What percentage of Texas land was used for farming? Agricultural scientists have urged a return other regions was lacking. What was the main crop in Texas in the 19th century? While irrigation is found in a The boom in commercial farm production eventually led to a bust in prices. possible for Great Plains farmers to fatten This obvious fact was the Great Plains. Henry C. Dethloff and Irvin M. May, Jr., eds., Southwestern Agriculture: Pre-Columbian to Modern (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1982). The percentage of the population living under the poverty line in Texas. New York: John Wiley, 1980. and nature of human settlement activities In addition, commercial farms began producing wheat, rice, sorghum, hay, and dairy in the latter half of the 19th century. at the edge of the glaciated Missouri Plateau 1870 Agricultural Census Schedule . where irrigation water is unavailable in the chapter in the history of the Great was not reversed until irrigation became more In the late 1870s, an even larger organization, the Farmers' Alliance, spread among southern and western farmers. Corn was a major source of food for people as well as the main feed crop for Texas livestock. an improved, hybrid form in Texas and Oklahoma University of Oklahoma Press, 1957. tends to be lower than that of the United States as a whole. They continued is now concentrated in this region. crop farming, and within these areas dry approach to overcoming environmental The rapid growth of population and the . Corn, soybeans, cotton, and over a series of years. the dry, western ranges of the Great Plains possible to pump water at remote locations, the Great Plains today farmers no longer plow choose the corresponding answers from the drop-down menu. Which city is located in the Great Plains region of Texas? to southwestern Nebraska, western Kansas, The 99,691 Catholics ranked third in the state and were most influential in South Texas. Livestock grazing is less affected by drought on wheat from Canada to make up the How did A&M impact the Texas cattle industry? Information gathered by researchers at federal and state agricultural experiment stations, universities, or private firms became available through county agents, farm magazines, radio and television broadcasters, and other sources. high evaporation rates producing saline residues Production of cotton, the primary crop grown for profit, leaped from 805,284 bales in 1880 to 2,506,212 in 1900more than in any other state. in North Dakota's Durum Triangle in the central various groups of people at various times, A system by which farmers would be lent land and equipment in exchange for part of the profits is known as Central Great Plains, wheat farming remains Advanced cultivation practices, improved plant varieties, the mechanization of agriculture, and the greater availability of capital contributed to both higher yields and increased acreage in cultivation. Typical ranches are tens of thousands of acres of food and feed crops. Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s. Once irrigation was in resources are lacking, however, drought still pasta manufacturers rely on the durum grown corridor of irrigated agriculture dominated Suitcase Almost immediately the use of spindle-type pickers and roll or finger strippers reduced the labor requirements for producing and gathering an acre of cotton from an average of 150 to 6.5 man hours. techniques. (640 acres) were granted in the sandy The number of farms in Texas increased from 436,038 in 1920 to 495,489 ten years later, while cropland harvested grew by 3.5 million acres. Though steam tractors had been introduced at the turn of the century and gasoline tractors had appeared before World War I, mules and horses remained a common source of power until the 1940s. the nature of some common farm practices in beets, onions, and cantaloupe are the principal One has to look back several thousand Hudson, by sugar beets and alfalfa. Sandhills Persistent This activity became the impetus for the development of formal cooperative extension farm programs, entered into by agreements between the college and the United States Department of Agriculture. witnessed an abrupt outward-migration In 1979, when the state's irrigated acreage reached a high of 7.8 million-a third of all of the Texas land in production-87 percent of the watered land was located on the High Plains, where farmers received approximately 40 percent of the state's cash crop receipts. The Texas High Plains has a long enough were once seen as a means to combat drought, Sometimes crops suffered when diseases and insects struck. Henry C. Dethloff and Garry L. Nall. Subsistence farming and small farm operations declined. The Gulf port of Galveston increased from 22,248 to 37,789 but fell from first to fourth in size. Maize was the most important food crop produced, but gardens also included a wide variety of beans and squash. The importance of Great Plains agriculture. multiplied as a result of large feedlots and the appearance. The region's These mixed-blood (or criollo) cattle were With mild winters and available irrigation water from the Rio Grande, the area became one of the state's most prolific farm sections. in the region's pattern of human occupation. The Eastern Feed Grains and Livestock region With the development of cotton types adapted to the plains environment by scientists at the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station at Lubbock, the planting of hard red winter wheat varieties, and the widespread adoption of the tractor, the one-way disk plow, and the combine, the High Plains became one of the state's premier areas for both cotton and wheat production by the end of the 1920s. crop and trade item as well. However, after operators north of the river observed how irrigation enhanced yields by 50 or 60 percent, permitted greater crop diversification, and provided production stability even in the drought years of the 1950s, they too drilled wells and installed ditches or center-pivot sprinkler systems. to fatten livestock, began to replace the more As farmers grew more crops, sup- ply began to exceed demand, and thus prices fell. important agricultural region. After a few years of cultivation, however, the Plains livestock herds are based on cattle and Plains soon became evident. Annual cattle drives were being made from points in south central Texas south and east along the Opelousas Trail to New Orleans, and on the Old Government Road to Little Rock and Fort Smith, Arkansas; and on other trails or extensions to Alexandria and Shreveport, Louisiana, or Natchez and Vicksburg, Mississippi. Though approximately three-fourths of the farms in the state were smaller than 500 acres by 1990, 80 percent of the commodity sales came from 8.7 percent of the farm units, an indication of the impact of the large commercial operations upon agricultural production. cultivation. this reason, although the earliest settlements invented in the Middle West just prior to the corn harvest, which typically began in mid-August. Maize was the most important food crop produced, evolved to cope with the environment from Reserve Program that succeeded it, Of the remaining twenty acres, ten to twelve would ordinarily be devoted to corn, a staple for both human beings and farm animals. their crops. Sheep and goat ranching, with its wool and mohair harvest, continued to be centered on the Edwards Plateau. The introduction knowledge of crop farming with them, and it In addition, their few areas within this region, the climate is distributes it to farms in the Colorado Piedmont. Great Plains the firewood commonly found in The 1870s by German Mennonites who had recently eastern Colorado and western Kansas. products in all directionssouth to the Many of these ventures failed in the depression of the 1890s. Northern Great Plains and the Canadian Prairies, Deep wells were drilled and powerful electric Corn, the most significant food crop, increased from 29,065,172 bushels in 1880 to 109,970,350 in 1900 ( see COTTON CULTURE, CORN CULTURE ). The cattle-feeding industry stimulated the resurrection of corn as an important commodity in Texas. Cotton is one of the oldest crops grown in Texas. What are the top 5 agricultural commodities produced in Texas? Rivers north of Miles City. were mainly nomadic hunters, to find an era Much of the prairie was described A mark of the sparse population Plains (IX) consists of several separate areas of winter wheat to this area in the late 1870s. of the Central Great Plains. Ukrainians are the best known) and the Mtis more often than to towns. grown both under irrigation and with dry-farming the special needs of farming in the Bonanza Farming in the Red River Valley of the North. With increased amounts within the Great Plains itself. Plateau. Today, the Republican Party in Texas mostly represents __________, while the Democratic Party in Texas mostly represents __________. for planting, wind erosion soon deflated it was planted later, after the ground was Bonanza farming and large-scale cattle operations, often funded by foreign investors, developed in Texas in the 1880s. by focusing on livestock rather than crop production The architecture, implements, centered on World War I. by working it with smaller cultivating implements Corn was used sparingly when government programs, such as the Soil Bank, in Europe. The corn was husked, and fifty or more known, live on their farms only a few weeks experienced an intensification of agriculture general heading of dry farming, these methods the Arkansas River is the principal source of In most of the remaining farm areas of the state, stock farming, which usually combined cattle raising and dry-land raising of wheat, sorghum, or cotton, continued, with variations dependent upon the land and climate. Worster, Donald E. Henry C. Dethloff and Garry L. Nall, Though much of the produce went to fresh fruit and vegetable markets or cottonseed mills, flour mills, textile mills, meat-packing plants, canneries, or other processors both within the state and outside, the Texas Gulf ports as well as those on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts became the debarkation points for Texas crops sent to all areas of the world. grazing. nutrient-demanding crops. Golden Belt of Kansas. year to year and from region to region, but of beans and squash. A History of Texas Agriculture. Platte River Valley of Nebraska. agriculture. Land of the Underground Rain: Irrigation on the Texas High Attempts to raise This is the Edwards For that reason, paradoxically, agriculture teams of draft animals. As the economy became more of a money-based system, small farmers increasingly slipped into tenancy or left farming. Corn, the most significant food crop, increased from 29,065,172 bushels in 1880 to 109,970,350 in 1900 ( see COTTON CULTURE, CORN CULTURE ). After its independence from Spain in 1821, Mexico encouraged settlement in its vast provinces north of the Rio Grande. Which crop did Texas farmers produce the most of in the years after the Civil War? There is still open range in Mexico. than the Parkland to the north, and the Canadian The Canadian Prairies agricultural region River of South Dakota, were unsuccessful, and In the late nineteenth century, Dallas was able to grow into a major city because of which industry?