored people are better adapted to farm-work than to other occupations, though many are doing well as mechanics, blacksmiths, carpenters, bricklayers, and plasterers. In the towns and cities, nearly all the cartmen and porters are negroes. Whatever may be the extent to which idleness prevails among them, it is certain that the negroes perform a vast amount of labor which is not only necessary or convenient for their employers, but highly profitable as well. The labor of the colored people is at present an important and, indeed, indispensable factor in the chief wealth-producing industries of the South. If the negroes could be brought to understand existing conditions and tendencies in the regions which they inhabit, they might soon greatly improve their fortunes, and secure for themselves and their children most important advantages from opportunities which are likely soon to pass away, never to be presented again, or, at any rate, not during the reign of the influences which are now becoming dominant in the South. Land is cheap nearly everywhere in the Southern States, and if the negroes were but wise to plan, and resolute to toil and save, they could soon be the possessors of a great proportion of the land in extensive and fertile regions there. If clergymen, and all other guides whom the negroes respect, would urge them to use the most extreme selfdenial and exertion in order to become the owners of land, they would confer the greatest of all possible benefits upon them. Land is already beginning to advance in price in all the Southern States, and everything at present indicates that within a few years it will be less easy for laboring men of limited means to acquire property in it. The process of breaking up or dividing the great estates of a former time has been going on for some years, in most parts of the South. This change is of course a beneficial one. But the opposite process of aggregation has also begun nearly everywhere. Companies and individual capitalists are coining into possession of extensive tracts, which, for the most part, are withdrawn from the market for the time, and are not likely again to be available for settlers who have little money.

FERTILIZERS.

Many Southern farmers appear to regard the saving of manure as something unworthy of their attention, not because it would be unprofitable, but because it is considered a disagreeable or undignified employment, something like the business of a scavenger. They often expend much money for “ commercial fertilizers,” when they have on their own lands considerable quantities of fertilizing material which is much better for the soil and for their crops. Almost the whole country adjacent to the railroads, in the South Atlantic States, is pervaded by the pungent fragrance of phosphates and other fertilizers. Travelers in the Pullman night coaches say they know when they are approaching a station by the potent odors which they encounter. Whole freight-trains are laden with these substances, and hundreds of tons in sacks fill the freight platforms at all the stations. Southern farmers could add hundreds of thousands of dollars to their wealth by making manure at home, which would not cost a dollar in money, nor require anything, indeed, but a little time and care. There is little profit in paying out nearly as much as a crop will be worth for manure to produce it.

A SUGGESTION.

Emigration to a new or unfamiliar region in the South is a matter of great uncertainty for most Northern farmers who undertake it, a hap-hazard enterprise, in which the first adventurers usually fail; and wise methods are only learned, if at all, at the cost of much loss, disappointment, and suffering. I cannot find that the most important thing of all is ever told to immigrants, or to those who are prospecting with a view to immigration, — that is, the amount of the various crops which the land will produce without manure of any kind. People are easily led to believe that the specimen products shown them, or about which they are told, are the usual or average results of cultivation ; whereas they have commonly been grown by the unlimited application of fertilizers to a small piece of ground, taking no account of the cost of the manures. Farmers intending to emigrate to any region of the South should first go to see it, or send some competent person to look at the country, during the latter part of summer. An observant farmer can, at that time of the year, form a sufficiently accurate judgment regarding the fitness of the soil and climate for his pursuits and interests.

COTTON A WONDERFUL PLANT.

Since I have studied the character of all the great Southern agricultural staples, and the special relations of each of them to the life and civilization of the people, the prominence always given to cotton does not seem strange or unaccountable. It is a wonderful and peculiar plant in its adaptation to the varieties of soil and general environment which it finds in different parts of the country in which it is grown, and also in its relation to some features in the character of the people who are engaged in its culture. It will grow on almost any soil and in almost any possible situation, in the latitude in which it belongs. Where the soil is generous the quantity of the fibre which is produced shows that the plant has very great power of assimilation and appropriation for whatever elements of nutrition are contained in its food supply. On the other hand, if the soil is excessively poor and sterile, cotton will still grow. It now wastes no strength or food on stem or leaf, but puts all its material and force into flower and seed. It is the fact that cotton is a seed fibre that makes it so valuable to this country. If it were the fibre of the stem or bark, as is the case with flax or hemp, much of the land of the cotton region, and much of the cultivation employed upon it, would be entirely inadequate to the production of the fibre in paying quantities. But nature cares more for seed, of course, than for anything else, and in making the seed of the cotton plant she makes the fibre which is of so great value ; and in soil almost utterly barren, and with scarcely any cultivation, there will still be matured, on each dwarfed and stunted plant, a few bolls of fairly good, marketable cotton.

NEED OF VARIETY.

But the great preponderance given to cotton is nearly everywhere injudicious and unprofitable. In many extensive districts the planters persist in growing it on nearly every arable acre, as if it were the only crop the land would produce. They buy flour, corn, and meat from the North in incredible quantities. When there is a good crop they receive much money for their cotton, but must pay it all out for articles which could be grown on their own farms. Many of the planters confess their conviction of the improvidence of this method, but persist in the practice, nevertheless. In various parts of the South there are vast tracts of as fine corn land as can be found on the continent, and there is no reason whatever for not cultivating in these regions all the corn needed in the Southern States, except the disinclination to adopt new methods of agricultural labor which is so strong among the planters. So, too, of the pork, or bacon, of which great quantities are brought down from the Northwest. It might just as well be produced at the South, and the planters, instead of buying what they themselves consume, should supply the cities and towns of their own portion of the country. One sees this Northern bacon in the streets of all Southern towns. The process of handling it is more picturesque than appetizing. It is tossed from the freight-cars into great heaps in the street, whence it is transferred to drays by barefooted negroes, who walk over it, and mount upon the loads as they drive away to the stores and warehouses. Here it is deposited on the side-walk, where it often remains for many hours, romped over by negro children and their playmates, the vagrant dogs of the town.

THE CYPRESS SWAMPS.

The greatest need of Southern agriculture, and one of the greatest needs of the Southern people, after improvement in methods of cultivation, is the general introduction of a greater variety of farm products, the growing of corn, grass, and hogs especially, instead of the almost exclusive cultivation of cotton. It is absurd and wasteful to buy so much hay as is now “ imported,” as Southern men say, when it could be produced at home. There are native grasses of great value in some portions of the South, and the interminable extent of the swamp lands will supply meadows that cannot be injured by drought. The cypress swamps cover vast areas in most of the States. They are too low and wet, and too large, for successful drainage by individuals. The work can be accomplished only by being arranged and undertaken on a great scale, with systems of canals and ditches, extending sometimes over many hundreds of square miles. Such works of internal improvement will probably be executed by the States in which these great swamps lie ; though it will be wonderful if some progressive Southerner does not discover that appropriations from the national treasury would be the most convenient means for accomplishing such objects. The timber of the cypress swamps will of course be valuable ; some of it has already been cut off. The gigantic trees, loaded and swathed with great festoons of the “ long moss,” as it is called, give a peculiar appearance to these forests. The plant is not a moss, but an air-plant and epiphyte (Tillandsia usneoides), which merely grows upon the bark of the trees, but does not penetrate to their juices, or derive any nourishment from them. Northern ladies traveling in the South are always assuring you that “ the moss kills the trees,” supposing it to be a parasite, like the mistletoe, which is also abundant in Southern woods; but the “ moss ” has no influence on the life of the tree. It has, however, a great effect upon Southern landscape, and wherever it grows it has much to do with the impressions produced by forest scenery. The plant itself is handsome and graceful, as are the separate festoons which it forms, when regarded near at hand. But the appearance of a large tree covered with it is ugly and disagreeable, as if it were being shrouded and smothered in enormous obscene cobwebs. Malaria makes people sentimental, and to the imaginations of many who live near them the deep, gloomy cypress swamps seem haunted by shapes of terror, ominous and malign.

THE LONE-STAR STATE.

There is enough land still unoccupied in the State of Texas for a really great empire. Much of it is not rich, if judged by Northern standards ; but there is also a great deal of good soil, and some of it is very fertile. In the northern part of the State, especially, there are large tracts of good land, which includes all the region about Dallas and Sherman, and most of the country, indeed, for long distances around these places, in every direction. A great part of the interior of the State is oak land, — post oak and “black-jack,” — running into pine and oak land. The post oak and black-jack timber is not large, and it does not grow out of a soil of great fertility ; but much of it is “ very good cotton land,” to quote the phrase of the people.

“ Will it make half a bale to the acre ? ” I ask.

“ No,” uttered deliberately, and very honestly; “may be one third of a bale, with good cultivation, if it’s a good season.”

But doubtless improved methods of cultivation would increase the product almost everywhere.

A GRAY LAND.

Much of the country east of San Antonio — or San Antone, as the people say there — is plainly subject to severe drought. In fact, its normal or usual condition is one of severe drought. It will not do to believe all that the emigration agents and the railroad companies publish regarding the climate and soil of this region. I am constantly made to wonder, in every part of the South, at the want of judgment, and apparently want of observation, shown by many immigrants in selectiug lands where it would seem that almost anybody should be able to recognize the disadvantages of the location. There are always some things that can be produced, some things that can be done, in each particular region. But many people have gone to the South expecting to make money in pursuits for which the district or region which they select is not at all suitable. For along distance eastward from San Antonio, the whole landscape, when the trees are leafless, looks singularly gray, almost white. The bark of all the trees takes this prevailing color, reminding one of what we read of the gray look of olive-crowned hills in the East, though the tint of the Texan landscape is probably whiter than that. All the twigs and small branches of the trees and shrubs are wonderfully stiff, hard, and inflexible, and examination shows that the annual growth is extremely Small. Where these features in the character of the trees and shrubs are observed, we may always be certain either that the land is poor, or that the rainfall is very scanty, or that both these conditions prevail. There is in this region a marked conflict of statement and of feeling between the stockraisers on one side and the men who wish to sell land to the immigrants on the other. The cattle and sheep men do not wish people to come here to engage in farming, as that “ breaks up the range,” and injures the stock-raising business. They affirm that much of this country is poorly fitted for agriculture, on account of the extreme desiccation of the soil every summer. On the other hand, the railroad and other land agents everywhere rehearse most glowing descriptions of the unsurpassable fertility of the soil, and of the wonderful variety and value of its productions. I think the truth is that the land is neither very rich nor very poor, but that the amount of rain is inadequate, and that over much of this region agriculture is likely to be a disappointing and unprofitable pursuit. With sufficient moisture the soil would produce fairly good crops of various kinds. There is need of wider observation and comparison, and of more accurate reporting, of all the facts connected with farming in this part of Texas. The wild or natural flora gives incontestable evidence that a state of drought is the normal condition of the country during a great part of the year. How far this may be fatal to farming and horticulture, or in what degree its disadvantages may be overcome, is a question which will probably require considerable time and experience for its decision.

“ IN SHEEP.”

At first everybody says, “There’s just as much money as you want in sheep, here in Texas ; ” but after a little acquaintance the moderate men talk more definitely. Many of the sheep - raisers are buying land, and the “ outside range ” is becoming limited nearly everywhere. Those who have had most experience say that there is money in the business, but that there is about the same chance for failure and loss as in other occupations. They say that no business offers a certainty of success here, but that “ if a man sticks to a thing he can do as well in Texas as anywhere.” It appears to me that in this pursuit, as in most things that men do here, there is the least possible expenditure of human effort, and that business, or “ industry,” has been chiefly an endeavor to obtain profit from the mere operation of the forces of nature, while man, to quote the phrase of an old Texan with whom I talked of such matters, “ sets around to see things grow.”

MESQUITE BEANS AND CACTUS.

Most of the country here is what is called “ mesquite prairie.” It looks almost exactly like a neglected peach-orchard ; the ground covered with grass, and the trees, for want of pruning and care, grown into great clusters by “ sprouting ” from the root. The resemblance of the mesquite bush to the peach-tree is striking. Its size is about the same, and it does not cover the whole of the ground, or form thickets, but grows in irregularly scattered clumps. Its fruit the people call a bean, and the old Texan just mentioned says, “ It will begin to bean as soon as the weather’s warm, an’ will go beanin’ on till frost.” The bean is valuable food for horses and cattle. The prickly-pear is a prominent feature in the landscape in Southern Texas. It grows to an enormous size. Its “leaves,” the branches or joints of the plant, are said to be excellent food for cattle. They are thrown into a fire for a few moments, to burn off the thorns, and are then, I am told, eagerly eaten. Several kinds of cactus are abundant. Everybody says that all this vegetation, the mesquite, the prickly-pear, and the various species of cactus found here, are really Mexican plants, and that when this country was first settled none of these things grew here. They are advancing farther and farther northward and eastward each year. My old Texan friend says, —

“ They ’re bound to take the country. They ’re mighty hard to kill, an’ don’t you forgit it. They ’ll be in your country yit.”

Another change which everybody assures me is still going on here is a great increase in the amount of the annual rainfall. From all appearances, I judge that a still greater increase is certainly desirable.

YOUNG VIRGINIANS.

In Texas I saw many young men from Virginia, sons of the best families there, intelligent and of excellent character generally. In conversation with one of them, I told him that I had recently been looking about in his native State, and that it seemed to me that all energetic young Virginians were needed at home, and that there was abundant opportunity and reward for labor there; and I asked if he liked the life in Texas better than work in Virginia. He said he did not, but that it was not yet the fashion for young Virginians of good family to engage in hard, rough work near their homes in the Old Dominion. “It would not do for me to work by the month there for such wages as are paid here. It would be too much of an affliction for my family, and I should lose caste with my lady friends. If a man has no money he cannot begin in Virginia, because he would be classed with the poor whites and the negroes, with whom his work and circumstances would bring him into competition. But he can come out here and ‘ rough it,’ and if he has no money he can work by the month at herding, or driving team, till he gets a start.” I suppose this is true, for I heard the same thing often in various places in Texas, and in Virginia and Tennessee the parents of many of these young men gave me the same reason for the emigration of their sons to Texas. Perhaps these reasons would be equally potent with everybody, but at any rate I could see that many young men in the Southwest work harder, and live in far rougher and more uncomfortable ways, than would be necessary in the older States, and that they do not make so much money as they might there. There is, apparently, as much emigration from Texas, too, as from any other Southern State. The talk is everywhere of “ better country than this,” in Mexico and New Mexico, and one soon receives the impression that nobody is settled, or is at all certain of remaining very long, even in Texas. I found in every part of the South a decided and extensive movement of the agricultural class, both white and colored, toward the Southwest and West. In many cases, the principal reason for this movement, so far as I could discover, is the improvement which is taking place in the older regions of the South. When “ the new order of things ” begins to manifest itself in a Southern community there are many Persons, of the poorer classes, who feel repelled rather than attracted by the indications of approaching change, and in their restlessness and discontent they leave their old homes, hoping to find more congenial conditions in newer and more sparsely populated regions. Many of these persons depend only in part upon agriculture for their subsistence. They obtain some portion of their living by hunting and fishing, and these occupations are much more to their taste than steady work of any kind. These emigrants often say, “It’s agoin’ to cost too much to live hyur; ” and they are undoubtedly correct in this conclusion. It will certainly require more money and more labor to live under the improved conditions in “the new South ” than have hitherto been necessary, under the old order of things ; and many Southern men, of the classes referred to, reason, rightly enough, that for them the improvement and progress promised by the signs of the times are not likely to bring an increase of happiness.

THE CLIMATE.

The farmers all through Texas say that the reason for their not using “ vegetables ” for food more than they do is the fact that vegetables will not “ keep,” in the climate of their regions, and that there is only a short season in the spring when “ garden stuff ” is available for food. They have plenty of it then, but it soon becomes too dry and hot for later plantings to do any good. Potatoes are not good unless eaten when they “ first come,” and the sun soon cooks cabbages in the field, or the worms eat them without cooking. The reason the people live mostly on bread and bacon is because nothing else will “ keep,” without excessive trouble and expense. All this is what the people themselves told me ; I cannot say, from my own observation, that it is true. It does not apply, I should think, to the northern zone of the South, nor, probably, to Northern Texas, where the climate is much cooler than in the central and southern regions of the State. But the temperature is very variable and uncertain almost everywhere in Texas, this State being especially exposed to sudden and severe storms of wind from the north, during which the temperature falls with frightful rapidity, — a few hours sufficing for a change from almost tropical heat to cold that seems to pierce to the very marrow. The northern portion of the State is scourged by pneumonia, diphtheria, and kindred diseases. Large portions of the South, indeed, suffer greatly from these maladies. I had a long conversation on the cars with a woman who was on her way back to her old home in Georgia, after having lived for some ten years in Texas. Her husband was “ a Baptist preacher,” she told me, and in one of the great storms of the early part of last winter he went away to preach at a school-house, not far from home. The norther increased in violence, till “ the wind turned everything to ice.” The poor man’s feet and legs were terribly frozen, and he was so prostrated that it was decided that amputation would not save his life. He lingered for a few weeks, and died. Of course, as is well known, the winter of 1880-1881 was of extraordinary severity; but when I referred to this fact, and wished that I might have seen the country during a mild or average winter, an old settler replied,—

“Young man, ye kin bet yer life ’t ain’t safe to fool with this climit any time. Ef ye ’ve got anything warm, for outside or inside, take it along in the mornin’, ef ye ’re goin’ to be out all day in the middle o’ summer; ye may need it afore niglit.”