Clearing the Land
By: E. H. Nordmeyer
As told to: Herb Nordmeyer
Originally the Valley was grown up in great big brush. When we moved there in 1914, much of it had already been cleared, by what we call grub.
Most people think that in the early days everything that wasn't done by horses and mules was done by hand, although the bulk of it was. There were such things as what we called traction engines and they were probably as big as or bigger than the biggest units that are used today and the power they would produce was usually furnished by burning wood in a boiler -- to make steam. So as a result, they were large, they had lots of power but they were awful, awful slow so they were not used in the fields the ways we use tractors now. There were plows in those days -- large ones made in some places in the Valley to clear brush. These were used mostly north and west of Mission, TX. These plows were built in the fields out of huge timbers and disks that were made especially for them. They were pulled back and forth across a field with a traction engine. Quite often they were pulled by cables from one side of the field to the other. The power behind this whole thing was a steam engine, which could be a stationary engine, or it could be on wheels and moved from one place to another. This was a most satisfactory way of managing your land.
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| Steam Tractor |
In 1914 the land sold for about $400/acre. It cost about $40/acre to clear it. That was 10% of the cost of the land. Later, some of that same land sold for $30/acre and it cost $40/acre to clear it with machinery.
Let me tell you how they would take down a mesquite tree of say 14 to 20 inches in diameter.
To start with, they would set up a permanent camp. This was the first requirement, and the man who was going to work on it would probably move his wife and children in with him. Next, he would dig a trench around the base of the tree until he got tangled up in the roots -- that is, until the roots became so numerous that he couldn't dig any more.
We're talking about maybe 8 or 10 inches -- possibly a foot. After that, he would start running into roots that were maybe 4-6 inches in diameter. Next, he would start enlarging that hole to where it might be 10-12 feet across. He would follow these roots out, and they would gradually penetrate the soil farther. It was up to him to follow that root and cut it all out until the root itself (the top of it) was more than 8 inches below the normal surface of the ground. Then he'd cut that root both at the trunk and where the end was 8 inches down. This was the first wood that he produced. This was burned, usually for cooking and cold weather heating. The worker and his family usually lived under these mesquite trees, and this was about all the shelter they had. They might have some luna cloth or something. This was not necessarily waterproof, but it would be protection from the ground and in severe weather they could crawl under it. But it was not a tent. He might work for a number of weeks on this one tree, or if it was a little one, he might get it in two days. As he got the roots on top cut, he would shovel off any excess dirt beyond the circle he originally dug and start on the roots below. As he did this, the part where he cut off these roots approached the base of the tree. He wasn't digging a hole 10-12 feet in diameter with straight sides on it all the way. The hole was getting smaller as he approached the trunk. Somewhere along the line, either before or while he was doing the other, he would lop off all the branches that he could reach. This was used as firewood, too.
All of this was done with a grubbing hoe. That grubbing hoe had a Maddox on one side and the equivalent of a small axe on the other. Often this was the only tool he used in the whole operation. To move dirt, he would turn his Maddox on its side and drag the dirt. Sometimes the dirt was moved in small quantities. He would take these roots down to 8 inches below the surface and cut them off. That was plow depth.
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| Grubbing Hoe or "Talache" |
The roots
didn't re-grow. This was matured timber in these roots. Some of this was
as good of mesquite as you could find anywhere. But it was burned
because it was in the way. And they needed fuel. He did this until he
got as close to the trunk as he could. He would always clean the dirt
away from the trunk, even to extracting any dirt that sifted into cracks
between the roots and get the trunk and the roots at the base of the
tree as clean as he could. After he got the roots off as far down as he
could, and the 8-inch depth away from the trunk, the next thing he would
do would be to start a fire in that hole right at the base of the tree.
It wasn't a big fire. The tap root on these trees went down a
considerable distance. There was no way that the man, with the tools
that he had, could dig that tap root out and cut it off in a reason-able
amount of time. The tap root may be as much as 10-12 inches in
diameter, and that is hard cutting. So, what he was doing now was
burning it as long as he could and as deep as he could. He might spend a
week just burning this thing, and while he's doing that he may be
working on another tree adjacent to it.
The ebony was handled in the same way as the mesquite. There was an awful lot of good ebony that was burned because it was in the way. Ebony was never as common as mesquite.
Most of this mesquite in the Valley was the same age. Mesquite all over south Texas and possibly as far as the Valley was killed out in 1887 or 1888 when they had a big eruption in Indonesia, I believe it was. The whole top of a mountain blew up. Krakatoa, I think it was. According to the dictionary, Krakatoa was obliterated in 1883.
The ebony was handled in the same way as the mesquite. There was an awful lot of good ebony that was burned because it was in the way. Ebony was never as common as mesquite.
Most of this mesquite in the Valley was the same age. Mesquite all over south Texas and possibly as far as the Valley was killed out in 1887 or 1888 when they had a big eruption in Indonesia, I believe it was. The whole top of a mountain blew up. Krakatoa, I think it was. According to the dictionary, Krakatoa was obliterated in 1883.
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| Krakatoa Eruption |
That changed the weather over the entire world for two years. It
created some very severe winters in areas where they had never had
severe winters in recorded history. It killed off all the ebonies and
all the mesquites. That is, as far as I know.
Most of the trees were actually re-growth. Everything was 30-some years old. These trees were probably larger than what you would call virgin timber in the Valley right now -- particularly closer to the coast where apparently the freeze was not quite as bad. Some of them were large enough to cut up into good-sized boards which was evident by stuff you saw at Ino's.
Ino Wieske who lives south of Mission has mesquite furniture in his home that his father had built. After the 1933 hurricane, his father had blown-down mesquite saw milled and made into furniture by a cabinet maker in Weslaco or Mercedes.
Those were trees that had been felled by the '33 hurricane. But there were no large trees as far as we count large trees in east Texas, for instance. No 30-inch diameters or anything like that.
One of the things that helped the trees in the Valley grow the way they did is the delta-type soil, a good soil. But water was a problem. There was no water table back them. They hadn't irrigated enough to create one.
The water table as we knew it in later years was the accumulation of irrigation water, irrigation tail water, and rainwater. The soil problem in the Valley after irrigation started was lack of drainage. The water would accumulate and eventually the water table would rise to the surface. Now if you had no more rainfall and didn't irrigate, the water table would drop to 5 feet from surface evaporation. Capillary attraction would pull it from 4 to 4 ½ feet to the surface and evaporate it. This caused an accumulation of soluble alkalis in the soil, which, after so much irrigation, rendered it unfit for cultivation until it was reclaimed.
--------------------------
Here is another story dictated by my father.
Towards the end of his life, E. H. Nordmeyer (October 14, 1911 to July 2000) and Herb Nordmeyer spent time together talking about life in the Rio Grande Valley during the first half of the 20th century. Most was recorded on tape and since then Herb has transcribed and he and Judy edited those conversations.
Table of Contents: https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/6813612681836200616/3382423676443906063?hl=en
Most of the trees were actually re-growth. Everything was 30-some years old. These trees were probably larger than what you would call virgin timber in the Valley right now -- particularly closer to the coast where apparently the freeze was not quite as bad. Some of them were large enough to cut up into good-sized boards which was evident by stuff you saw at Ino's.
Ino Wieske who lives south of Mission has mesquite furniture in his home that his father had built. After the 1933 hurricane, his father had blown-down mesquite saw milled and made into furniture by a cabinet maker in Weslaco or Mercedes.
Those were trees that had been felled by the '33 hurricane. But there were no large trees as far as we count large trees in east Texas, for instance. No 30-inch diameters or anything like that.
One of the things that helped the trees in the Valley grow the way they did is the delta-type soil, a good soil. But water was a problem. There was no water table back them. They hadn't irrigated enough to create one.
The water table as we knew it in later years was the accumulation of irrigation water, irrigation tail water, and rainwater. The soil problem in the Valley after irrigation started was lack of drainage. The water would accumulate and eventually the water table would rise to the surface. Now if you had no more rainfall and didn't irrigate, the water table would drop to 5 feet from surface evaporation. Capillary attraction would pull it from 4 to 4 ½ feet to the surface and evaporate it. This caused an accumulation of soluble alkalis in the soil, which, after so much irrigation, rendered it unfit for cultivation until it was reclaimed.
--------------------------
Here is another story dictated by my father.
Towards the end of his life, E. H. Nordmeyer (October 14, 1911 to July 2000) and Herb Nordmeyer spent time together talking about life in the Rio Grande Valley during the first half of the 20th century. Most was recorded on tape and since then Herb has transcribed and he and Judy edited those conversations.
Table of Contents: https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/6813612681836200616/3382423676443906063?hl=en
