The Mercedes News (Mercedes, Tex.), Vol. 5, No. 88, Ed. 1 Friday, September 28, 1928 Page: 1 of 8
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When truth or virtue an affront
endures,
Th’ affront is mine, my friend,
and should be yours.
—Pope, in Epilogue to Satires
' * V - ' • •
®he Jlltercefres 11 eras
WANT ADS IN
THE “NEWS” ALWAYS
BRING RESULTS
MERCEDES. TEXAS, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1928
ARROYO IS
INTERESTING
TO HOUSTON
Harlingen Effort Is
Likened To Its
Own
CHANNEL BATTLE
WAS A LONG ONE
Nine Feet Of Water
Held To Be Good
Start
By Ed Kilman
Houston, Sept. 27.—With mingled
interest, curiosity, and a tinge of
pride, the eyes of Houston and Har-
ris county just now are turning
toward the Magic Valley, particular-
ly the vicinity of Harlingen.
For Harlingen and its surround-
ing territory are giving promise of
following in Houston’s footsteps—
at least in one very important
respect.
Houston spent 50 years of inter-
mittent effort to bring the Gulf of
Mexico 50 miles inland. Harlingen
is pow setting forth to do practically
the same thing, only the distance is
not so great, and the time should not
be so long. The parallel betw'een the
two undertakings is striking; it ex-
tends even to the point of a rival
port on the coast.
For some time the people of the
Channel Port city, particularly
those concerned with maritime mat-
ters, have regarded with mild inter-
est the activities down in the Valley
looking to the establishment of an
island harbor via the Arroyo Colo-
rado. They began to sit up and
take notice about a week ago, when
the Post-Dispatch carried a report
that J. B. Chambers, Sr., chairman
of the Arroyo Colorado Navigation
committee, was in Houston confer-
ring with contractors with a view
to letting contract for the Harlin-
gen project in the near future.
Interested in Situation
Because of their own experience
in a similar epochal enterprise, these
people’s fancy seems particularly
beguiled by the Arroyo situation.
Their sentiment seems to be: “Go
to it, young fellow; that’s how I got
my start.”
And it is indeed how Houston got
the start that sent it speeding upon
its present phenomenal career of
progress. The Houston Ship Chan-
nel was completed for deepwater
navigation about 10 years ago, and
during that period the city has
virtually doubled in population,
wealth and affluence.
The same alluring prospect that
now beckons the Valley, was the
inspiration for the establishment of
the Houston ship channel. Houston
was becoming an important market
for cotton, oil and lumber. There
lay Buffalo Bayou, lazily meander-
ing its way to the sea. Why not
put the bayou to work, make a real
waterway of it?
With that spirit of enterprise and
teamwork that is necessary to suc-
cess in such a venture, Houston citi-
zens got busy. The world smiled;
Galveston, an old, established sea-
port, scoffed. But Houston hammer-
ed away, until it got 30 feet of
water, from the Turning Basin to
Galveston.
And now Houston is a major sea-
port of the world, and the greatest
spot cotton port of the world; while
Galveston fights desperately in an
attempt to get the state railroad
commission to establish freight rates
that would make it as cheap to ship
inland stuff to Galveston as to
Houston, 50 miles nearer.
Harlingen Front Gate
Harlingen is the front gate of the
lower Rio Grande Valley, a country
of roaring, almost breath-taking
progress. Fruit and vegetables and
cotton are being raised and shipped
, out by the thousands of carloads. A
tidewater stream, the Arroyo Colo-
rado, reaches inland some 35 miles
to Harlingen, as though placed there
by divine plan to take the products
of the Valley out to sea and up and
down the Gulf to clamoring markets.
Why not put the Arroyo to work?
There is no reason > .sible to the
naked eye,, why the Valley should
not develop into as fruitful a pro-
ducing territory as that which now
keeps the erstwhile Buffalo Bayou
teeming with ocean freighters and
liners. General Lansing H. Beach
may have been wise in his recom-
mendation that 18 feet is a little too
ambitious an undertaking for the
time being; but Houston shippers
feel that the Arroyo Colorado en-
terprise now contemplated—a 9-foot
channel—is a momentous step for-
ward, and lays the foundation for
further development in due time.
“You may call it a dream,” Mr.
Chambers told the writer in his
room at the Rice hotel, “but I have
hopes of seeing, in the not distant
future, light draft vessels, with
cargoes of Valley fruits and truck,
plying from Harlingen out over the
Gulf to the Mississippi, and thence
up into the other inland waterways
of the southern central United
(See ARROYO IS, page 8)
NUMBER 88
The Facts About Flood Control
In the Lower Rio Grande Valley
An Answer to a Mischevious and Erroneous Article
Recently Published.
JN an adjoining column is a copy of a special article to the
Brownsville Herald of last Sunday under Harlingen dating. It
will be appreciated if all of our readers, especially those in
Mercedes and environs and Harlingen, will read that story. We
do not know who inspired it, but we do know that from what-
ever source it originated its authors were ignorant of the facts,
or else only mischief makers. At any rate, since a large number
of the present citizens of the Mercedes and Harlingen sections
are newcomers, and not acquainted with the history of flood
control in the Rio Grande Valley, and the facts pertaining to
same, we are taking the pains to give its history. If this is
carefully read by the residents of Hidalgo county, and the
Northern end of Cameron county, they will see that their in-
terests are identical. Furthermore, the system of flood works
protecting the aforementioned communities in no wise jeopard-
izes the southern end of Cameron county, or violates any of its
rights.
(From The Brownsville Herald)
|-|ARLINGEN, Sept. 22.—With a
rise now coming down the Rio
Grande which likely will reach flood
stage within the next day or two,
thousands of acres of fertile western
Cameron county farm lands lying
along the Arroyo Colorado are in
grave danger of being overflowed as
a result of more flood water coming
into that stream than it is capable
of carrying, those who are familiar
with the situation declare.
Cameron, county commissioners
are to be appealed to by citizens of
the western part of the county to
ask state reclamation engineers to
make a survey of the division point
on the Valley flood control system.
These citizens, who have investi-
gated the works at the division
point, believe it is so arranged as
to divert a greater part of the flood
waters into the Arroyo than it is
capable of conveying to its mouth
safely and they say the division has
not been built in accordance with
the plans for the system or with
the recommendations of engineers.
Farms Endangered
Large areas in the mostly highly
developed sections of Cameron
county would be damaged exten-
sively in the event a greater volume
of water than the Arrgyo control
works are designed to carry is forc-
ed down that drainway, it is claimed.
The division point of the flood
control, system is. at* El Fuiste, a
short distance southwest of Mer-
cedes. At this point, according to
the project plans, the flood wlaters
entering the main channel through
the Mission and Grangeno inlets
were to be divided, five-twelfths of
the total volume going north and
east through the north floodway and
seven-twelfths south and east
through the Arroyo Colorado.
The north floodway, according to
the plans, should carry 50,000 second
feet and the Arroyo 70,000 second
feet.
See Arroyo Overtaxed
Residents of this section who
have investigated the works at the
division point believe that a greater
volume of water will be forced down
the Arroyo than it is intended to
carry and that the amount through
the north floodway will be decreased
correspondingly.
The south levee opposite the north
floodway intake instead of forcing
the flow into the floodway intake,
will carry the flood waters into the
Arroyo Colorado, is the contention
of those who state they have inves-
tigated the situation. A golf course,
with numerous hazards, brush, waste
banks and other obstacles, is located
in or near the intake, it is stated,
and the channel to the Arroyo has
been cleared, offering no obstacle to
the flow into that drainway. There
is some high ground between the
division point and the Arroyo, but a
small channel cut through w'ould
soon erode and permit a heavy vol-
ume of water to flow southward, and
a consequent decrease in the volume
diverted through the floodway.
Small Overflow Safe
The flood waters flowing out of
the Rio Grande above Mission and
at Grangeno are carried into the
main floodway which has a capacity
of 120,000 second feet, according to
the flood control plan. This volume
of water is carried down the main
channel through Llano Grande lake
to the division point. Residents in
the western part of Cameron county
point out that in the event there is
any obstacle to prevent the flow of
50,000 second feet into the north
floodway, the volume forced into the
Arroyo would greatly exceed that
specified in the plans, 70,000 second
feet. They also point out that while
the north floodway will carry the
greater portion of flood waters dur-
ing small floods, the wide distances
between the levees leading to the
Arroyo would bring an excessive
volume of water into that drainway
during major flood periods.
It is understood the matter will
be taken up with the Cameron coun-
ty commissioners court at an early
date with the request that the court
apply immediately to the state recla-
mation department for a thorough
survey of the division point and to
ascertain what works would be nec-
essary to assure proper division of
the flood waters during periods of
dangerous floods.
j * * *
River Conditions
UNDER natural conditions which
existed prior to the construction
of any irrigation works in the Val-
ley, and while the country was
covered with brush, in seasons of
flood the waters which left the river
entered at the upper end of the
Valley and spread out like a great
fan throughout all the first lift land
and eventually found their way to
the Laguna Madre. The river,
through Hidalgo county, will carry
70.000 second feet of water.
Between Brownsville and Mata-
moros the river narrows and will
only take 35,000 second feet of wat-
er. When the river is carrying
70.000 second feet of water opposite
the Mercedes pump it is at flood
stage, whereas, it is at flood stage
betw'een Brownsville and Matamoros
when it is carrying only one-half
that amount. Under natural condi-
tions the river took a great deal
more water than it does now for the
reason that, although the river is
narrower in Cameron county than
it is in Hidalgo county, large quan-
tities of river water escaped through
the old resacas and arroyos in Cam-
eron county, so that_as a practical
proposition the river, because of this
relief in Cameron county, could take
as touch water as followed the river
in the Hidalgo county section.
With the development of the irri-
gated area in Cameron county these
natural floodways in that county
were closed, with the result that the
water formally discharged by them
caused flood conditions in the
Browlnsville section, and also the
amount discharged in the Hidalgo
county section was largely increas-
ed. It was this condition that creat-
ed the first Valley flood problem.
This is readily apparent to any
old-timer in Cameron county who
knows from observation that some
of the greatest floods which have
ever occurred in Cameron county
took place at a time when the river
never left its banks in Hidalgo
county. The last major flood oc-
curred in 1922, after such natural
floodways in Cameron county had
been closed.
The action of the water was not-
ed, and it was very evident where
the trouble lay. The water left the
river about Mission at a low place
that is called the Granjeno and came
overland through the lower lifts
south of Mission, McAllen, Pharr,
and Donna, and emptied into the
Llano Grande Lake. The Arroyo
Colorado originates just south of
Mercedes next to the Llano Grande
Lake. It has been estimated that
the flood waters amounted to 110,-
000 second feet. Seventy thousand
second feet of this water emptied
itself into the Arroyo Colorado and
found its way into the sea; 40,000
second feet of it flowed to the north.
H= * *
Flood Lasts Two Weeks
rJ,HIS great flow of water contin-
ued for almost two weeks. Under
natural conditions this water that
went to the north of Mercedes would
have flowed eastwardly, emptying it-
self into Tio Cano Lake, due north
of La Feria, and would have then
spread all over the north end of
Cameron county.
It would have overflowed every
foot of land in Cameron county
north of the Missouri-Pacific tracks,
including the City of Harlingen, ex-
cet maybe some isolated high land.
This was exactly what occurred in
1904, 1909, and 1919. Water was all
over that country right where Har-
lingen now stands and unless We
had flood protection in flood times
there would be several feet of water
on many points in the City of Har-
lingen. There is no area in Harlin-
gen that would not be under Water
and very little of the vast territory
around it that would not be com-
pletely inundated.
In 1922 Harlingen and the north-
ern end of Cameron county was
saved from inundation for the rea-
son that the Stewart Land Com-
“WE’RE PLEASED TMEETCHU, AL”
Plumbing Company to
Have a New Building
The Mercedes Plumbing Co. has
let a contract to Harry Lawson for
the construction of a business build-
ing 27x60 feet in Illinois street just
south of the Spencer-Sauer Lumber
Co. Work on the building, which
will cost $4,000, will be started right
away.
Lawson has been delayed in start-
ing the construction of another unit
of the American Poultry Ranches,
just north of the city, by the rains
which have made the roads too mud-
dy to haul materials. Pavement on
this road is not yet completed. Work
on the ranch will start as soon as
the roads are dry.
CONCRETE IS
HELD IDEAL
IRRIGATION
Pays Big Profit, Friend
Tells Valley
Farmers
LAND RECLAIMED
AT THE STATION
Enthusiasm with which Governor Alfred E. Smith, Democratic nominee, is being received on his Western
tour, is shown graphically in photos above. Top, brown-derbied candidate waving to Topeka crowds from
rear end of his special train; left, Governor Smith proudly Wearing Indian headdress presented by Nebraska
redskin beside him; right, almost obscured by crowds surging around his automobile on arrival in Okla-
homa City.
U. S. Engineers To
Start Survey For
Padre Island Cut
Superintendents to Meet
E. H. Poteet, superintendent of
the Mercedes public schools, has
called the first meeting of the super-
intendents’ and principals’ associa-
tion to meet in Mercedes at 7 o’clock
ndJtt Monday night. The educators
will have dinner at the Methodist
church annex.
Promise No Delay In
Matter of Permit For
the Arr°y° Port Alamo First Town
pany had constructed a large canal
from the end of the American Com-
pany’s main canal,'-at Mile 12 north,
out through the center of the old
Capisallo ranch to about Mile 151^j
north. This old canal is just east
of the present east floodway north
of Mercedes.
(See THE FACTS ABOUT, page 4)
Major- Milo P. Fox, U. S. district
engineer at Galveston, advised J. B.
Chambers, Sr., chairman of the Ar-
royo navigation district board this
week, that he would start at once
the preliminary work preparatory to
the hearing on the application of
the district for a permit to cut Pad-
re Island. How long this will take
is not known but Major Fox indi-
cated that there would be no de-
lay in carrying out the government’s
part of the work. The application
was filed with the engineer last
week.
Meanwhile contractors are getting
ready to bid on the work of dredging
and construction of jetties. It is
anticipated that these bids will be
ready by the time the permit finally
comes through the army board of
engineers at Washington. Little dif-
ficulty is anticipated in securing the
permit as the government engineers
will consider only the effect the cut
will have on navigation and in this
case there will be no effect.
Harlingen citizens held a mass
meeting last Monday afternoon to
discuss some phases of the water-
way development and a half dozen
enthusiastic speeches were made in
favor of the project. The city is
unanimously behind the port propo-
sition and entertains no doubt that
General Beach knew what he was
talking about when he said the nine
foot channel was feasible!
Citizens of San Benito held a
meeting Monday night to consider
entering the navigation district that
is proposed to finance a port at
Point Isabel. There were a number
of speeches in favor of the project,
but the enthusiasm manifested when
opposition to it was voiced was so
evident that no vote was taken. It
was announced that there will be an-
other mass meeting next Monday
night. A great many citizens of
San Benito are in favor of throw-
ing in their lot with the Haidingen
port and some of the city’s leading
men are having trouble in putting
over the Point Isabel project.
The La Feria and Santa Rosa dis-
tricts have adopted resolutions de-
claring that they do not wish to be
included in a Point Isabel district
and that they will fight inclusion to
the last ditch. It appears also that
there is so much opposition to Point
Isabel at San Benito that the city
will stay out of the district.
Legion Open House
Arrangements have been complet-
ed for the open house to be held to-
night by J. A. Garcia post, Ameri-
can Legion, when its new clubhouse
in Queen City annex will be inspect-
ed by the public. The building is
completely finished and furnished.
Refreshments will be served.
In County to Send
In Red Cross Fund
Hidalgo County Com-
munities Are Dilitory
In Responses
Alamo is the first town in Hidalgo
county to respond to the appeal of
the Red Cross for subscriptions to
the fund to aid the hurricane swept,
sections of Porto Rico and Florida.
Mrs. J. J. Murray, county treasurer,
announced that the little city had
sent in a check for $84. No other
community has been heard from and
Mrs. Murray sent out an appeal for
immediate responses.
Only a half dozen Mercedes con-
tributions have been received and
Mrs. Murray asked local people to
give her their subscriptions at once
as she wished to forward them to-
morrow night at the latest. She
can be reached at her home at al-
most any time.
“Hidalgo county subscriptions are
much too slow in coming in,” she
said. “We must have these con-
tributions right away and communi-
ties which have been asleep on the
job should get busy. Even Mercedes
has been dilitory and we have only
a few subscriptions from this city.
Alamo reported promptly and we
have been able to send in a check for
$100. This is not enough by any
means and I hope we can hear from
other cities not later than tomorrow
night. I hope the Mercedes quota
can be completed by that* time.”
Information reaching H. B. Seay,
county Red Cross chairman, is to the
effect that the need for funds is
growing constantly and that much
more money will be needed than was
at first asked for. Consequently the
request is made that the people of
the county contribute promptly and
generously in order that the needs
of the stricken communities may be
met. There have been reports that
the Red Cross is to undertake the
task of rebuilding many homes that
Were destroyed. This will require
a huge sum and Hidalgo county peo-
ple are asked to take this into ac-
count.
The amounts contributed by peo-
ple of Mercedes for the flood suf-
ferers of Poi’to Rico and Florida are
as follows:
E. E. Drew, $5.00; Mr. and Mrs.
W. W. Anderson, $10.00; Mr. and
Mrs. H. B. Seay, $10.00; J. F. Bain-
go, $1.00; Mr. and Mrs. W. L. Brad-
bury, $10.00; Miss Mary Anne Mak-
ens, $1.00.
Subscriptions may be sent to Mrs.
Murray or to the Mercedes News,
which will turn them over to her.
Local Legionaires
Ready To Leave for
*/
San Antonio Meet
Most Valley Members
Will Go To Annual
Convention By Auto
Approximately fifty legionaires
from Mercedes will leave for San
Antonio tomorrow and Sunday, part
of a cavalcade of several hundred
who will attend the convention of the
American Legion from the Valley.
Nearly all of the members of the lo-
cal post will travel by automobile as
will the greater part of the Magic
Valley visitors. Headquarters will
be at the Crockett hotel.
About half of the members of the
J. A. Garcia post will wear the of-
ficial Valley Dan Juan uniforms, of
which about 400 will be worn from
the Valley. These uniforms have ar-
rived and were being distributed yes-
terday. These are expected to make
a flashy appearance in the big pa-
rade in which, also, the San Benito
and Edinburg posts will have floats.
Two bobcats, captured in the wood-
ed sections around Raymondville,vare
to grace the San Benito float from
which the Forty and Eight quartette
of that city will pour forth its melo-
dies and harmonies.
The two are being kept in train-
ing at Raymondville, and suitable
cages for them will be constructed.
They will be part of the adornment
of the float which is to go from that
city to the convention city.
The float which the Legion post is
to send from San Benito will repi’e-
sent the Valley as is and the Valley
as it was. Half of it will be popu-
lated with rattlesnakes, wildcats,
javelin hogs, and possibly some
other animals, while an old-style
jacal will grace this edge of the
float. On the other side will be a
modern Spanish type bungalow, and
some citrus and palm trees, show-
ing what the Valley has turned into
since the days when the wildcats
roamed in large numbers.
All Valley posts have issued a call
for automobiles to be used in trans-
porting Legionaires, who come to
the Valley on one of the convention
side trips, through this section. Ap-
proximately 1,000 are expected on
the special trains which will begin
arriving at Edinburg over the South-
ern Pacific lines at 6:30 a. m., Oc-
tober 13. Each train will bring ap-
proximately 250 persons and will ar-
rive within 20 minutes of each otheiq
The itinerary calls for the Legion-
aires to enter automobiles at Edin-
burg for a drive to Mission and back
to the Progresso Development com-
pany at Weslaco where a barbecue
will be served at noon. Following
the barbecue the visitors will be
taken to Matamoros for an evening
banquet and will entrain at Browns-
ville that night. The special trains
will be dead-headed from Edinburg
to Brownsville.
Thousands Attend
Formal Opening Of
Edinburg Hospital
New Structure Is Splen-
didly Equipped and
Efficient
Almost 5,000 people from the
Valley and other parts of the state
attended the formal opening of the
new Medical Arts Hospital at Edin-
burg Wednesday afternoon from one
to six o’clock.
A committee composed of the
wives of the city and county offic-
ials, hospital board members and
others connected with the hospital,
was assisted by more than 100 men
who escorted the visitors through
the entire building, pointing out the
unusual features of the institution
and explaining the uses of all the
apparatus and fixtures.
The building was beautifully dec-
orated With hundreds of baskets and
vases of flowers, many of which
were sent by friends of the hospital
from all parts of the Valley. Punch
was served to the visitors all during
the afternoon.
This new hospital, according to
many members of the medical pro-
fession from all different parts of
Texas and the South who have in-
spected the building and equipment,
is one of the most modern, efficient
and beautiful hospitals in the
(Southwest. Beauty is the keynote
which is stressed not only in the
Italian Renaissance design of the ex-
terior, and the ground floor lobby
and offices with their colored tile
floors and harmonizing artistic dec-
orative designs on walls and ceiling,
but also in the rooms for the pati-
ents. These rooms are not furnished
in the usual all white furniture
found in so many hospitals but all
have colored steel furniture, each
room in different colors and shades
which are pleasing and restful.
The building is three stories high
and has a full size basement. There
are accommodations for 85 patients.
At the south and east exposures of
the corriders are beautifully fur-
nished sun parlors for the use of
convalescents.
At the present time the hospital
has two obstetrical wards. Later
the entire top floor is planned to be
used for maturnity cases.
The nursery is all electrically
equipped. One of the special fea-
tures of this which was most inter-
esting to the visitors is the electric-
ally heated dressing table.
There are a number of children’s
rooms on the second floor and one
emergency operating room on the
first floor.
containing 14 beds. .These wards
are furnished much like the others
excepting that the beds are all in
white.
There are three major operating
rooms on the floor and one emer-
gency operating room on the first
floor.
All of the large number of people
who were taken through the new
building praised its beauty and
many physicians, who attended the
medical association meeting, said
that it contains many features not
found in large Eastern hospitals.
-o-
Falfurrias To Have
Unit of Cooperative
Falfurrias, it has been definitely
decided, is to have a unit of the
Rio Grande Valley Vegetable Grow-
ers’ Exchange. E. W. Dickey, editor
of Falfurrias Facts, and C. D. Fag-
er were in Mercedes this week in
conference with officials of the Ex-
change in regard to the conditions
under which local units are set up.
J. W. Kirkpatrick, Hidalgo county
agent, accompanied the visitors.
They obtained ail the facts they
wished and went home with the in-
tention of signing up their farmers
as soon as possible. This will be
completed next week in all probabil-
ity, after which a shed will be con-
structed. All of the farmers in
Brooks county will be eligible to
membership in the local.
-o-
Football Blanks Checked
The Valley interscholastic com-
mittee, which is composed of E. H.
Poteet, superintendent of the Mer-
cedes schools; T. J. Yoe, superinten-
dent of San Benito schools; W. B.
Denman, La Feria superintendent,
and E. E. Chamness, Weslaco super-
intendent, met here and checked all,
football eligibility blanks.
Root Rot Blamed For
Many of Our Crop
Failures
“Installation of underground con-
crete pipe for irrigation on the lands
of the experiment station have low-
ered the water table very materially
and even has resulted in the reclam-
ation for cultivation of water-logged
land that heretofore has been worth-
less,” W. H. Friend, director of the
A. & M. College agricultural experi-
ment station just west of Mercedes,
said Tuesday at a field meeting at
the station. The meeting was very
largely attended and addresses were
made on a variety of subjects. The
talks relating to root rot and irriga-
tion were probably the most import-
ant.
Mr. Friend pointed out that the
cost of concrete pipe irrigation was
trivial compared to the benefits re-
ceived from it. He expects in a few
days to take measurements showing
the present height of the water ta-
ble, but he knows it is much lower
than it was when the system was in-
stalled early last summer. At that
time the water table on the station
farm was from three to three and a
half feet.
Discusses Date Growing
From this discussion, the director
turned to the subject of the growing
of dates, giving the results of some
of the plantings made on the station
grounds, that were shipped here
from California for trial.
He also gave a resume of what the
government was doing in the at-
tempt to find varieties suitable to
the climatic conditions existing here,
as most varieties growing in Cali-
fornia. are not adaptable here, ow-
ing largely to the great difference
in the humidity. • Our climate here
has a humidity of 75 per cent, as
against 46 per cent in California.
Also the time of ripening has
much to do with the question, as the
date in California can hang on the
tree until late October and Novem-
ber, while here it must be off by the
middle of September, on account of
the fall rains. Most dates are grown
in arid or semi-arid countries, like
the oasis of the Sahara Desert for
instance.
At the close of his talk the direc-
tor introduced Professor Bach, path-
ologist of the station, who was sent
here by the government a little over
a year since, to make a special inves-
tigation of the ravages of the root
rot in this section. As showing
something of the importance of the
need of this investigation, Mr.
Friend stated that as a result of a
questionnaire sent out to the cotton
growers, the losses from this disease
in an acreage producing some $23,-
000 worth of cotton amounted to
over $5,000.
History of Root Rot
Prof. Bach gave a history of this
disease, which is one of a fungous
variety, and of the very large va-
riety of plants and vegetables which
it attacks. Possibly many of the
losses that have been incurred, that
it has been difficult to account for,
can be attributed to this under-
, ground pest.
This fungous or mycellium, as it
is called, is difficult to contend with
as it is in the soil, or rather on the
roots and fibres contained in the
soil, and is transferred from them by
innoculation to the growing crop.
The failure so far to establish com-
mercial vineyards in the Valley on a
permanent basis, is wholly due to
this fungus, and Professor Bach is
conducting a series of experiments,
with a number of different varieties
and root stocks, in an endeavor to
find some variety, suitable for graft-
ing, that will be immune to the dis-
ease.
So far the results are not promis-
ing. Of ten root stocks one year
old that had shown resistance in
vineyard planting, seven died when
innoculated with the mycellium. The
Mustang and Black Spanish grape
seem to be the only real resistant
varieties so far and neither of these
are very adaptable to the grafting
of better varieties upon them.
Tests Being Made
Experiments are being made with
different kinds of fertilizers such as
acid phosphate, muriate and sulphate
of potash, semesan, etc., with no
results that prove anything so far,
though in the case of treatment with
acid phosphate, there seemed to be
a result, but it will take more tests
to prove out its actual value.
With the tests with chemicals, like
(See CONCRETE IS, page 8)
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The Mercedes News (Mercedes, Tex.), Vol. 5, No. 88, Ed. 1 Friday, September 28, 1928, newspaper, September 28, 1928; Mercedes, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth651654/m1/1/: accessed June 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Dr. Hector P. Garcia Memorial Library.