Ranching And Farming In Texas

Early farmers in Europe and elsewhere practiced shifting cultivation, also known as swidden agriculture.Although the lands around the Mediterranean seem to have shared a complex of crops and farming techniques, geographical barriers blocked the spread elsewhere. Rainfall patterns south of the Sahara favored locally domesticated grains—sorghums, millets, and (in Ethiopia) teff—over wheat and barley. In the Americas a decline of game animals in the Tehuacán° Valley of Mexico after 8000 B.C.E. increased people’s dependence on wild plants. Agriculture based on maize (corn) developed there about 3000 B.C.E. and gradually spread. The first domesticated animal, the dog, may have helped hunters track game well before the Neolithic period. Later, animals initially provided meat but eventually supplied milk, wool, and energy as well.Meat eating did not decline during the revolution.

In a bid to encourage people onto the Plains advertisements told success stories of those who had claimed land under the terms of the Homestead Act and had become successful. It divided 2.5 million acres of Plains land into sections or homesteads of 160 acres. People could now claim 160 acres of land. The only requirement on their part was that they paid a small charge and built a house or added something to the land such as a house or a well and lived on the land for at least 5 years.

The main Indian tribes that lived in the Great Plains and Mountain Basin region were the Tigua, Comanche, Apache, Kiowa, and Jumano.

From the 1920s and into 1930s, oil fields in Oklahoma were booming in wild production. Even larger fields were opening in East Texas across the Red River, and in the Permian Basin around Odessa. Oil flooded the market, and when oil prices dropped, it was no longer profitable (pg. 219). As for the farmers, it impacted them negatively because the things that they grew or the cattle they raise would be sold for very little (pg. 219-220).

Farmers did well after the Civil War and into the 1880s with plentiful rainfall and easy credit from banks. In the 1890s, however, American farmers suffered from drought, poor harvests, restrictive tariff and fiscal policies, low commodity prices, and competition from abroad. A downward swing in the business cycle exacerbated their plight, and many farmers in the Plains filed for

Describe the origins, purposes, and practices of the "long drive" and the "open range" cattle industry. What ended this brief but colorful boom? What was the long-run nature of the cattle business?

With the civil war, thousands of farms were left untouched and disheveled leaving millions of partially wild cows wondering the states. Cattlemen were on the high rise in the beginning. One cause pertaining to their success was the breed of cattle that they had available to them, the Texas Longhorn. Breed by the English and Spanish this type of cattle could travel on little water for long distanced and could sustain year-round off grass. Railroads soon developed and this then allowed cattle to be transported via train cart which was easier and less effort as well as the ability to ship all round the country. However, the decline of the cattle kingdom came with Texas fever, river crossings, barbed wire and the very thing that once gave a boost to the cattlemen, the long train drives. River crossings soon posed a threat for cattlemen to herd because the cattle would drown trying to cross the deep waters. Barbed wire came into play limiting cattle drives and shipping which caused issues between the ranchers and cowboys. Then the drives of cattle around the country hindered their rise because the cattle numbers would drop because of Texas fever and the cows crammed so close

Longhorn Cattle have a long history to go with their long horns that they are known for which can grow up to seven feet wide. Their progenitors were acquainted with the New World in 1493 when Christopher Columbus arrived in the present-day Caribbean Islands. As Spanish moved north they carried the cows with them and in the eighteen - hundreds longhorns touched base in the zone that would get to be Texas. These cattle were viewed as wild until tamed in the nineteenth century. (Radke)

From the colonial era until the late nineteenth century, the United States was a producer-oriented nation. Simply, most Americans produced what they needed, generating only what their immediate families or villages could use. Farmers—sometimes inaccurately called "subsistence farmers"—grew a variety of crops and vegetables on small acreages, stored what their families could use, and peddled whatever surplus there might be in the nearest town. The raising of livestock usually centered on one or two family dairy cows and some swine and fowl for slaughter. Few large commercial herds existed.

Two Alsatian immigrants, Henry Miller and Charles Lux, Pioneered the West’s mix of agriculture and industrialism. They began as meat wholesalers. They quickly expanded their business to encompass cattle land, and land reclamation projects such as dams and irrigation systems. They became one of America’s industrial behemoths. These “industrial cowboys” grazed a herd of 100,000 cattle on 1.25 million acres of company land in California, Oregon, and Nevada and employed more than 1,200 migrant laborers on their corporate ranches. |

Mexican-Americans lost their land through confiscation and fraud. Rancheros, or small ranchers, had to deal with land displacement from Anglo cattle drivers. One of the main professions in Texas was cattle driving. Many Mexican-Americans tried to pursue this profession, but failed for numerous reasons. Probably the most obvious reason was the cost of cattle driving. As a result of the high costs, wealthy Anglo-Americans purchased the herds and did the cattle driving north themselves. Another barrier to successful cattle drives for the Tejanos were language barriers. Many Tejanos had language handicaps and as a result were more likely to experience considerable amounts of prejudice from other cattle drivers. The result of these prejudices resulted in Mexican-American cattle drivers working for Anglo ranchers and Anglo trail bosses. This is a great example of how the “food chain” of Texas citizens was created and

As the amount of crops produced increased, the prices paid for them decreased. This is shown by the graphs, “Production and Prices, 1860-1895” In 1860, only 1000 million bushels of corn was produced, and the price per bushel was about $.65. By 1895 over 2500 million bushels

In Texas, the word initially denoted an establishment engaged in livestock production using unimproved range pastures as the primary resource, with or without plow land crops. From the beginning, ranching often included raising cattle, sheep and goats, and horses. Cattle ranching has been a major Texas industry for nearly three centuries. Many ranching customs taken for granted today had their origins in Spain, including branding and ear-marking to denote ownership. Texas ranching derived many of its working procedures from Spanish and Mexican cattle-handling methods. Even much of the ranching vocabulary has been handed down from Spanish, though many of the terms have been Anglicized almost beyond recognition.

As the twentieth century approached, America was experiencing a time of considerable expansion. All eyes were looking for ways to make the United States a larger, more powerful, and more efficient country. Because of this wave in American society, there was no movement given more devotion than the settling of the West. The range-cattle industry in its various aspects, and in its importance to the United States and particularly to the Great Plains, has been a subject of focus to Americans since its origin in the mid 1800's. This industry was rendered possible by such factors as vast sections of fertile land, the rise of heavy industry involving the great demand for beef, and

Most people who settled the Great Plains were ranchers. The western frontier was an idea place for grazing huge herds of cattle. Cowboys tended herds of cattle, branded them, and managed long cattle drives across the open prairies. In 1869 the building of the transcontinental railroad made it possible to ship the cattle market in large and profitable numbers (JRank Articles 2011). The experience of the