Translation of 1847 Letter by Charles W. Presler from Texas to His Family in Germany

(continued)

Speaking of Texas, you will be disappointed in many things. You expect a nice climate and tropical vegetation. Nothing at all. The summer is hot. I remember one day sitting in the breeze on the porch, we still had 85 degrees F at 6 P.M. From March till May, thundershowers quite frequently. Fritz was frightened one time when we had fourteen days long one thundershower after the other one. One half hour sunshine between these. We had to move out of our log cabin. The water was running in through every hole. After this period rain is getting rare and the dry season started. Always sunshine but the temperature change is quite a difference. You could not wear a coat in daytime on Christmas day while in the same night the temperature fell below freezing. The ground was frozen one finger deep. The terrible northers show up already in October and last mostly three days in a week. This is going on up to March. It is hard to believe how cold it gets here. The sudden temperature drops are not healthy at all, not to speak of maise and greens, which is often killed by the frost. Tomorrow we write the 1st of April and the woods are hardly green. Vegetation is here not better than abroad.

I know about ten different kinds of oaks here but seldom see a real big one like we have them in Germany. Most shrubs and trees are similar to those we have abroad. The cotton-tree is nothing. And then a poppel, Eschen, platanen like maple (Uhorn) I found pfaffenludchen Hollander, der immergrun kind of hickories, beech, walnut, and pecans. The first one making food lumber, the latter excellent nuts. Maulbeerbaun (mulberry) and Mina baum. Along the coast magnolia trees and palms. Wild plums and peaches like our Schlehe. From berry, only Brombeeres (brambleberries). The only good fruit is the Spanish and American persimmon. Two kinds of wildgrowing vines, a big one, grape (blackblue) in color, high up to the top of a tree. I saw trunks twenty-eight inches in diameter, but of such a sour taste it hurts your mouth after tasting only a few. Then a little blue one, sweet, in growth like a German vine; however, the seeds are too big. They sure would make a good grape after some improvements have been made. They have not tried out vineyards here but I think it could be done with quite a success.

Peaches are a sight here.    I saw some in Houston ten inches in diameter. Also figs and Granatapfel are found in the coastal region. Up here it is already too cold. In an old Spanish settlement close to the Trinity River I saw for the first time orange trees packed with oranges. Apples, pears, and other German fruits are not found and they doubt whether they will grow here. However, a German farmer told me his neighbor had ten bearing trees full of fruit.

Speaking of vegetables like beams, peas, beets, cabbage, salad, etc., it looks like German specimens don't do so well here. They have some kinds here which stand the climate better. However, most German farmers do or have to do the planting in freshly broken soil. That makes a difference. It pays always to take some seeds along, bring some black roman waxbeans, you will find them at August. Then Esperette, and luferus, wild ahafle, as well as himbeere (raspberry) and vine trunks.  But be sure and seal those in bottles. The salty air on the sea will greatly influence their germ bud. Many vegetables, like cucumbers, you can harvest twice a year. Cucumbers and melons are here at home. Especially the watermelon is a delicious fruit. The flesh is red and foamy going up in juice in your mouth. Tell Hermine the melon is so sweet you don't have to use any sugar and sure can make a good syrup out of it. Then Kurbis, (pumpkin) makes a good meal and of much more taste than the German ones.

But like at home, the change in climate destroys often the whole crop. Frost kills the maise, heavy rain the peaches, the cottonworm the cotton, rabbits and all kinds of insects destroy the young plants. Guords are useful fruits here. They give you all kinds of containers in the household or serve as drinking flasks on your trips.

Maise is harvested only once a year here, not like they said twice. But there is no comparison between German and American maise. Maise is planted in March and harvested in September. Often I counted corn crops from twelve to twenty rows each each row between forty to fifty kernels so tight they look like pressed together. After peeling the corncob, the trunk is often hollowed out and used as a pipe.

Our own Texas tobacco is not good at all. Please don't forget to bring three pipes along like the one Julius took along. If you have not enough room in your baggage anymore, bring them without the mouthpieces.

Corn is planted in two rows, four feet apart, so you can plow the weeds down later. Germans here often planted too close the plant needs air and sun. Otherwise it will not do very well. A medium crop of twenty-five bushel per acre is considered fair. Some farmers get fifty bushel per acre. In figuring out the supply for your own need, you can estimate fifteen bushel of corn per person per year. It takes three bushel of corn per horse, mule or ox per week during the plowing and harvesting time. Otherwise, one half bushel per week. During the planting season it is estimated that a man can handle between eight to ten bushels. The price is a function of the harvest, location, and the time of year. On the average, twenty-five cents per bushel right after the crop is taken in, up to seventy-five cents per bushel just before the new crop in the following year is in. By the way, corn does not like freshly broken soil too much so the first two harvests are not too good.  

Also wheat and oats do well down here. Oats are brought in already in June. Potatoes do not so well. They have a soapy taste here. Sweet potatoes, a climbing plant similar to the Geogines but a little more stocky and quite a sweet taste. They are planted rather early, in February, close together in heaped rows. They root very easy. In October, harvested, they often bring between fifty and three hundred bushel per acre. The price is two bits per bushel on the average.

Here they have plenty colored hands. However, cotton is more and more given up on account of the cottonbug. A Red River plantation supplying the market annually with six hundred bales of cotton could deliver only eight bales.    It is figured one acre will bring one to two bales of seed free cotton. Each bale is five hundred pounds heavy. The cotton price is ten cents/pound or $50 per bale.

Sugar plantations make more money, however, the maintenance and price of a sugar mill, boiler house and many Negros cost quite a bit. Texas sugar is of finest grade.

Planting tobacco is just in the beginning, although it is quite profitable and suitable for white man. It takes quite some work but it is not hard labor. A man can take care of two acres. The Texas tobacco is not a first quality, although the bad taste is due more to the inexperienced refiner who does not know too much about the fermentation process. Just above San Felipe (Catspring) several cigarmakers from Bremen have established a little business. They make a good cigar. One thousand cigars for eight dollars. But they have hardly any customers. Americans hardly smoke.

Pharmaceutical plants like sasparilla, ipecacuanha, sassafras, and curispurgabe (?) are found here. Curispurgabe (?) seeds are known for the source of castor oil.