| From the New Orleans Times Picayune |
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| January 19, 1862 |
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| Texas, Her Lands and Railways |
| The following, from a
gentleman of Texas, is upon a subject that has already been touched
upon in our columns. We give it place with pleasure: |
| In these times of commercial
inactivity, when captial is either hoarded or seeks exclusively the
safest possible investments, landed estate, adapted to the wants of
the public, called for by its productive industry and secure from its
local position, presents its claims to notice with unusual force. |
| Taking into view all our
circumstances, and particularly the fact that hereafter we must build
up the Great West for ourselves, from whence we can with certainty
derive not only a varied, ample and luxurious subsistence for
ourselves, but also the supplies which create commerce and sustain it,
it is perhaps strictly true that few, if any, among us have rightly
estimated the importance of our sister state of Texas. |
| An empire in herself,
everything in her policy is liberal; and it is a question which
merchants, capitalists and real estate owners in this city may well
propound to themselves, whether her munificent offers in connection
with her public domain and internal improvements have at all met on
our part the response they deserve. She encourages with a princely
favor her railroad companies, whether the lines tend to her own ports
or to ours, and reserves as little as any State ought to retain of
home control over their affairs. She opens wide her arms to settlers
upon her fertile domain, and tenders to them her choicest lands at the
easy price of one dollar per acre. These lands are, in their extent,
adapted to the growth of every agricultural product we need, from the
orchard fruits and small grains of the middle latitudes to the sugar
and cotton of the South, and are everywhere prolific in flocks and
herds. Even now, had we cheap transportation, port could be had as
cheaply from Eastern Texas as we usually obtained from Indiana. It is
worth there about three cents per pound. With the influx of
population, both white and slave, which must take place from the
border States immediately upon the restoration of traveling
facilities, the demand for these lands, if well located, must be very
great. |
| But the wise liberality of the
State is by no means fully shown by the low price at which she offers
the choice of her public lands to settlers. Knowing how important are
all the means to a development of her rich and varied natural
resources, she has not hesitated to inaugurate and to expend freely
upon her geological and agricultural survey; the improvement of her
navigable streams; and above all to promote the convenience and wealth
of her people by aiding in the most generous spirit the construction
of railroads. Again and again, by legislation, has she bestowed upon
companies organized for this purpose not only charters of unsurpassed
franchises, but positive grants of land and loans of money, sufficient
if advantageously managed, to accomplish the whole enterprise. She
gives absolutely, after the completion of each 25 miles of road,
sixteen sections (equal to 10,240 acres) per mile, with the privilege
of locating the certificates in tracts of not less than one section on
any unappropriated lands within her territory. Few lines of any extent
being yet constructed, ample opportunities exist for securing the best
of lands, even in comparatively populous districts. |
| Some of the companies engaged
in building these lines of railway find it to their interest, for the
sake of expediting their works, to sell the certificates they receive
from the State for these lands, instead of locating them. In this they
are also accommodated by the State with grants in transferable form,
whereby the assignee becomes fully possessed of all the rights and
privileges of the company in the premises -- these titles being equal
in simplicity and fullness to any that can be obtained. |
| Some of the railway companies
have been restricted in these locations to a liberal belt of country
on each side and parallel with, their road, but for the most part no
such limit is fixed and the whole public domain is open for
selections. These land certificates have been sold in our market even
below one dollar per acre, and certainly to those who wish an
investment in cheap real estate, without possibility of depreciation,
and with the most reasonable prospect of an early and rapid advance,
they do offer an inducement, to say nothing of the general benefit,
both civil and military, which must result from the extension of our
Southern and especially of our Texas railroads. Who could estimate the
benefits to this city if the Opelousas extension and East Texas
railroads were this day in operation? What has the transportation of a
few guns and their ammunition, from this city to Galveston, cost the
Confederate States in this in time and money since July last? |
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