J D Strickland Writes from Texas, Randolph, Alabama http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/randolph/newspapers/jdstricktex.txt ============================================= USGENWEB PROJECT NOTICE: In keeping with the USGenWeb policy of providing free information on the Internet, this data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Project Archives to store the file permanently for free access. This file is copyrighted and contributed by: William Fischer, Jr. ============================================= July 2002 FROM TEXAS. ------------------------------ MR. EDITOR:--Find enclosed $1.00, for which send me The Roanoke Leader another year. I have been reading The Leader ever since it started and I like it better every year. I am not in as bad shape as some of my friends back there think I am. We didn’t make a full crop this year, of course, but made enough to live. We don’t have to feed here like you do back there. We have plenty of grass the first of April. I think this is a much easier place to make a living. Land is smooth; no rocks; no guano; no gulleys, and no crooked rows. We make our rows from one side the field to the other. One man can plow four acres of cotton a day. We generally make one half bale of cotton to the acre and about twenty bushels of corn per acre. Both kinds of potatoes do well here. In fact, can make anything here we try. Most all kinds of lands is high -- from $10.00 to $100.00 per acre. That seems high, but I know land here that makes over $100.00 worth of stuff this year. We haven’t got all the coons up one tree, but I have got several squirrels up one tree. If any of you Alabamians don’t believe this come and be convinced. I saw a crowd the other day that had been on a two days’ hunt and killed 300 squirrels. If a man is satisfied in Alabama he should stay there, but if he hasn’t any home and wants one he had better get one and not wait. Land has advanced here 25 per cent this year and is still going higher. I bought land twelve months ago for $20.00 per acre and could get $25.00 now. This is a fine truck farming country. Eastern Texas is sandy land and will grow most anything. We have plenty of water here and mostly good. Some mineral water that is not very good drinking water -- in fact, have almost all kinds from good to bad. J D STRICKLAND. Naples, [Morris Co.,] Tex, Route 4. [From The Roanoke Leader (Randolph County, Alabama), 8 Jan 1908, p.2]