The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1911-07-12
SAVED ~ ONIONS.
How a Crop Of Onions Drove Poverty
From the Door Of
Lone Widow.


of chaparal that was her sole posses
sion and uttered one word, onions
This was no slang of the hour, light
ly nor derisively uttered, but pro-
phecy that was fulfilled few years
later in an income of 100000. 1t is
this income derived from what was
once wilderness of wild, cactus-pro'
ducing land that won her the title OF
1.-THE Onion Queen of Texas"
Mr.. Dodd, like many another young
lawyer, had amassed fortune con-
sisting exclusively OF experience. eX'
cepting only the 225 acres OF chapar-
al-covered land he had accepted in
lieu of money fee, near Laredo,
Texas. This was his legacy to his
widow, legacy SO inconsiderable that
her neighbors were justified in their
freely expressed opinion that Mrs.
Dodd hadn't a cent.
Mrs. Dodd might have returned to
the schOOlrOOm which she had left to
become bride. But she dreaded the
close air and the routine duties of the
schoolroom.
"At least there's the land" she said
to herself, and borrowed a ride in a
neighbours wagon to visit her posses
sion. 1t looked discouraging, almost
hopeless, the 2OO-acre tract that those
who crossed or passed it, dismissed
with the phrase waste land"
But Mrs. Dodd was woman with
initiative and determination. AS her
eyes swept the brown stretch of fiat
acres she had the prophetic vision of
the acres cleared. Instead of dry
chaparral she saw regular rows OF
green, thriving although odorous veg
etables.
"Onions!' she said to herself. All
the way back to Laredo, on that bor-
rowed ride she was silent, for she was
shaping her destiny, as all strong folk
shape their destinies, by resolution.
Within a week she had let a con-
tract to clear 20 acres of the 225 in
onions. She had no money, but in
Texas, as in other of the less crowded
states of the southwest, they deal in
futures. The man who undertook to
clear the 20 acres and plant them to
onions agreed to wait until the crop
was grown for his reward-that is, he
agreed to accept share of the onions
grown for his work. They planted the
big Bermuda onion whose pungent
fragrance is reduced to a minimum.
On that first years crop Mrs. Dodd
cleared $4,000.
The second year she employed men
to do more cleaning and planting. But
heavy rains visited that part of the
state at harvest time, causing gen
eral loss of crops. Mrs. Dodd's share
of that general loss was $1,000.
Unlike many other humans Mrs.
Dodd learned we'll her lesson from the
schoolmistress experience. That I'M
expected heavy rains might work no
more havoc on her ranch, and in her
fortunes she used much of the depict
ed $32, 900 in building huge warehouses
and packing sheds, where the vege-
tables could be stored. Thus the loss of
softening by rains could be prevented.
That season the loss came not through
heavy rains, but from lack of any.
Again Mrs. Dodd proved that de-
spite what pessimists and old bache-
lors say women have the reasoning
faculty. The once waste land lay near
the Rio Grande river. She believed
that by installing steam pumping
plant she could irrigate her 225 acres
and, as with the warehouses and pack
ing sheds, defy the weather. She in.
stalled a pump, but it was only an in
different success. She discarded the
steam pump and installed electricity,
which was better and cheaper. This
done, she could indeed hurl defiance
at the weather. With the aid of the
mighty river, that separates Texas
from Mexico, the Dodd ranch pros
pered, whatever the caprices of Texas
suns and skies.
She increased the working force on
the great farm until it numbered 200.
While her neighbors complained of
their inability to get on with "the
Greasers," Mrs. Dodd was extracting
good and loyal labor from them by
treating them with humane consider
alton. On her ranch she has built
comfortable homes, instead of tumble
down huts, for their shelter. When
they or their children are i'll she pro-
yides a physicians care for them.
She maintains school for their little
ones. In return for this kindness she
has at her back more loyal army of
Mexicans than that which supports
the new president of the republic of
the south. Meanwhile the profits from
the onion farm were steadily increas-