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

States me land was bought four
years ago, and the company has spent
three years in developing the propo-
sition. The officers of the company
are w. S. Chaplin, president; G. L.
Carter, secretary, and Thomas West,
Jr., treasurer, all or st. Louis.
Until last fall S. P. Silver was gen
eral manager. and. together with Mr..
Carter, he visited Idaho. Nevada. Cal
ifornia and Colorado for a thorough
study of all the irrigation develop
ments there owned by private indi-
yiduals and by the government, and
the work at Mercedes was carried
out in accordance with the informa-
ton obtained in this extensive inves-
tigation. The land has been sold to
individuals from every state in the
Union, and from parts of Canada in
tracts of 40 acres up to 100 acres.
Sales were begun at $25 an acre, and
then were advanced to $50. $50 and
500, and the average will be about
$75 for the balance.
The land is being planted in sugar
cane, citrus fruit, grapes and truck
Here, as elsewhere throughout the
valley, it is figured that cane will be
the staple crop of the section. With
in five years it is calculated that 10
sugar mills will be in operation, and
in time that there will be as many
as in Louisiana The next staple
crop will be alfalfa, and the land is
found to be well adapted to all kinds
of truck, melons, grapes and citrus
fruit
Further up is the Llano Grande
plantation, developed by J. P. With
ers of Kansas City, and just sold to
a. S. Adams of Corinth. Miss, for
100000. 1t consists of 10000
acres of land, three or four miles of
canals, and pumping plant. and the
homestead. 1t is the intention of
the purchaser to develop the tract
further, and sugar planting will be
largely engaged in.
Between the Llano Grande planta-
ton and the La Donna there are six
private plantations, covering about
20OO acres In all, there is repre-
sented an investment of about $780,
600. The lands in these enterprises
are mostly devoted to trucking and
cotton.
The La Donna tract, near Donna
Station, % miles west of harlingen,
consists of $500 acres. The La DON
ma Canal Co is building canals.
which have been completed for the
first lift, and ALL the laterals have
been provided for the watering of
5000 acres. The canal from the sec
ond lift to the railroad will be COM
pleted within 80 days So far $500
acres have been fold in tracts of from
to 40 acres each at an average of
S50an acre, some of the smaller tracts
selling at from SIS to 500. The
Company has reserved 1000 acres for
sugar plantation, and machinery has
been bought for sugar mill Work
has been commenced on the mill.
which will be of 1000 tons daily ca
pacity to start with and so built that
it can be enlarged as necessity re-
quires. Pittsburg and Cleveland
money is largely represented in the
syndicate, and land speculation has
come as an after-thought. Sugar
growing was the primary object of
the company, and it is expected that
sugar production will be largely en-
gagged in by those who have bought
tracts of land from the company 1t
is calculated that an investment of
over 100000 will be represented in
the sugar mill and canal, the canal,
alone calling for an expenditure of
$4,000 Alfalfa will naturally be
extensively raised on the lands of
the syndicate. and already there have
Embarrassing. On one acre of land
there were 1920 crates of onions
raised last year, which were sold at
80 cents to S1.10 f. o. b. Donna. and
there has been an average of over
800 crates TO the acre raised in the
section. The officers of the company
are ]. c. Mcdowell. Pittsburg. Pa.
president; A NJ. Snyder, CleveIadn.
Ohio, treasurer; L. A. Shart form
erly of Cleveland, now Donna. man
ager. The Hallam Colonization Co.
of Brownsville is sales agent.
Adjoining the Donna plantation is
the private enterprise of John L. Box.
who has 1000 acres, with an irriga-
ton plant, which is being cultivated
for farming, truck and garden pur-
poses, and which represent an in
vestment of something like $50, geo.
At San Juan c. E. Hammond and j
c. Kelly have something over 1900
acres, for which they are building
canals to water the tract, which is TO
be subdivided as may be required
in tracts of 10 acres up. Plans as
formed contemplate an investment
here of something like 100000
One of the most interesting devel-
opments in this section is that of
the San Juan sugar plantation, con-
tanning 1000 acres, and originally
owned by John Closner. a former
Minnesota man. who was one of the
earlier developers outside of the Mex
| leans in the Rio Grande Valley. Mr..
Closner worked up the San Juan
sugar plantation and established the
fact that lands in this vicinity are
well adapted to sugar-growing, the
planters using the same cane that is
raised in Louisiana Mr.. Closner
! built sugar mill with $50 tons daily
capacity seven years ago. The mil
is still turning out yellow clarified
C'Y. CO, and has always been able
to market its products right at the
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