The Brownsville daily herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1897-1910, 1909-01-28
THURsDAY. JANUARY Is. 1903.
,BROULMSVLLLE'S BIG SUI
Gar MILL.

Not since the railroad was first
built to connect Brownsville with
the outside world, has event hap
pened at this place which compares
in Importance with the opening of
the gigantic sugar mill which ground
its first cane at the plantation of the
Ohio and Texas sugar plantation near
this place Wednesday afternoon. Per
haps equal in importance was the
event which happened near this town
in 1875, when the first sugar-cane
was planted eight miles below
Brownsville, by an intelligent French
plantation owner. On the little patch
of about 200 acres planted by him,
eight miles below Brownsville on the
Rio Grande, sugar has been produced
successfully ever since. The returns,
considering the amount of land Guilt
waited and the cost of the investment,
were of such Importance as to assure
the success of sugar in this valley.
Many years passed before others be-
gan to plant sugar in this valley.
Then one after another small farmers
began to plant small patches. which
they made into "piloncillo," or un-re-
fined sugar Meanwhile, the pioneer
sugar planter had erected a sugar
mill. and was making his cane into a
most excellent class of granulated
sugar, so excellent, indeed that gov
eminent experts, coming when the
bounty law was in effect to grade the
output, found it equal to the very
best Louisiana product The proof
of the success of the plantation was
shown by the fact that, during the
fiscal year ending June 80, 1892, the
sugar bounty paid by the federal gov
eminent on the yield of sugar from
this 2OO-acre plantation amounted
to $4,000, in addition to which the
sugar was sold on the market for
$4,000.
Attracted by the success of the
Brownsville planter, another enter
prising land owner in Hidalgo coun-
~ began planting cane, His sue
cess was equally as great, but the
greatest thing which he accomplished
for this valley was by displaying
samples of sugar and cane from his
plantation at the St. Louis exposi-
Eion in 1903 In competition with
exhibits OF cane from the famous
plantations of Hawaii, Cuba and
Louisiana. these samples took all
prizes The world was thus notified
of the fact that herein this fertile
Lower Rio Grande Valley are the
soil and climate for maturing in its
highest perfection, one of the worlds
most important commercial staples
Following this, the opportunity for
sugar producing in the valley began
10 attract wide attention. The re-
suit has been the opening of other
sugar plantations and the construc-
ton of the great sugar mill which
yesterday began operation near
Brownsville. The production of sug-
ar being no longer an experiment in
the valley, but a well established
success. the erection of this great
mill is bound to result in a very ex-
tensive acreage of the rich valley
land being devoted to this great
staple
Already, another large mill is be-
ing erected in the valley. at Donna,
which will also result in a
great increase in thee acreage of
cane, and a company has just been
for the erection of another
large mill at Mission. while the own
ers of the San Juan plantation near
Hidalgo will also erect a large mill
The meaning of all this is plain.
This valley will within a few years
De one of the greatest sugar produc-
tag areas in the known world.
The opening of the Ohio and Texas
mill is the beginning of the new era
for the sugar industry in this coun-
try.