1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1063" 



BEtKEEWNG IN tHESOLTHWESI 



BYLOUiSH.SCHOtL. COLLEGE STATION TEXAS 



THE GREAT SOUTHWEST, KNOWN AS THE 



BEST BEE-KEEPING, STOCK-RAISING, 



tRUIT AND TRUCK GROWING, AND 



GENERAL FARMING SECTION 



OF TEXAS. 



Farming began in Southwest Texas with 

 corn and other forage crops for home use. 

 An abundance of corn for the use of the 

 country could be raised with little effort. It 

 averages about twenty bushels to the acre 

 for a term of years, yielding larger crops 

 where the land is better adapted to its pro- 

 duction. Mexican June corn is much plant- 

 ed, and often yields two crops in a season. 

 Sorghum, a kind of smaller sugar-cane, 

 from which sorghum molasses or syrup is 

 made, is, however, the great standby of the 

 stock man and farmer as a forage crop. 

 Mainly it is sown broadcast, mowed and 

 stacked for feeding, or it is baled as ordina- 

 ry hay. A few of the most progressive 

 and prosperous stock-farmers cultivate it in 

 drills or rows, and then mow it and stack it 

 by horse power stacking- machines into im- 

 mense ricks or silos, from which it is fed to 

 cattle as ensilage. The sorghum hay and 

 ensilage fed with crushed corn, cotton-seed 

 meal and hulls, and other feeds compounded 

 into a well-balanced ration, have been main- 

 ly instrumental in giving this country its 

 prominence as a producer of fine beef and 

 fine cattle generally. 



Other forage crops raised here successful- 

 ly are millet, Hungarian grass, buffalo grass, 

 Bermuda grass, cassava, Spanish peanuts, 

 cow peas, alfalfa, clover, milo maize, Kaffir 

 corn, penciliaria, rape, artichoke, stock 

 beets, etc. Stock beets promise to become 

 one of our leading feed crops for stock of all 

 kinds, poultry, etc. 



Cotton, for many years past, has been the 

 main money crop; but King Cotton is grad- 

 ually losing his dominion where diversifica- 

 tion is getting in its work, and the farmer is 

 learning the benefit from the new regime. 

 The cotton-planter now plants more forage 

 crops which he can feed to cattle, horses, 

 mules, hogs, sheep, goats, and poultry, and 

 sells these with an increased profit. He 

 raises more truck, vegetables, fruit, and 

 miscellaneous other paying crops. He keeps 

 more beds. Broomcorn is raised to some 

 extent, mostly by Northern farmers accus- 

 tomed to growing it in the North. Here 

 two crops are marketed, but only one in the 

 North. The yield is larger, while the price 

 of land and cost of production are cheaper, 

 and prices better, owing to the large demand 

 by local broom-factories. These brooms are 

 sold in car lots in Houston, San Antonio, 

 Brownsville, and other Texas cities, and are 



found in nearly all stores in this section of 

 the State. Broomcorn production and the 

 manufacturing of brooms bids fair to become 

 one of our leading industries. There is an 

 opening for development in many lines. 



FRUIT AND TRUCK GROWING. 



Nowhere does the soil yield better returns 

 than it does in this country. In truck-grow- 

 ing it is excelled by no other portion of the 

 United States. Vegetables grow here very 

 easily; and, owing to the early seasons, for 

 which this section is noted, they can be 

 placed on the market from one to six weeks 

 earlier than from any other section, and 

 thus command very handsome prices. 

 Truck-farmers have been making big money 

 for several years, and the industry is rapid- 

 ly growing. Land planted in truck, and 

 well tilled, yields from $100 to $500 an acre, 

 according to the kind of truck grown. The 

 writer has seen "onion-patches " that yield- 

 ed returns of over $750 per acre. These 

 "patches" consisted of several acres at 

 that. The soil is practically inexhaustible, 

 producing as well after twenty-five years of 

 continuous cultivation and fertilizing as it 

 does the first few years. The country now 

 promises to become one of the leading agri- 

 cultural sections, truck-farming being one 

 of the leading industries. 



Among the fruits and vegetables grown 

 here successfully are strawberries, dewber- 

 ries, blackberries, plums, peaches, apricots, 

 figs, pears, oranges, lemons, bananas, pome- 

 granates, grapes in many varieties, olives, 

 Japan persimmons, and mulberries; cauli- 

 flower, cabbage, turnips, mustard, celery, 

 wax-beans, peas, spinach, egg-plant, pea- 

 nuts, parsley, salsify, lettuce, beets, toma- 

 toes, cucumbers, butter-beans, Irish pota- 

 toes, watermelons, canteloups, squashes, 

 pumpkins, kershaws, sweet potatoes, Eng- 

 lish peas, onions, garlic, leeks, shallots, 

 roasting ears, varieties of peppei-s, and nu- 

 merous other things. 



IRRIGATION. 



It is wonderful how the soil, which seems 

 almost too poor to produce any thing but 

 the scrubby erophytic growth generally 

 found upon it in many places is transformed 

 into the richest producing soil that the writ- 

 er has seen. All that is necessary is to ap- 

 ply water to this soil and the results are as- 

 tonishing. Irrigation is coming in South- 

 west Texas, and in the western part es- 

 pecially; and throughout the "artesian 

 belt" many artesian wells are furnishing 

 water for irrigating purposes. It is claimed 

 by many well-posted people that there is 

 water enough under any given tract of land 

 in the coast country to irrigate it by means 

 of a sufficient number of wells. Where ar- 

 tesian water can not be obtained, pumps op- 

 erated by windmills or gasoline-engines, 

 and steam- engines using fuel oil or wood, 

 are used. The large rivers will irrigate 

 large areas; but a greater area will be irri- 

 gated from wells, because it is cheaper and 

 quicker, and has many advantages. The 



