The Brownsville daily herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1897-1910, 1909-05-18
MERCEDES MOVES
AT LIVELY GAIT
CAPT. W. A. FITCH GIVES, BRIGHT
REPORT OF HIS TOWN.
Many improvements NOted-New
Business Enterprises and Churches
Canal Company Installs New
Pumping Plant-Capt. Fitch as
Planter.


Things are moving at lively gait
at Mercedes according to Captain w.
A. Fitch of that place. who spent to-
day in Brownsville
mo town in the Valley. ever had a
brighter prospect before it than Mer-
cedes," stated the genial captain to
a Herald representative today. Our
$4,000 cotton gin and grist mill is
now nearing completion and will be
ready to handle this seasons crop,
and other enterprises are also flour
ishing.
Among the latest additions to the
business enterprises of Mercedes
mentioned by Capt Fitch, is the Rio
Grande Hardware Co., with a capital
stock of 1000 and the commission
and brokerage firm of Bishop and
Brennan. The latter now contem-
plate building another warehouse
which will be 60X120 feet. He also
reports that the church of the Sew
enth Day Adventists has just been
completed and the members of the
Methodist church have also pur-
chased lot and raised funds suffi-
Gent to build a church, the cost of
which will be about $500, work to
: be begun in the near future.
/ The school needs OF. the commu-
nifty have grown so that an election
has been ordered to vote bonds to the
extent of $4,000 for the erection of
two school buildings in addition to
the one We already have, added
Capt. Fitch. ''the election being set
for June b.
Another very important improve
ment in progress, reports the captain,
is the work of installing two addition
al pumps by the American Rio
Grande Irrigation Company. These
are 36-inch pumps, and will have a
combined flow Of 10000 gallons per
minute. They are located on the
river and will be operated by steam
and entirely separate from the eiectrl-
! cal plant. He further stated that the
company now has at work upon this
plant tnree shifts of men working
Gay and night and expects to nave IL
completed and in working oIuei ~
september the first ,.o,;oe,
/ '.Mercedes has one o. the iiyene IS
hoa,.%s OF trade in Texas" he - ia IN
ued. I'VE have eighty members; and
all of them are active workers. too. y
Capt. Fitch is himself assisting lii
development work at Mercedes,
where he has fine farm. Most of
his farm is planted with Kaffir corn,
milIet. maize, corn and other feed
stuffs. He also has 16 acres of or
anges of the Washington Navel, Par
son Brown, Boone's Early and Satsu-
ma varieties, four acres Of grape fruit
and twelve acres of Magnolia figs.
This fall he expects to plant ten more
acres in figs and ten acres in grapes.
speaking of grapes, said the cap
tain, in the yard of ]. n. KIlgore at
t Mercedes, there is a grape vine that
is not yet quite a year old and it now
has on it forty punches of grapes
All of the grapes planted in that sec
ton are thriving, the captain stated,
but this vine of Mr.. Kilgore is the
prize winner for early bearing.
An example of the profits that may
be made in truck growing in this val
llev which is cited by Capt. Fitch, is
that of Messrs Laurence, Campbell
and Scobey, who will probably realize
fully $25, 900 on their 200 acre truck
farm near Mercedes this season.