Mercedes Tribune (Mercedes, Tex.), Vol. 7, No. 18, Ed. 1 Friday, June 18, 1920 Page: 1 of 12
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.steurized Milk and
Cream
MERCEDES PRODUCE CO.
PHONE 91
mibrnt
Order Brick Ice Cream
for Sunday
3IERCEDES PRODUCE CO.
PHONE 91
OLUME VII.
MERCEDES. HIDALGO COUNT!. TEXAS, FRIDAY, JUNE 18, 1920
NUMBER IS
0 Vote on $2,000,000
1 Bond Issue lor County
INCREASES CAPITAL
BY 100 PER GENT
ECTION CALLED
)R MONDAY, JULY 19
>posed Fund Be Spent for the
distracti*:ix of Hidalgo County
Portion State Highway Now 12.
lave State and Federal Aid.
,1
special session of the county
unissioners court on Wednesday
i:nted a petition asking that a
cial road bond election be called
the purpose of voting a $2,000,-
road bond issue. The court or-
d- the election for July 19.
lie action of the court was taken
the' presentation of liberally sign-
petitions from Mission, McAllen,
ced'eb and other Valley sections,
petitioners were represented be-
the court by a committee headed
Gregg Wood of Mission and Judge
n P. Gause of Mercedes.
the event the bond issue car-
the proceeds will, it is presumed,
oent-in connection with the state
iroject, which in this section of
state is known as State Highway
Under the rule governing
| projects. The county is called upon,
from time to time, to appropriate
from its bond issues various* amounts
of money for certain specified con-
struction? This amount is • matched
dollar for dollar with state and fed-
eral highway money. The state and
the federal government, in confer-
ence with county engineers and offi-
scials determine the quality of the
proposed constructioyL and the route
of the roads and all consturction
is made under the direct supervision
of the state highway department.
The principal demands of the state
and national governments is that the
highways built be of permanent con-
struction, of concrete where the traf-
fic is heavy and of a heavy gravel j
base with bitumen ' topping where I
the traffic is such that this class of j
paving is considered permanent.
Cameron county has started con-
struction on its portion of the high-
way, the route of which is designed
to eventually connect with the Hi-
dalgo county construction. The work
in Cameron county is to be of con-
crete construction and is being built
under a bid of $30,000 per mile.
Brooks county is finishing its work-
on the highway which will meet the
Hidalgo construction at the county
The Mercedes Hank of Commerce Now
is The Bank of Commerce and
Trust Company With a Capital
of $50,000.
A telegram this morning announc-
ed that the Mercedes Bank of Com-
merce had been given permission to
change its name to the Bank of
Commerce and Trust Company. The
telegram also announced that the
capitalization of the institution had
been increased from $25,000 to $50,-
000.
The bank organized last September
and having its first offices in a
small room in the Tribune building,
hag been a going concern from the
outset and is now recognized as one
of the leading state banks in the
Valley.
WESLACO BANK IS
GRANTED CHARTER
**
Telegram From Austin Brings An-
nouncement—Railway Depot Sooon
to Be Built—Material for Water
System En Route
R. L. Weaver of the Weslaco Town-
site Co., is in receipt of a telegram
from E. C. Couch, president of the
Weslaco State Bank, and who is
now in Austin, stating that the bank
charter had been granted and that
they will be ready to take care of
the many accounts that are anxiously-
awaiting the opening of that much
needed institution.,
Mr. Couch also statel that he was
leaving for Houston to confer with
the railroad authorities with refer-
ence to the construction of a station
at this place. Material is now in
transit, for the water system and it
is second to none in the Valley.
San Antonio and Rio Grande
Valley Railway Is Granted
Charter— Work Starts Soon
ifing of state aid to county line.
Icy Organizations Appoints " Fom>
littee to Make Thorough Tests for
Aery City inie Lower Valley—-Bond
issue Discussed, Picnic at. Campa-
;as on June 30. Railroad Plan
unitD'd. AcA. •• id-
regular business meeting of
ower Rio Grande Chapter,
erican Association of Engineers,
& in the city hall Saturday even-
was well attended and a number
matters of importance were act-
upon.
he report of the committee form-
to investigate the sewerage dis-
al plant was read and accepted.
(
s committee found that the ob-
ionable features had already been
ledied but made the suggestion
t steps be taken to make the pump
1 motor pit dry even in the event
high water similar to that of
t fall.
committee consisting of H. V.
irich of the American Company as
lirman, R. A Trufant, of the Llano
nde Plantation, W. E. Anderson
Brownsville, J. L. Devine of Ed-
urg, J. E. Gibson of Donna, was
ned to investigate and report .on
advisability of the installation of
er purification systems for the
ions cities. This work has been
en up at the suggestion of other
sons but will be prosecuted dili-
itly and a report made as soon as
necessary data can be gathered,
is the intention to include in this
►ort an estimate on the cost of
tallation and of up-keep from fig-
subifiitted by experts in this
rk. Mr. Aldrich the chairman of
•5 committee served overseas with
26th Engineers, a water supply
iment, and is considered eminent-
fitted for this work.
lengthy discussion on the pro-
ed bond issue of $2,000,000 for
d roads took place. No attempt
^nade to place the Chapter on
ord as favoring this bond issue
the sense of the meeting seemed
favor the bonds if the money is
be spent intelligently and effipi-
ly. The Chapter is expecting to
-e a speaker on Good Roads on the
gram at the Donna celebration
second or third of July,
latured plans for the engineer’s
nic at Campacuas Lake on the
ernoon and evening of Wednesday,
30th, were announced. Every
er in the Valley, whether or
San Antonio, June 18.—The charter
of the new San Antonio & Rio-Grande
Railroad is to be granted today by
Secretary of State Mimms at Austin.
John B. Carrington, secretary-
manager .of the Chamber of Com-
merce and secretary of the rail-
road company, accompanied by John
H. Cunilingham, the attorney yester-
day took the charter to Austin where
it was approved by Attorney Gen-
eral Cureton. after a number of
minor changes had been made.
I The names of Frank C. Grcos and
paper on a comprehensive system j Mr. Ca*rington. both of San Antonio,
of railroads for the- Valley and in j and R. E. Horn,, a banker of Mc-
a discussion of his plan brought .out | Allen, were dropped from the list
several good points. This paper will °f fetors, in order to get within
, the legal number of nine Mr. Groos,
be further discussed at a future; because of other business, had asked
meeting. 1 ! to be relieved, and Mr. Carrington
The meeting adjourned at 10:00 p. j struck off these names and his own,
m. tq meet again the second Satm-! UsL^ &
day in Jub. This left as directors of the road
TOINEERS TO INVESTIGATE WATER
SUPPLY OF VARIOUS VALLEY CITIES
the following:
Representing San Antonio: Alberr
Steeves, Sr., Henry L. Halff, R. L.
Ball and E. E. Hillje.
Representing the Ri.o Grande Val-
ley: Lawrence R. Brooks, banker of
Rio Grande City; Horace F. Bishop,
attorney and mayor of Mission; J.
(Continued on page 6)
A CORRECTION
In the account of donations to the
Weslaco Community House, appear-
ing in last week’s issue of The Trib-
une a typographical error made the
donation of Mr. Dave Kirgan read
$10.00, whereas Mr, Kirgan’s dona-
tion was $100.00 and was one of rbe
first amounts pledged for ibe enter-
prise, The Tribune regrets that, in
the rush of getting to press, the
mistake1 occurred a,nd gladly makes
the correction.
STEWART LAND COMPANY
IS MAKING NEW RECORD
Has Sold One-third of the 24,000-
Acre Capisallo Tract in Less
than A Month’s Time.
ACQUIRES OTHER LANDS FOR COLONIZATION
Four Thousand Acres on the Edinburg Canal Com-
prise the Most Recent Purchase of the Com-
pany, and Same Will Be Opened to Set-
tlement Immediately
(By H. H. HARRINGTON)
Agricultural director American Rio
Grande Land and Irrigation Company
Irish Potatoes
It -has been the custom for a long
time in the South to denominate these
“Irish potatoes” to distinguish them
from the sweet potatoes; but in
the North the word potatoes, alone
is commonly used. The Bureau of
Markets makes a distinction by call-
ing these “white potatoes.”
In the South very commonly two
crops a year are grown;, but the
spring crop is usually much the
better crop and much the easier to
grow. However, this crop must be
disposed of as early as possible, as
the potatoes will not keep .over the
summer, unless considerable care is
exercised in storihg them. Very
seed saved from the spring crop,
the best method of preserving the
seed perhaps, is to put them in on-
ion crates and stack them one above
another under a shed, where they
will have free access to the breeze,
but where the sun will not strike
them. It may be necessary to go over
these crates once or twice during
the summer and sort out the rotten
ones; in order that they may not
spoil the others. Northern or
Western ..farmers, who have been in
the habit of gi’dwing potatoes in
these states will be somewhat disap-
pointed at the yield in the South.
This is due primarily to two rea-
sons. One is climatic, and the oth-
er the variety .of potatoes. In order
plant either Bliss Triumph or the
Irish Cobbler; one a red-skinned po-
but as a rule crops grown from seed
obtained from these states are not
so satisfactory. Formerly, the South
got nearly all of her seed from
Maine; but Northwestern seed will
produce a better crop.
In “greening” the spring seed for
fall planting, it is usually done by
spreading the potatoes out on a floor
or canvas under a shed, putting
straw overthem. It may be necessa-
ry after a few days to dampen the
straw, or the seed may be spread out
in the sun and covered lightly with
straw; the straw being dampened and
the potatoes allowed t.o remain until
the skin turns a greenish color and
shows evidences of sprouting.
Soil
New settlers in the Valley usually
pick out the “second lift soil,” the
sandy loam, as typical potato land.
tato and tjie other a white potato, j As a ma^ter °I experience,
As a rule, the Triumph will bring
a little better price on the northern
market; primarily because .of their
looks or appearance. The Cobbler is
a little more prolific, has more vig-
orous vines, and is a little less sus-
ceptible to the blight, but just a
it has
! ben found that it is not typical
potato land. There seems to be twe
primary reasons for this. One is
to get early potatoes, we usually
commonly the cul-ls, or little pota-
toes from the spring crop, are used
to produce the fall crop; the whole
seed being planted. It is necessary,
however, that this seed should be
dry, or sprouted in advance, in or-
der to get them up when planted.
If the potato is full of sap and plant-
ed in that, condition, it will take
them a very long time to sprout in
the soil and sometimes they i’ot be-
fore sprouting. Unlike the spring po- , . ,,
tatoes, the fall crop, while usually ley, and it is usually not necessary is particularly true in southern semi
1 ‘ ono o nmornc* • nrhm’o Tn/x I on o* Gn
Continuing his w.onderful activities
in the development of the Lower Rio
Grande Valley, W. E. Stewart, of the
W. E. Stewart Land Co., consumated
a sale at Edinburg Tuesday by which
this company acquires another tract
comprising practically 4000 acres of
land which will be immediately
placed on the market for colonization
Sixteen, hundred acres of the tract
was owned by Hidalgo county and
comprises all the land which the
county owned. The balance of the
land Included tracts belonging to A.
Y. Baker, J. R. Alamia and T. F.
Lovett. AH of it is located .on the
Edinburg canal and is contiguous to
the 18000 acre tract which the same
company has been developing there.
The W. E. Stewart Land Co. is
the largest colonization concern- in
the world and its splendid organiza-
tion extends throughout the entire
United States. Special .trains of solid
Pullman cars arrive at Mercedes on
Monday and Tuesday of each week
"bringing the prospective purchasers
of homes here and a majority of
the visitors purchase land before
they leave. Sales amounting to one-
half million dollars from a single
excursion are not at all infrequent
and often exceed this sum. The
visitors are entertained at the com-
pany’s beautiful club house on Llano
Grande - Lake while here and auto-
mobiles take them over the entire
Valley where they are shown the
wonderful success which the farmers
here are achieving.
It was only a little more than two
years ago that Mr. Stewart succeed-
ed in closing a deal with the Amer-
ican Rio Grande Land & Irrigation
Co., by which he acquired the West
Mercedes tract of 30,000 acres for
colonization. Shortly after that he
purchased the Llano Grande tract of
6500 acres connecting the West tract
to the original Mercedes tract. At
that time this land was all a wilder-
ness of cactus and mesquite. Today
altho only two years have elapsed
this entire tract has been sold and
is now one of the most thriving com-
munities in the entire Valley. Where
was only deer hunting less than two
years ago are today beautiful homes,
young citrus orchards, thousands .ot
acres of corn already made and a
trifle later. We are hardly ever j semi-arid climates the soil is likely
troubled with the blight in the Val-J to be deficient in humus, and this
that there is a tendency of the soil i . , . C " ...
to bake after irrigation, in case the j contented, happy, prospeious citizen,
land has been in. cultivation three j ship.
or four years. Another is that the | Weslaco at about the center oi
soil does not seem to contain a suf-j the tract vvas opened for the sale of
ficient amount of humus. In all th(} fjr^ town lot' legs than six
months ago and is nowr a thriving
not so productive or heavy, will
keep over through the winter; and
many farmers use fall crop potatoes
for their spring planting. It should
be remembered, however, that if you
want the earliest potatoes , in the
spring, it is necessary to get seed
every year from the North. The
northern grown seed planted in the
spring and the culls-from these used
to plant the fall crop, and the culls
from the fall crop carried over and
planted the following spring will be
from a week to ten days later than
a crop planted at the same time
fr.om northern grown seed, but the
yield will be correspondingly heavier
It is customary in the Valley in
planting potatoes to use a consider-
ably larger number of bushels to the
acre than are commonly used else"-
to spray with bordeaux mixture to
control this disease. It will be un-
derstood, of course, that bordeaux
is a preventative and not a*cure for
the blight. That is, it must be used
in advance of the appearance of the
disease, if the best results in this
regard are expected; but I do not
knowofanygroWersint$m cmi\Vy cmy
know of any growrs in the Valley
who systematically spray their po-
tatoes. The commonly high price j under; but of course a legume crop
which the southern farmer has to pay is the best; cow peas or velvet beans.
progressive little city with a bank,
arid climates ; where the long hot! many stores, garages, lumber com-
sunnners oxidize or burns out theji:anies and modern residences. The
effect of this wonderful development
has been to greatly stimulate the
business of both Donna and Mercedes.
As the sale of the tract was first
opened at the west boundary which
is only two miles east .of Donna and
seven miles west of Mercedes, Donna
naturally became the first beneficiary
of this increased trade and the con-
struction of modern business bouses
Cameron county line three miles east
of Mercedes, west to the West Mer-
cedes tract and lies between mile
12 and 18 north, Mercedes being on
mile 6. A corps of engineers was
immediately put at work on this
tract and the work of extending the
canals and building the roads rushed
as rapidly as possible.
Less than one month ago the rep-
resentatives of the Stewart Company
were told that they might sell land
on this tract and to date more than
8000 acres or one third of the tract
has been sold. The sales have been
made in lots of 20 and 40 acres the
average amount of land for each pur-
chaser being less than 40 acres.
These purchasers are expected to
commence to arrive to occupy then-
land in the early fall and the de-
mands upon the already congested,
living conditions of Mercedes can be
readily imagined.
It is doubtful if any section of
any country has ever experienced
such a wonderful development as
this particular section is now un-
dergoing through the efforts of Mr.
Stewart and his ^ble corps of as-
sistants. Mr. A1 Parker has charge
of the sales end with headquarters
at Kansas City and the results bear
sufficient evidence of his ability.
Dave Kirgan is in charge of the
club house and sales end here and
is one of the most affable and effi-
cient salesmen in the country.
Mr. Rowland has charge of the
company’s business office at Mer-
cedes and is the acme of efficiency.
Probably nothing is of more impor-
tance to the progress of Mercedes
than is the high class of citizens
which the Stewart Land Company is
bringing here. They are men of
means, education and experience
gathered from the successful farm-
ers of the northern states as well as
from the professions ;and big busi-
ness interest. Men and women who
have the nerve and the ambition and
the energy to get out of the rut and
come to a section of the country
where climate, soil and water com-
bine to offer the greatest opportuni-
ties for health, wealth and happiness
of any place on earth.
MR. HARDiiNG ISVALLEY
FRIEND; VISITED HERE
Republican Candidate Hunted in
Lower Talley; Personal Friend of
F. E. Scobey and R. B. Creager o
vegetable mould almost as fact as
it is formed. For this reason, new
soil, first year land, will frequently
produce a better crop of potatoes
than it ever will thereafter; unless
the humus is reinforced by growing
a green crop and turning it under.
The new soil not only has a greater
amount of humus in it, but because
of this fact it shows less disposition
to bake after irrigation. Almost any
kind of a green crop will do to turn
where. Eight to twelve bushels to
e is a member of the association j the acre up in Central Texas is the
ted to this affair and is asked | common practice, while in the Val-
ag his family. Each person at- j ley fifteen to eighteen bushels to the
g will bring a basket lunch, j acre is the common practice. If you
A. Trufant submitted a plan on j are going to plant a fall crop from
for seed makes it advisable in case
he expects to grow potatoes, to con-
tract this Summer for the seed which
he expects to use next spring. This
may be done, of course co-opera- j humus,
tively unless a man ns growing a j often f
Sorghums, however, will be satisfac-
tory. The best potato soil in the
Valley is what is known resaca
land on the first lift; an open, porus
soil, containing a large amount of
This same type of soil is
found along the immediate riv-
sufficient amount to
carlot or carlots individually. The
best seed that we have comes from
the Northwest; Wisconsin or Minne-
sota; although of late years, we are
getting a good many seed from Col-
orado. A few farmers have tried
Tennessee or Kentucky grown seed,
contract for a 1er fr-01lt- The potato requires not
1 only fertile soil, but one that is me-
chanically right; open and porus;
and I might sav in passing, that for
the best results in growing onions the
same type of soil is required.
I believe it would be advisable for
many farmers to grow small fall
potato crops for winter use, even
(Continued on page 6)
In the event Warren G. Harding,
republican presidential candidate is
elected, the Rio Grande Valley will
have a friend in the white house. A
man with a thorough and friendly
knowledge of the needs of this sec-
tion.
Senator Harding is a close, person-
al friend of F. E. Scobey formerly
,of Mercedes, and at one time the
in that thriving city to . take care of! senator enjoyed a very successful
the demands of the new comers has j hunting trip as Mr. Scobey’s guest,
been simplv phenomenal. j In addition to the Scobey friendship
Mercedes is now feeling the ef- i R. B. Creager, the big Texas man at
fects of the new settlement more j the Chicago convention, of Browns-
and jnore and new business houses j ville was the original Hhrding man
are being rapidly constructed while j in Texas and accompanied the sena-
the value of business lots has morej ^f_^h®n^^be^to^ured^the state^m^the
than doubled within the past year.
About four months ago the Stew-
art Land Co. purchased the remain-
ing tract of undeveloped land on the
Mercedes canal. This is known as
the Capisallo tract and comprises
24000 acres. It extends from the
i interest of his campaign. Mr. Creager
made the speech seconding Senator
Harding’s nomination.
Following the nomination by the
convention Senator Harding enter-
tained five of his most /intimate
friends at dinner. Among these five
were Mr. and Mrs. Scobey and Mr.
Creager.
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Hoyt, L. T. Mercedes Tribune (Mercedes, Tex.), Vol. 7, No. 18, Ed. 1 Friday, June 18, 1920, newspaper, June 18, 1920; Mercedes, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1018528/m1/1/: accessed July 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Dr. Hector P. Garcia Memorial Library.