Texas Almanac, 1952-1953 Page: 202
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TEXAS ALMANAC.-1952-1953.
cessful growing in the preceding year, but
it failed because of the drouth that prevailed.
Along with the flaxseed industry there has
developed a limited production of guar, a
drouth-resistant legume, grown for its seed,
and as a nitrogen restorer. It is planted in
March and harvested in August, between flax
crops which are planted in the autumn and
harvested in the spring or early summer.
BLACK-EYED PEAS.-This crop (usually
listed as cowpeas in reports of the U.S. De-
partment of Agriculture) is grown generally
in East Texas on sandy lands, though it
grows well on a number of soils. Henderson
ounty is normally the heaviest producer,
and Athens is the leading market and proc-
essing point. The crop of 1950 was 705,000
bushels produced on 94,000 acres, and valued
at $2,468,000. The crop of 1940 was 646,000
bushels grown on 76,000 acres, valued at
$1,996,000. Both crops were below the ten-
year, 1939-1948, average of 1,034,000 bushels
from 149,000 acres. In addition to its value as
a vegetable, it is an excellent soil-building
and cover crop and a varying but considerable
acreage is grown for green manure.
SORGHUM FOR SILAGE.-In addition to
the sweet and semisweet sorghums grown for
syrup and forage, it is a leading crop for
silage. In 1950 a crop of 364,000 tons was pro-
duced from 79,000 acres; and in 1949 a crop
of 245,000 tons was produced from 50,000
acres. These represented a decline from the
ten-year average, 1939-1948, of 708,000 tons
from 163,000 acres. The construction of silos
and production of silage from sorghum and
other forage in Texas were begun in the early
part of the century, then declined and re-
vived later with the introduction of the trench
silo in which most of the silage is stored
today. Silage is favored in Texas largely as
a backlog feed supply, since it can be held
in storage over long periods against the re-current drouths that characterize Texas
weather.
Minor Crops.-A number of experimental
crops have been grown in Texas during
recent years, some of which will probably
become important commercially. Noteworthy
are a number of oilseed crops. Tung nuts
are grown in several Southeast Texas coun-
ties. Castor beans are grown in the Lower
Rio Grande Valley, in the Chillicothe area
and several other locations. Sesame and
perilla are grown on the coast and the
safflower on some irrigated lands in the
western part of the state.
A small varying crop of garlic is grown in
Southeast Texas, principally in Lavaca Coun-
ty. It was not included in the government
reports pf 1950 and 1951, but the report for
1949 showed 400 acres producing 5,000 100-
pound sacks.
The black walnut is grown in Navarro and
other Blackland counties, near Houston, and
at several points on the High Plains. Hemp
can be grown successfully in large areas in
East and South Texas but is legally restricted
because the drug marijuana can be made
from it. There has been some experimenta-
tion with ramie, introduced from Florida, in
Leon and other counties. Tobacco can be
grown successfully on East Texas soils and
is cultivated in some years in Nacogdoches,
San Augustine and other counties of that
area.
Some other crops grown experimentally or
on small commercial scale are almonds,
anise, avocados, buckwheat, chinquapin nuts,
collards, crotolaria seeds, dates, emmer,
guavas, hickory nuts, jujubes, kale, kum-
quats, mayhaw, mushrooms, mustard, okra.
olives, parsley, parsnips, papayas, persim-
mons, pomegranates, pumpkins, quinces,
sesbania, soybeans, squash, sunflower seed,
tangelos, turnips, velvet beans, youngberries.Livestock Raising-Products
Character of soil and climate of Texas gradually grew up a contention for more and
make it primarily a livestock-raising region, better livestock raising as part of a program
Of its total farm area of approximately of diversified farming. But from the begin-
141,000,000 acres, fully 75 per cent is better nings of Anglo-American settlement until the
adapted to livestock raising than to crop early part of the present century, Texans
growing. Its usually rolling topography and clung to cotton and range cattle as their
mild, dry climate are also advantages to the chief economic supports-the small cotton
livestock industries. Furthermore, while the farm in the east and the big cattle ranch in
livestock industries of Texas will continue the west.
for a long while to become more intensified Several factors entered into the final real-
in stock farming and the feeding of meat izatlon of the logical development of Texas
animals, and in the dairy and poultry indus- livestock-raising industries. One was the
tries, a major part of it will continue better breakdown of the cotton industry before the
adapted to range production. The ranch- rising competition of foreign lint. Another
including the big ranch-will persist. was the growing urban population in Texas
While Texas became a great beef-cattle and beyond its borders that increased the
state at an early age and turned quickly to market for livestock products. Still another
sheep and goat raising on the range, it was was the intangible but slowly accumulative
slow to grasp the greater opportunities for and powerful effect of the constant argu-
developing livestock raising. The men and ment of foreseeing leaders, and the results
women from the Old South were bred to the of research by such agencies as the Texas
cotton tradition. They were crop growers. Agricultural Experiment Station and the
They saw principally the advantage the educational efforts of the A&M Extension
Texas prairies offered in their easy conver- Service through its county farm and home
sion to croplands. In many instances they demonstration agents The efforts of these
plowed land that never should have been agencies, plus the efforts of local farm, com-
plowed, mercial and civic organizations with such
When the evidence presented by the mil- slogans as grow-your-living-at-home and cow-
lions of wild cattle convinced them of the sow-and-hen gradually brought results.
practicability of livestock raising, they went On basis of government data for 1950,
into big-scale cattle raising without much Texas was the leading state in livestock
thought of potentialities other than the free population, but still trailing Iowa and Illinois
grass, min cash received from annual sale -of live-
Yet, livestock raising was the basic indus- stock and livestock products. And the total
try of earliest colonial Texas, the colonial amount received for Texas livestock and
Texas of the Spanish and Mexican eras. Live- products was still below that received for
stock raising, not crop growing, was the crops, but not as far behind as in former
principal economic support of the communi- years. In that year, Texas farmers and
ties that grew up around the old missions. ranchmen received $879,681,000 for their sale
As the economic drawbacks of the one- of livestock and products as against $1,267,-
crop cotton-growing system became more 381.000 from crops.
and more evident to foreseeing Texans, there (Continued on page 203.)
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Texas Almanac, 1952-1953, book, 1951; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117137/m1/204/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.