Texas Almanac, 1945-1946 Page: 179
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Agricultural Industries of Texas
Crop growing and livestock raising still
constitute the basic industry in the Texas
economy, although there has been rapid ex-
pansion of the mineIsals-producing and man-
ufacturing industries in recent years.
With more than 500 soil types and a
range of climate from the subtropical in the
Lower Rio Grande Valley to middle temper-
ate in the upper Panhandle, Texas has
greater diversity of crop and livestock pro-
duction than any other state. The Depart-
ment of Agriculture in its regular reports
lists forty-two crops with a commercial value,
but about 130 crops are grown, including
those produced only for home consumption.
Laborers in shirt sleeves are picking citrus
In the Lower Rio Grande Valley while snow
covers sprouting wheat in the Panhandle, 700
miles to the north. Texas soils range from
light- sands to heavy clays, the annual rain-
fall varies from 55 Inches in the east to 10
in the extreme west. Mean annual temper-
ature in the extreme south is 74 degrees, in
the upper Panhandle 56, and elevations suit-
able for varying crops range from sea level
to 4.000 feet.
The state's surface soils cover 168,732,160
acres, constituting its greatest resource. The
last census (1940) showed 137.683.372 acres in
farms, with harvested crop land amounting
only to 19 per cent of the total, or 26,044,008.
The agricultural industry of Texas, accord-
ing to the 1940 census, consists of 418,002
farms with an average of 329 4 acres to the
farm and a total value, including only land
and buildings, of $2,589,978.936. Comparable
1930 figures were 495,489 farms, 251.7 acres
to the farm, and a value of $3.597.406,986.
The decline in value was part of the gen-
eral deflation in farm values in the United
States during the 1930-1940 decade There
has been a rapid rise in Texas farm values
from 1940 to 1944 and the unofficial estimate
for 1944 is placed at more than $4,200,000,000,
including only land and buildings.
The War and Other Trends.
World War II had a revolutionary effect
on Texas agriculture during the five years,
1940-1944, inclusive. Trends that began in
the early thirties and continued during gov-
ernment crop control and adjustment pro-
grams after 1933 were accelerated. These
included greater diversification, increase in
mechanization and size of farms, constant
shifts in labor, decline in tenancy and a gain
in production efficiency.
Acreage Shifts
Harvested acreage of cotton was 16,138,000
in 1930, but had dropped to 8,523,000 in 1940.
In 1944 it fell to 7.200,000, lowest since 1899,
when 6,950.000 acres were harvested. The
Department of Agriculture commented on the
1944 figure: "Much of the shift from cotton
has gone into sorghums and other feed and
good crops, with very little change in the
total acreage of land being devoted to crop
production. ' To illustrate, combined pro-
duction of four feed grains (corn. oats, bar-
ley and grain sorghums) in 1943 was 185,-
354,000 bushels, 25 per cent greater than the
ten-year (1932-41) average. Home-canned
food in 1943 amounted to 199,000.000 contain-
ers, and home-produced, home-preserved
foods stored by rural families were valued
that year at $40,000,000. At the same time,
the extension of livestock continued over the
state, notably in those areas with secondary
soil resources.
Farm Population Changes
The decline in farm population that was
noted from 1930 to 1940 is continuing and
has been greatly accelerated by the war.
From 1930 to 1940 rural farm Dopulation of
the state dropped from 2,342.553 to 2,149,187.
The texas Agricultural Experiment Station
says unofficial estimates as of June, 1944.
placed the total at 1.740.000. Approximately
625,000 Texans are In the armed services, amajority of whom are from rural areas
Thousands of far mei s and faim labored s
hale entered defense giants and gone to
bettei-oarinz lobs in the city
Much of this change inmoled a migration
of farm laborers foi hire and tenants Dur-
ing the 1930-40 decade the number of farms
operated by ow ne s remained fairly stable
the 1940 figure being 210 182. But during
that period tenants declined from 301.660 to
204.462 and sharecroppers from 105,122 to
only 39,821 At the same time, the axetage
size of the farm jumped from 2517 in 1930
to 329.4 In 1940
This trend-decline of farm population
and increase in size of farIm-undoubtedly
continued and was accelerated after the
United States entered the war During the
spring and early summer of 1944 farmers in
many counties, struggling to meet war goals
in food and feed production pooled their
small manpower reserves and even their
machinery. Yet the total harvested acre-
age of twenty-four principal crops for 1944
was 29,179,000, a gain of more than 2 000 000
acres over the ten-year (1933-42) average
This was made possible largely by increased
use of machinery. The U S Agrtcultural
Adjustment Administration placed at 195.056
the number of tractors on Texas far ms in the
summer of 1944. This compares with 98.923
in 1940 and 37,348 in 1930. The number al-
most doubled in the five years, 1940-1944
inclusive
Simultaneously with the decline in tenants
and sharecroppers has been a decrease in
migratory or transient farm labor in Texas.
These bands of workers, mostly of Mexican
descent, annually follow the crops north-
ward from the Lower Rio Grande Valley to
Northwest Texas They begin late in July
with the cotton hardest in the Valley and
return from the High Plains cotton ait ea in
December. During the winter they work
principally on citrus and vegetable crops of
South Texas In 1943. according to the Tex-
as Agricultural Experiment Station. the
number of transients was estimated at 140.-
000 to 150,000. only half of the 1939 total.
About 150,000 migrated to the Low and High
Plains of West Texas in 1943 for the cotton
harvest. Those areas depend for about 90
per cent of their harvest labor on workers
rom other parts of the state Northern and
western states are also drawing South Texas
workers to harvest sugar beets.
Past and Future
Development of agriculture in Texas has
largely been through utilization of new soil
and range resources. Chronological develop-
ment included settlement of wooded areas
of East and Southeast Texas. plowing of the
rich Blackland region just before the Civil
War, which continued in the seventies under
the impetus of railroad building, settlement
by farmers of Middle West Texas in the
early eighties, from 1910 to 1930, develop-
ment of the hard wheat and cotton areas on
the High and Low Plains, respectively and
concurrent development of cotton-growing
areas around Corpus Christi and the fruit
and vegetable industries in the Winter Gar-
den and Lower Rio Grande Valley of South
Texas
Texas' agricultural future depends on many
factors, one of the most important of which
will be the postwar economy resulting from
the peace. Because 90 per cent of the cot-
ton crop has been exported in the past and
other commodities have found their way into
foreign consumption, much will depend on
the future type and 'volume of foreign trade.
However. Texas will never again be a one-
crop state, but will seek its future in a di-
versity of crop production combined with
livestock. Mechanization will increase and
the trend in recent years has been to greater
yields per crop as a result of fertilization, in-
179
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Texas Almanac, 1945-1946, book, 1945; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117166/m1/181/: accessed May 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.