Letter from Jim Provines to Mama Margaret: 9/16/1916
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A letter to Mama Margaret from her younger brother Jim Provines, who is farming in Splendora, Texas.
1916-09-16: ~AUDIO~---images---comment---transcript---notes---links---site navigation
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1916-09-16: audio---images---~COMMENT~---transcript---notes---links---site navigation
A very matter-of-fact, down to earth letter.
1916-09-16: audio---images---comment---~TRANSCRIPT~---notes---links---site navigation
Splendora Sep 17
Dear Sister
Your letter recd some time ago, intended to write last Sunday, but it rained all day and my and my roof is so leaky could not find a spot dry enough to write in. The days are very hot here now but the nights are cool. The hogs are pretty fat, have fed them all the peanuts I raised, am now feeding Sweet Potatoes will have enough to feed them 3 or 4 weeks yet, they won’t sell for much, only about half of what they would bring in a Northern Market the two old ones will weigh about 200 each and the young ones about 100 - can only get about 6¢ a pound here, I don’t think Texas any good for raising hogs too hot and dry in summer. This was a good year for corn in Texas, was plenty of rain at right time. I did not have any planted could not get any one to plow in time to plant.
I have not wrote to Will, thought he was not much interested in farming anymore. My pecan budding was a failure, did not get any to grow. I was so long getting Beeswax the season was about over and was too hot I think - will try dormant budding this winter, have had a good many figs and the trees are full yet. I cook them and Muskadines together.
Will send all the money I get from the hogs to Will. Write again.
Love and best wishes,
Jim
Dear Sister
Your letter recd some time ago, intended to write last Sunday, but it rained all day and my and my roof is so leaky could not find a spot dry enough to write in. The days are very hot here now but the nights are cool. The hogs are pretty fat, have fed them all the peanuts I raised, am now feeding Sweet Potatoes will have enough to feed them 3 or 4 weeks yet, they won’t sell for much, only about half of what they would bring in a Northern Market the two old ones will weigh about 200 each and the young ones about 100 - can only get about 6¢ a pound here, I don’t think Texas any good for raising hogs too hot and dry in summer. This was a good year for corn in Texas, was plenty of rain at right time. I did not have any planted could not get any one to plow in time to plant.
I have not wrote to Will, thought he was not much interested in farming anymore. My pecan budding was a failure, did not get any to grow. I was so long getting Beeswax the season was about over and was too hot I think - will try dormant budding this winter, have had a good many figs and the trees are full yet. I cook them and Muskadines together.
Will send all the money I get from the hogs to Will. Write again.
Love and best wishes,
Jim
1916-09-16: audio---images---comment---transcript---~NOTES~---links---site navigation
1.
Mama Margaret sent this letter on to Will enclosed in her letter
1916_09_22_Letter_FROM_MargaretProvinesStokey_TO_WillStokey (not yet uploaded)
…along with another letter from Jim:
2.
My pecan budding was a failure, did not get any to grow.
More about the pecans: Mama Margaret passed to Alma on a question from Will: He wants me to ask you about pecans. If they would in planting produce what is grafted or like the original stock that they were grafted on to. He is going to buy some thin shelled ones to send to Jim to plant so he can graft them onto the bitter kind that grow wild there, but he was not sure they would when grafted be what he would send.
And in Jim's letter previous to this one, he also mentioned his failure with them: I have had poor luck budding pecans, have tried all the ways I know of but have failed to get any to grow yet - it may be the weather is too hot, or that I sweat too much. One of the catalogues says any one that sweats much can’t bud Pecan.
3.
Jim died in Pennsylvania in 1924, but when Will was in Texas in 1934 he met with a friend of Jim's:I saw Uncle Jim's friend John Sullivan. ("The Irishman") He was looking well and seemed to be getting along fairly well, but he didn't think much of farming in that neighborhood, or part of the country. There is really very much better land in other parts of Texas and I think there is plenty of it not cultivated.
Mama Margaret sent this letter on to Will enclosed in her letter
1916_09_22_Letter_FROM_MargaretProvinesStokey_TO_WillStokey (not yet uploaded)
…along with another letter from Jim:
2.
My pecan budding was a failure, did not get any to grow.
More about the pecans: Mama Margaret passed to Alma on a question from Will: He wants me to ask you about pecans. If they would in planting produce what is grafted or like the original stock that they were grafted on to. He is going to buy some thin shelled ones to send to Jim to plant so he can graft them onto the bitter kind that grow wild there, but he was not sure they would when grafted be what he would send.
And in Jim's letter previous to this one, he also mentioned his failure with them: I have had poor luck budding pecans, have tried all the ways I know of but have failed to get any to grow yet - it may be the weather is too hot, or that I sweat too much. One of the catalogues says any one that sweats much can’t bud Pecan.
3.
Jim died in Pennsylvania in 1924, but when Will was in Texas in 1934 he met with a friend of Jim's:I saw Uncle Jim's friend John Sullivan. ("The Irishman") He was looking well and seemed to be getting along fairly well, but he didn't think much of farming in that neighborhood, or part of the country. There is really very much better land in other parts of Texas and I think there is plenty of it not cultivated.
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