Show ON THE BEAM this is the second in iii a series of articles covering the recent trip of the national editorial association in which the editor of this newspaper participated the trip included points of interest in texas and mexico THE TEXAS TRIP continued from last week following the fine hospitality shown us in Ho houston wp we boarded the train the evening of april izi 15 bedding down in our sleepers on the special train that pulled out of the station at 11 p m we arrived at harlingen Harling cn following our breakfast on the train and were met there by buses that took our party westward through the rio kio grande val to mission center of the texas huge citrus fruit industry our first stop was at the E M goodwin tract where demonstration on irrigation and cultivation of the huge citrus tracts were performed for the group dusting operations by airplane were also shown the editors that gold is where you find it is conceded enthusiastically by lowe bowe rio grande valley growers as they reap their harvest of golden fruit from OW citrus trees the valley derives the bulk of its we h the history of commercial citrus production in the valley dates back to the turn of the century when the oblate fathers encouraged the planting of citrus trees near mission and it is a story of expanded oro production in the face of growing problems through the years only two slight setbacks mar an otherwise coni rise in valley citrus production wealth and population in the last ina twenty years citrus production has expanded 70 O fold and income from this expansion has been raised cofoid CO 50 foid fold grapefruit Crape fruit production ranges from an output of boxes during the inin 1919 au 20 season to an estimated boxes of the golden fruit during the atmo 47 season the 1515 40 46 yield totaled boxes from an estimated trees this bumper crop lined the growers pockets pocket with and an equal amount is expected from the tm ka 7 yield another mo is expected when the growers harvest hoie bo cc of oranges and tangerines tang erines from an estimated trees or onnie inge and tangerine production has increased from boxes in OIO JO 0 O to boxes during the 1915 40 46 season valley grapefruit growers experienced their first million dollar rear car in aws M IS 29 when boxes of grapefruit brought on be he auction marts of the nation the 1929 30 3 season was the first million box year in the valley with 15 boxes gathered of the thousand of acres of fertile valley soil dedicated to orange tan fan act icis remember the 1936 37 season as both the first million box breir and the first million dollar year the 2000 Au boxes of oranges ar ted during that season were valued at 2 there have been marked changes in the grapefruit variety situation our n ng the relatively brief history of the lower rio grande valley her approximately CO per cert cent of the nations grapefruit is grown yh i idy dy types such as duncan were soon boon supplanted by marsh this variety has been superseded by the bud sports thompson ino no commonly i known as the marsh blarsch pink and later the red blushed cyp ky uch as the ruby red and red blush the latter two are pe kuh only to the valley i lowers who planted orange trees during the early days of the andu adu try are more fortunate than those who planted grapefruit for pier have been no radical changes in the types of oranges on demand valencia is still the standard late variety and the Pi pineapple and tai in n brown oranges orange are readily liable lable growers who started alani ing the hamlin orange at an ew ewi earl i ad 1 te are in an enviable position poe is s thi A excellent seedless variety is al alo alao o he hc mc most t highly high productive there has been a heavy addition in citrus acreage each year for he past seven years and the exceptionally high average yields during le he 1915 season boc bo c per acre indicate that citrus is a having ving enterprise the winter garden of the rhe South Southwest wet th the e lush subtropical lower rio grande valley of tchan by the stig the e cold months in the north east cast and middle west for during these white months the valley enjoys an average tem degrees and it is during this period that the magie magic valley is bustling with activity with the harvesting of the immense citrus crop and the huge vegetable yields afforded by the rich and amazi amazingly angly fertile soil besides h its sunshine the valley offers the fine hunting and fishing the coastal waters of the gulf of mexico from red fish bay in willacy county to port isabel and the port of browns ville in cameron county teem with blue marlin sailfish and crapon the seasons first tarpon was caught on april 2 and practically every other variety of salt water f ish fish the fresh water angler angle r may wet his hook in the rio grande or in one of the numerous re that are found in the valley deer duck quail wild turkey white wing and dove are some of the wild game found in abundance in the valley area editors visiting the valley had lunch at rio farms a cooperative venture instituted by the federal government several years ago and now turned back to individuals for operation the afternoon was spent visiting the huge canning and by prod acts plant of texson where newspaper men were shown the methods of processing the citrus juices that reach the tables of americans the country over also explained was the process of converting the peel of citrus fruits into livestock feed said to contain food elements equal to ground corn dinner was served in the evening at cay bay view located 0 on a small bayou near mission from this point buses transported the group to brownsville Browns ville where a special entertainment was presented prior to our boarding the train that evening for our trip to kingsville Kings ville continued next week |