Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1913-07-18
SECOND DAYS SESSION
sSOUTH TEXAS GARDENERS
tContinued from page one

mate that we already have, there is no
limit to the limit of the land. There will
be strong competition among buyers for
its possession and prices will attain to
levels hardly dreamed of at this time.
/ think that land owners and specula
tors have made "A lNistake in so heavily
%discounting the future. | believe that
the development would have been more
rapid if prices had been held to lower
levels. No matter how rich land may be
it takes brains and muscle to convert
that fertility into crops and the greatest
encouragement should be given to work.
ers to settle here and develop the cOun-
try.
/ think that this error of judgment
has hurt the land owners more than il
has hurt anyone else. They have not sold
the land they would have sold if prices
collected for all the land they have sold.
/ believe that had the land owners held
prices down to fifty dollars an acre or
less, that we would have today, double
the population that w have and that
they would have more real money and
less bad paper than they have.
'Thc land owners claim that they could
not do this because of the great expense
of getting water on the land. They have
added the cost of their canal systems to
the price of the land. This / believe to
be a mistake. The canals should stand
for themselves. They should be worth
what they cost. and since the land is
sold and the canals retained by the sell
er, / fail to see WHY the settlers should
pay for the cost of building the canals
Suppose the original cost of the land tC
have been ten dollars per acre, and much
of it was bought for that and less, would
it not have been better to have sold two
tual settlers, holding the remaining
third for big profits than to have
sold a much smaller part for bigger
prices? Would not the owners have haC
more money in the end? | think the,
would.
another thing that has held the
country back has been incidental to the
high price Of land, and that is the large
amount of money necessary to a first
payment. Not that the amount in itself
has been too large. but because in its re
lation to the buyers capital it was toe
large. Not enough money was left the
buyer, in many instances to successfully
carry on his business. Farming is like
any other business, it requires CAPT
tai. Tire buyers have in many instances
paid out nearly all of their money fOr
a first payment on the land, trusting to
make crops to live on and to finish their
payments with. That is unsafe business.
When a man moves to a new country,
where conditions are different to those
with which he is familiar there are many
things that he must learn by experience
and experience is costly. A farmer
should have his land paid for or very
long time on deferred payments. he
should have his building stock and i'm
PIGMENTS and at least enough money to
be perfectly safe in this or any other
country.
''The failure to take into consideration
these facts as well as the American rush
to get rich has caused prices to advance
too rapidly. The country has suffered in
consequence. and many land owners who
should be rich today are having a hard
time to hold their property together.
They have sold some land at enormous
profits on paper. They have notes for
great sums of money. but as these notes
represent the unpaid balance of high
priced sales. and as the farmers are fail
ing to meet them at maturity the notes
have but a questionable value. Instead
of making money many land owners have
actually lost money Notwithstanding the
fact that land they bought at SO is
priced at fifteen and twenty times its
cost.
THAT farmers are under capitalized il