Plan to Organize a Fruit Growing
Colony on the Texas Staked Plain.
HT F. E. ROESLER, DALLAS, TEXAS.
A colony to be organized with a view te
raise fruits and certain varieties of vegetables,
to cutlivate the land, to market the products
or to evaporate, can or preserve the same,
should make use, in its operations, of the
methods commonly pursued by the vari-
ous Loan and Building Associations of the
larger cities. The colony capital should be
large enough to guarantee to each member
a tract of ten acres of land in fee simple, to-
gether with the necessary water-right, a
specified number of fruit trees and grape
vines, a good house and such other appur-
tanances that may be mutually agreed upon
between the members. The land should in
every sense be ready for occupancy, and the
fruit trees and vines sufficiently advanced in
growth to assure a crop the year following
the date possession is given of the premises
to a member.
A colony of thirty-two or more members,
but not more than sixty-four, should confine
their operations to one section, or 640 acres
of land, which is to be divided into sixty-
four ten-acre tracts. No member should be
allowed to acquire more stock than is neces-
sary to secure twenty acres, or less than is
THE STAKED PLAIN 0
~ecessary to secure five acres from the Col- own
ony Association. The capital stock should mal
consist of ~64,000, divided into two series unti
of $32,000 each. Series A should be opened plet
immediately on the organization of a Colony und
Association, and is to be divided into 320 quir
shares of $roo each. All members should pla(
pay monthly the sum of $i.oo for each share bre
they hold, into the general treasury. All con
moneys coming in from series A should be offe
applied exclusively in the purchase of 640 ony
acres of land, which, at a cash price, ought spe
at present figures not exceed the sum of trar
~5.oo per acre or $3,200, the same to be the
situated close to some convenient shipping of
point. Such land can be had either on cash po~
or on credit terms, and the ordinary range mo
of prices is from $2.00 to $5.00 per acre. me
By special agreemen~ a Colony Association be(
could buy on credit an entire section, and so pei
arrange in the contract that any one ten- Th
acre tract or more could be paid out in fuU of
at any time, the vendor agreeing to fully re-
lease such tract on payment of the purchase th(
money proportioned to that particular tract. de
Another way would be to secure sixty-four lie.
separate contracts of sale, each c~ling for mc
ten acres of land, any or all of which can be pa
paid out in full at any time within the limits ad
of the contract. ch
The next expenditure will be the securely in
fencing of 8o to i6o acres of land, and the th
surveying, sub-dividing and laying out of ce
roadways over the whole tract. Following Ai
this comes the securing of a water supply,
the erection of suitable wind, horse or steam be
power for lifting the same, the building of lai
storage tanks and the building and locating th
of ditc.hes, water-ways, flumes, pipes, tiling th
or other appliances for the irrigation of 40 to er
8o acres, and with this goes the grubbing,
plowing and preparing for cultivation of 8o ri~
to i6o acres to be irrigated the following bi
season. All the land that can be cleared bc
should be seeded in staple crops, but as cr
much of it as is ready for irrigation be at
once planted in peach, apricot, almond, b~
plum, prune, pear trees, and saleable smalL n
fruits and vines. An irrigated nursery of m
trees and vines needed should be planted on a(
the first tract that can be made available. tl
An income from crops grown on the pre- p.'
pared land ~hould be secured as early as w
possible, and everything derived from this a.'
source should be placed to the credit of
Series A as a whole, until such tracts as may 3
be complete i~ the matter of irrigation, and n
are well planted with fruits and vines are h
ready to be turned over to the individual n
OF WEST TEXAS. 2?
mership of the members. The land re-
ims in possession of the Colony jointly
til all improvements are entire and com
ete. Whenever forty acres are entirely
ider irrigation and the water system re-
jired by the same is perfect., all of the land
aced in a high state of cultivation, wind-
eaks growing and the fruits and vines iR
)ndition to bear, the said land should be
Tered for sale to the members of the Col-
~y association, in tracts of ten acres, or OR
)ecial request of any member present, iR
acts of five acres. The member offering
ie highest bonus should have the first choice
f selection, and should be entitled to the
ossession of the land bid in, provided no
~ore land is bid in than the stock of the
~ember will cover. The member who has
een awarded the land then pays monthly ie
er cent. interest on the purchase money.
he "bonus" money is placed to the credit
f Series A as a whole.
The Colony Association should issue to
he member who has bid in a tract of land, a
leed of trust, retaining therein a vendor's
ien on the property conveyed, until said
nember shall have paid in fill, in monthly
)ayments of $i.oo per share his entire stock,
Ldding to the same the interest on the pur-
base money advanced him on the land bid
n by him from the date of his purchase, at
he expiration of which time he should re-
eive a full warranty deed from the Colony
~ssociati~n for his land.
All money derived from Series A should
)e appllid exdusively to the purchase of
and and the agricultural improvement~
hereof. Residences and other buildings f~r
~e use of members are not intended to be
rected out ot Series A funds
The value of an irrigated farm with water-
rights, ditches, flumes, tanks. pipes, wind-
breaks, fruit trees, vines and everything else
belonging to it, so that it will produce a
crop the coming season, is placed at $50.00
per acre, but does not indude a house or
barn. It is thought that the actual cost will
not exceed $20 per acre. if the improve-
ments contemplated cost less than $50. Co per
acre, the excess will be placed to the credit of
the members, who will have that much less
pay for their lands and will secure their
waranty deeds on payment of fewer monthly
assessments.
Series B, capital $32,000, divided into
320 shares of $ioo, should be opened to the
members as soon as any of the colony landœ
have been sold to individual members; the
monthly payments to consist of $r.oo per
28 THE STAKED PLAIN OF WEST TEXAS
~are, and no member to have the right to
acquire more than fifteen shares or less than
three shares. The funds in Series B should
be available only to members of Series A,
and are intended solely to be used in the
construction of homesteads, and for no
other purpose. The buildings should be
erected by the Colony Association, accord-
mg to such plans as the member may select,
but the colony retains a mechanic's lien
against both the house and the land until all
payments duc the colony have been faithfulLy
made. No house should be built by the
colony for an individual member unless he
has secured his land from Series A and the
same is fully improved
An assessment of ten cents per share
should be assessed against each member
monthly for the erection of a canning factory,
fruit evaporator, pickling works, etc., to be
built at some convenient point in the colony,
and all members of the colony to be entitled
to such profits and dividends as may be se-
cured in its operations.
All officers of the colony should render
their services free of charge, and the only
salary paid should be to the secretary
and the general superintendent, under
whose management the lands are prepared
for irrigation and cultivation. Other em-
ployes are to be paid by the day, or month,
or by contract, as the directors may de-
termine.
The colony should remain a corporate
body until each and every share shall have
been paid up in full, and every ten-acre
tract has been brought under irrigation,
planted in trees and vines, and transferred
to individual members. On the arrival of
such time, all profits that may have accruedl
should be placed to the credit of each mem-
ber, according to the amount of stock he
holds, and then a full warranty deed be
issued by the association to each member,
conveying not only the land, the house that
may have been built thereon, but also a
permanent water-right adequate to the de-
mands of the land transferred.
Members who take stock as a matter of
investment and who do not desire to take
land, should have the right to cash their
stock at par value upon the break up of the
Colony Asso~ahon, and should share in all
profits that Inay be made.
NOTE.~The foregoine plan of associatoin is
offered to such as desire, within a reasonable
period of time, to acquire a ready-made homestead
on easy terms, and who, individually, have not
the means to prepare a tract fur irrigation and
fruit ~rowing. Fruits and grapes will hardly pay
for the first two years and a member of an associa-
ion, as outlined above, will not he required to
live on the land until it can be made to sustain a
family. The member can continue to reside away
from his land and be earning money elsewhere
until that part of pioneer work, which requires
the most privation, has been overcome by the
association. To men of small means who wish to
settle in the colony at once it secures emyloyment
at reasonable wages, and in the matter of employ.
ment the reference should always be giv~n tlie
member and actual settler. Those who take stock
in the Colony Association for the profit there i~ in
it will make a rood investment, since the amount
of money paid in monthly, is small, and will not
cramp the investor. Associations of this descrip.
tion can be organized hidependently in every
Eastern or Northern town, and while the writer
deems the Staked Plain country as best suited for
this purpose, such colonies can be located to ad-
vantage in Texas anywhere between the Trinity
and Pecos Rivers.
Updated: August 05, 1998