Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas

Abstract

T GHE American part of the Rio Grande delta and some adjoining land in the Gulf coastal plain is a prosperous and progressive irrigation and dry-farming district. The inhabitants, numbering about 150,000, live in small, thriving cities and upon farms made by the subdivision of ranches, the removal of thorn-bush vegetation, and the installation of irrigation facilities. The production and marketing of early vegetables, citrus fruits, and cotton gives such abounding prosperity that immigration is attracted from other sections of the United States; and the population has increased rapidly during the last two decades. Modern homes, business houses, school and church buildings, and recently constructed highways and railroads impart a vigorous, progressive aspect to urban and rural landscapes, while areas occupied by mesquite, chaparral, prickly pear, and prairie grasses, in many cases used as cattle range, give a striking conception of the recent past of the region. The Lower Rio Grande Valley is becoming an important commercial producer of early vegetables and citrus fruits. Subtropical location and position beside the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico give the advantages of mild, almost frost-free climate, so essential to these industries. The average annual rainfall varies from 26 to 17 inches according to distance from the Gulf, and is supplemented by irrigation with water from the Rio Grande so that these crops grow abundantly on the fertile plain. Since the area is in the United States and is efficiently served by the Missouri Pacific and Southern Pacific railroad lines, it has the additional advantage of excellent access to the enormous American market for early vegetables and citrus fruits. These factors enable such effective competition with producing areas in California and Florida that carlot shipments of vegetables rose from less than 2,000 in 1912 to more than 17,600 in 1928; and, in the latter year, 1,183 cars of citrus fruits moved from the Valley.