The Brownsville daily herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1897-1910, 1909-03-13

to Falfurrias. Local home money
has so far been used in the develop
ment of this enterprise. but outside
capital viii probably be secured for
the extension of the lire north Ell
their to San Antonio or to some line
which will give a connection with
Forth Worth Including the con-
struction of 25 miles of railroad. the
present investment in this enterprise
foots up about $500. 600 The off
GERS of the company are: President
and treasurer, 5ohn Closner: secre-
tary, d. B. Chaplin, with W. F.
Sprague, La Coma, and J. NJ. John
son Sr, a former St. Louis man and
now president of the Hidalgo county
bank, as principal additional stock
holders.
This section expects to be the ben
eficiary of the proposed gravity ca
nal, which viii start just below Rio
Grande City, and, paralleIing the Rio
Grande river for about 20 miles, one
branch would work running down the
river front and the other would flow
along the elevation of second bench
land to point near the Cameron
county line; this would give total
length of about 100 niles, and would
water by gravity under present pro-
posed plans about 100000 acres of
land. The expenditure of the enter
prise will represent about 81 500
90, which win be borne by the prop
erty-owners. It is considered very
likely that this enterprise viii be sue
Z til.
event a considerable additional
acreage of Rio Grande Valley land
will be brought into the irrigable dis
trict
Between Chaplin and La Coma is a
development of $500 acres of land I'M
dertaken by the Citrus Fruit Devel-
opment Co. of Brownsville with cap
italization of $4,000 and a private
investment of $4,000 Here will be
town called Allendale, on a site of
$50 acres. and there will be sub-di-
visions of 10, 20, 40 and 100-acre
tracts. Citrus fruits, oranges. lem
ons, grape fruit, grapes, pecans and
fruit generally viii be grown The
company has ordered trees for 200
acres of pecans Without waiting
for the gravity canal the company
will put down wells. as this is in the
artesian belt. The people interested
in the enterprise are Chicago, San
Antonio and Brownsville men, The
officers are Judge Noah Allen, presi-
dent; J. w. Davis, vice-president; H.
H. Banker, secretary and treasurer.
all of Brownsville.
With the construction of the gray
ity canal considerable portion of
the La Coma ranch would come into
the market for developing purposes.
This tract of 1876, 900 acres is indiyid-
ually owned by w. E. Sprague, who
came from Rhode Island in 1879 and
acquired his large holding when
lands were. cheap. Outside of 500
acres in cultivation the entire hold
ing is used for ranch purposes. Water
for farm and stock use is now Sc
cured from artesian wells. While a
considerable part of the tract will
continue to be used for ranch pur-
poses indefinitely. now that the rail-
road is under construction to this
ranch, portion of it will be put on
the market whether the gravity canal
is completed or not Should the
gravity canal be built it would serve
some 10000 acres of the tract. and
that much would probably be cut up
and sold to small owners This is
in the district of the big ranches. In
this locality is the King ranch of
$50, zoe acres, the Kennedy ranch
of 400, 600 acres, Jones of $4,000
acres and Lasater of over 250.OO0
acres With the construction of a
railroad and the introduction of ir-
rigatiOn large inroads will be
made on these enormous holdings,
With land selling from $50 to $50
an acre where irrigation is possible,
the ranch men win feel it impossible
to Withstand the pressure to realize
on their enormous investments, and
while these large acreages will not be
completely broken up for many years
TO come, yet the inevitable trend of
development is toward the occupancy
of these lands by smaller farmers, and
there will be a transfer of the big
ranch holdings TO the cheaper lands
across the border in Old Mexico.