The Brownsville daily herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1897-1910, 1908-08-25
Lower Rio Grande
Texas Sugar Bowl
Continued from Page u


section in a class by itself in the sug-
ar industry The facts are presented
as they are and not exaggerated.
Most of them are of record at gov
Iernment experimental stations.
/ Sugar Growers Profits.
MIR. R. c. Wharton, manager of the
Ohio and Texas Sugar Company of
Brownsville is authority for the state
ment that a man with capital of
$4,000 could come into the lower
Rio Grande Valley and within one
year have an income of $4,000 annu-
ally. The most conservative estimate
of experts place net profits per acre
| in growing sugar cane in this section
at 800. A market is assured. There
is not nor can be an overproduction
The grower has none of the bother
nor takes any of the risks of the fruit
and truck grower, who must ship his
perishable products hundreds of miles
to market He only has to plant ev-
cry six or eight years and at harvest
sells to local mills at fixed price per
ton. In this section, where, irrigation
methods are used, his crop and his
profits are practically certain
Not New but Undeveloped.
The pioneer of the industry in the
valley was Louis Brulay, French
man and formerly a prominent mer-
chant of Matamoros Bruley came
| from Louisiana in 1870. He soon
recognized the excellency of the sugar
growing conditions fthe country,
planted cane and erected a small
mill eight miles below Brownsville.
He made a success of the industry
selling his product in clarified state
to Mexicans. The same land planted
to cane for thirty-seven years is pro-
ducing as heavily as new land, an IL
lustration of the practically inexhaus-
tible qualities of the soil. Not an
ounce of fertilizer was used in all
these years.
Fifteen years later, Mr.. John Clos
ner located at Hidalgo, seventy-flve
miles further up the valley, and today
he has a field of 400 acres of the fin
est cane ever produced. His planta-
ton is also equipped with small
mill.
Notwithstanding the richness of
lH6 lOHSI Il1O fdltCy anu I'D
adaptability for growing sugar cane,
the inaccessibility of this region de-
layed its development. Not until the
st. Louis, Brownsville & Mexico rail-
way laid its rails across hundreds Of
miles of uninhabited prairie and
brought this old region into touch
with the balance of the world was
Americas wonderful sugar bowl
brought tothe attention of producers.
Even to this day, strangers, exper-
fenced sugar producers, are apt to
class the stories coming from this sec
ton with boom literature of which
less than one-half is expected to be
delivered A personal investigation
only can satisfy.
Increasing Acreage.
Owing to lack of facilities for hand
ling cane, the acreage has not been
large. This year there are 1900
acres in cane in this section. Next
year the acreage will be increased to
about 5000, and from that time on
it is believed that the acreage will be
doubled and trebled year after year
until the best of the 10000 acres of
cane land will be under cultivation.
It is predicted that within five years
the valley will be dotted with the
stacks of mills and refinerieS; that
sugar land will be quoted at $500
to $500 per acre, and that the lower
Rio Grande valley will be alive with
Industrial activity.
Large Capacity Mill Building.
sv,l
the valley in running order. The |
Ohio and Texas Sugar Company mill |
near Brownsville will be ready for |
this seasons crop. This mill is of |
large capacity, capable of handling |
2 500 tons of cane per day It is |
claimed to be the most modern and |
best equipped of any mill in the Unit
ed States.
Besides the mills mentioned there |
are mills planned at San Benito, Har
hinge, Ladonna (now building) and |
La Lomita.
Probably no section in America is /
so perfectly equipped for irrigating |
it's lands as the valley of the lower /
Rio Grande, and but few can boast of
such great systems constructed insuch |
onOl VI blnlC-11CAC VIC hbO OhC
of the largest irrigating canals in the
Uuited States. All told there are
eighteen systems radiating from the
Rio Grande capable of furnishing an
abundance of water to 100000 acres.
These systems will be extended and
others are planned until the entire
valley will be watered at the will of
man.
Profit in Cane.
That the development of the lower
Rio Grande is not of the paper profit
class is in evidence in the canal sys-
TENS which are now prepared to fur
nish water to 100000 acres. That
this section is the greatest of its kind
has been proved; that there is profit
for the grower, small or large, is set
forth in the following statement:
Cost.
Planting one acre for six
years. per annum ......S 4.50
Cultivation and labor 49,. 500
rr1gaLlOn o.OO
and hauling -. 5000
$3.50 per ton. 5000
total SlO6.9O
Returns.
Forty tons, yielding 5000