Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-07-08
Geographic News
Bulletins by the
National Geographic Society

THE RIO GRANDE
The Rio Grande river, between
Texas and Mexico, which has been
giving an all too-realistic imitation
Of the Mississippi on a rampage. lie
normally so shallow and sluggish
that immigration agents and is
toms officers are kept busy 'shooing'
back Mexicans who would enter the
United States by the informal pro-
cedure of wadins in," says a bulletin
from the Washington, d. c., head
quarters of the National Geographic
Society in regard to the country's
latest flood region.
1T is hard" continues the bull
letin, for the Mexico-bound trav-
eler to realize under normal con-
ditions that the ribbon of water
meandering through a broad bed of
sand is the stream that in Spanish
means The Great River But once
a year at least, and sometimes
oftener. the Rio Grande fully lives
up to its name.
The loan banks of the lower Rio
Grande and its broad, fertile valley,
covered with a heavy growth of the
thorny mesquite-half shrub and
hal tree-was long considered a
wilderness and given ovc. to deer,
wild pigs, armadillos and jack rab-
cits. Then came ranchmen to Craze
great herds of beef cattle among
n feathery sea of green. Large
areas somewhat removed from the
river are still given over to cattle
raising.
A New San joaquin Valley
But near the stream pumping
stations and irrigation canals have
Coma into axicfAnca l., ~z.x
ana each spring ana summe thou
sands of carloads of watermelons,
canteiopes. onions, cabbage, and
ether vegetables steam north from
the region to help feed the more
northern portions of the country,
Tor this region. near the warm Gulf
OF Mexico and barely outside the
tropics, completes with Florida and
the Imperial Valley in producing
early crops.
still more recently another de-
velopment has taken place which
Promises to make the Rio Grande
a second San joaquin Valley. Be-
tween q million-andsa-half and two
million citrus fruit trees have been
planted, and in the winter OF 1921-22
the first carloads of oranges and
Srspe fruit were shipped out.
A Shot Like That at Concord
Historically the Rio Grande has
held a prominent place. It was one
OF the chief landmarks in the
famous expeditions Of the Spanish
explorers who pushed up into
Texas and on to New Mexico and
California four centuries ago. Later
1t became a sort of Southern Con-
cord; for IL the shot fred in Massa-
ohusetts in April 1875 was heard
round the world. a shot fired on the
banks of the lower Rio Grande on
another morning seventy-one years
later by General Zachary Taylor's
soldiers might be said to have been
heard over an area of half a mill
hon square miles. That area was
added to the United States as a re-
suit Of that shot: for it brought on
the Mexican Wan which resulted In
the annexation Of what is now called
California. Nevada. Utah. Arizona,
and parts of New Mexico, Colorado
ana wyoming. In addition this
skirmish near the mouth of the Rio
Srande led to the confirmation of
the annexation of Texas which had
brought an additional quarter mill
lion square miles under the Ameri-
can flag.
Part of the region lately mum
dated was known to thousands of
coughboys during the mobilization
along the Mexican border shortly
before the United States entered the
World War. Port Isabel, almost at
the mouth of the Rio Grande, came
INTO newspaper fame in the fall of
!92O when Senator Harding, having
Just finished the strenuous campaign
which took him to the White House,
went there for big game fishing"