The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1922-05-26
MANKATO PEOPLE ARE TAKING
LONG TRIP OVER SOUTHLAND

/ Mercedex. Texas, May 6. 1s22.-well
here we are under the shade of a mes
! quite tree down on the Rio Grande. We
are having tropical weather here, Mat
/ is. II seems that TO VS.. However.
ing and the nights are always cool for
| sleeping. Yesterday it was LOG in the
shade. The natives here do not seem
to mind the heat at all, and sunstroke
quantity, but we are going to leave be-
lore it gets any warmer.
| We are now in what is known as the
Lower Rio Grande Valley of Southern
| The valley proper is only about 80
miles long and 10 miles wide. and fol-
I flows the Rio Grande river east and
west: The soil is OF silt formation. and
world outside the Valley OF the Nile
in Egypt They grow almost anything
any time. Possibly the most promis-
Ing feature Of the country is the Cit
grapefruit. There has been extensive
planting of grapefruit orchards here in
the last couple OF years: They esti-
mate that there are 100000 and last
out. This is only in its infancy and
some wonderful returns are sure to be
, expected in few years. Very few
orchards are bearing as yet They have
grapefruit grown. Mission Is adver-
tiSed as the Home Of the Grapefruit"
! They also raise quantities OF winter
| vegetables and are shipping now from
carrots and beets. Their cabbage crop
was almost complete failure, the
farmers only receiving about IS ton.
There were thousands and thousands of
| tons raised and lots of II was plowed
, under. no market. They are now mar
keting their beets and carrots at IS and
25 cents bushel hamper. Transports
/ ton and the middlemen seems to be the
cause of o great deal of dissatisfaction
and while they produce i'm almost I'M
believeable quantities there is no mar
! ket. The governmnt is cooperating with
the valley trying to secure deep
from Brownsville and with this cheap
| transportation the producers will be
assured an eastern market and will
get somewhere near the price they
gan of the valley now is S. o. S. or
Save Our Seaport and we have at
! tended a number of community Ash
| frys and barbeques for the benefit of the
The people here are nearly all from
] munity. 1 would say the melting pot
of the, United States. In our school
! from twenty six different states.
Many, dissatisfied people are to be
found in the valley. They claim the
land companies sold them more land
than they could handle and at a higher
price than they could afford consider
ing what the land will produce. Twen-
ty acres is about all one man can handle
and 40 to so acres is really more than
thing can be harvested every month of
the year. something planted and some
thing grown. Two crops are often
grown on the same land. While citrus
sown between the rows. Fresh corn.
cucumbers. tomatoes. stringbeans and
squash are and have been on the mar
ket for some time. The strawberry
frost, everything is very late here inthe
valley. Watermelons and cantloupe are
ripe but not moving in quantities yet.
Long staple cotton is one of the big
interfere. they will do well The bowl
tweavel has hit Texas hard the last three
years and people here as well as UP
state are crying hard time same as in
the rest of the union.
| This valley as you know is furnished
! moisture by irrigation from the Rio
Grande river by means of large water
pumps The wafer is pumped into large
reservoirs and then distributed through
large trunk canals and laterals to farm
lands. There is an abundance Of water
for irrigation and as the water is very
muddy Containing a large quantity OF
sediment) the land needs no artificial
Palm trees grow like weeds down here
and Mercedes sure has her share. Mer-
cedes is rightly called the Queen of
the Valley. This and McAllen are
/ the prettiest towns in the valley. San
Benito claims to have shipped IS per
cent of the truck grown in the valley
! last year There are some of the most
wonderful homes, here that I have ever
seen. Flowers very common and roses
grow all the year around. Easter lilies
grow out in the yards and red and white
oleanders are as common as dirt and Gala
/ lilies also grow in profusion and most
of the farm yards are decorated with
palms and. flowers. The Spanish Dag
ger also blooms, having large spray of
| flowers at the top Of the plant: Spear
pointed blades grow out in all directions
and looks better than it feels. Most
every shrub or plant here has stickers
or thorns on it, one of the most common
| is the prickly pear, which is a specie
OF cactus and is blooming at this parti-
cular season. They have both date and
ornamented palms here and some OF
the streets for blocks are literally lined
on both sides with these tropical plants.
certainly very pretty sight to one who
has never seen tropical vegetation.
Mexicans do most OF the work here
eat themselves. However, if they, re-
ceived a large wage it would be hard
to keep them employed because they
can StanQ prosperity. IHey i've on
practically nothing to eat and are in
,veterate gamblers. They live in mud
huts with matched roofs, often only I'M
der canvas supported by 4 poles.
Cactus is fed to the stock after the
lthorns are burned off and in times OF
drouth cattle can be kept over from
one season to another. Mexicans are
greatly given to merchandising. They
are often seen on the street corner sell
ing Mexican candy and soft drinks.
They do not form for themselves. They
prefer to work for the American. They
| have no initiative, having lost thai
| faculty through many years of servi-
tide over in old Mexico. They get Is
cents a day there so think they are
getting rich at a dollar day. They
like to fight cocks and watch bull
fights and are never in a hurry as they
have all the time in the, world. They
are slow movers, having gradually de-
\ veloped that lazy carriage due to the
atmospheric conditions that prevail in
this semi tropical region. -
| Wife and took little trip over into
Old New Mexico a few days ago. Give
me the good old L, S. A. for mine
| Seems as tho / never appreciated our
own land quite as much as the few
hours spent away from it. In crossing
Hthe international bridge the guards took
our camera from US. We suppose for the
NsUE