150 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



soil was fertile and eminently conducive to plant growth, 

 but the lack of sufficient water by natural means made 

 production vaguely uncertain. But necessity demanded 

 the prompt solution of the problem, and it was found 

 in irrigation from the river. The result was phenom- 

 enal, and it was not long until the river valley in the 

 vicinity of Brownsville was transformed into a garden 

 of richness, blooming as a rose a veritable oasis in 

 the midst of a desert of almost limitless dimensions. 



As far as Brownsville and the river valley were 

 concerned the vexatious problem was solved, and only 

 established and permanent means of transportation and 

 communication into the outside world were needed to 

 insure a rapid agricultural development, but thai vast 



premest tests and upon which the thousands of cattle 

 had waxed fat, in summer and winter, began to wither. 

 Cattle grew poorer and poorer physically, and the ranch- 

 men grew poorer and poorer financially. The situa- 

 tion seemed to admit of no alternative and large hold- 

 ers, who owned hundreds of thousands of acres, sought 

 refuge from the impending crisis by offering their 

 lands for sale at a mere pittance. By way of paren- 

 thesis, it might be said that some of the very land 

 that five or six years ago could be bought for less than 

 a dollar an acre, is now being eagerly solicited at 

 twenty and twenty-five times that price. 



But a marvelous occurrence, an apparent decree 

 of Divine Providence for the redemption of His own, 



The Secret of Success in Southwest Texas Over three hundred wells 

 are bringing certain wealth to farmers along the line of the St. 

 Louis, Brownsville & Mexico Railway. 



stretch of "dead land" to the northward presented an 

 unanswerable argument against the provision of trans- 

 portation facilities, and only made the valley's isola- 

 tion more complete. 



But the great land owners, the ranchmen, the rul- 

 ers of the great cattle empires, were not oblivious to 

 their own welfare. The infrequency and uncertainty 

 of rainfall made the problem of providing water for 

 their great herds one demanding immediate and serious 

 consideration. The prolonged drouths to which the 

 section was subject frequently called this necessity to 

 their attention with particular emphasis. Things 

 went from bad to worse. Drouths became more and 

 more frequent and more and more tenacious. The in- 

 digenous grasses, which had always withstood the su- 



in the twinkling of an eye, almost, brought about a 

 complete transformation of conditions and reconstructed 

 the destiny of the entire section upon the broad scale 

 of unlimited possibilities. 



Artesian water, as pure as ever flowed from a 

 mountain top, and in quantities apparently unlimited, 

 was discovered. The initial discovery was followed by 

 experiments by the score, and every attempt was re- 

 warded, as was the first, by ma-gnificent flows, varying 

 from one hundred to nine hundred gallons per minute. 



Needless to say the phenomena was such in its 

 indications of possibilities as to attract the notice and 

 investigation of capital, and it was not long before 

 the St. Louis, Brownsville & Mexico Railway was in 

 process of construction. 



