Fruits and Vegetables.
As some friends have not yet gotten enough about southwest Texas, I’ll
tell them about the fruits and vegetables. Grapes grow and fruit the
heaviest here of any place I ever saw; some bunches of ripe grapes
weighing 2½ pounds, and very rich in flavor, and they always fruit--no
failures.
Oranges do well here, but have to be irrigated during the dry seasons.
I drove by any orchard yesterday that was loaded with ripe oranges, and
I tell you it was a pretty sight.
Bananas do only moderately well, but I do not believe the people here
understand their culture. There is hardly ever any ice here thicker
than a knife-blade, but I see the people wrap up and protect the
banana-trees.
Pears do excellently, and young trees grow into bearing very quickly,
compared to some countries. Blackberries, strawberries, raspberries,
dewberries, currants, and all small fruits do well here. Peaches do
well if the varieties are chosen that are acclimated to this latitude.
Apples only bear sparingly--it is too warm for them, and the trees do
not live long. The whole country here is covered or strewn with wild
currants, and they bear every year, and are very fine.