The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 67, July 1963 - April, 1964 Page: 387
This periodical is part of the collection entitled: Southwestern Historical Quarterly and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Texas State Historical Association.
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Population Trends in the Western Cross Timbers
the same five year period is impressive. It is indicative of the new
position of prominence the livestock industry has assumed in the
economy of the heartland. In neither 1954 nor in 1959, did the
income derived from cultivated crops rise above $io,25o,ooo
(Table 8). The sale of all livestock and livestock products, how-
ever, brought heartlanders $35,256,754 in 1954 and $60,656,277
in 1959. This represents an almost unbelievable cash increase of
$25,399,523 in just a five year period.
Livestock production is not a new industry in the heartland.
To the contrary, it was one of the earliest industries to develop;
but with the arrival of large numbers of frontiersmen who were
unable or unwilling to leave the timber regions of the state to
risk the dangers of the Great Plains to the west, small-unit farm-
ing became the predominant profession. Free grazing land dis-
appeared and timber clearance exposed new soils to the plow.
The great difficulty encountered in timber clearance helps ex-
plain why cultivated farm plots tended to be small until as late as
the second decade of the twentieth century. The river bottoms
were settled first, but next came the upland sandy loam soils.
Intermittent drought, water shortages, poor crops, and wind
erosion became constant companions of the heartland farmers.
The severest drought of the nineteenth century occurred in this
region during the 188o's. Memory of this disaster increased the
urban migration during the first half of the twentieth century.
The limited success enjoyed by some farmers in the heartland
can be explained largely in terms of disaster relief, federal sub-
sidies, and the widespread use of fertilizer.
Since a degree of prosperity was enjoyed by agriculture in the
United States prior to and during World War I, the physical
shortcomings inherent in the heartland did not reach crisis pro-
portions again until the 192o's and 1930's. Almost four million
bushels of oats were produced in the heartland in 1935, but
this impressive figure fell to barely one million a decade later.
Only 287,790 bushels of oats were produced in the province in
1954 (Table 9). Cattle production remained reasonably stable,
and wheat production increased slightly until the major decline
of the 1950's took shape. Corn production fell from 855,534
bushels in 1945 to 208,346 bushels in 1954. As has been pointed
out, cotton production fell from 58,775 bales in 1929 to 10,376387
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 67, July 1963 - April, 1964, periodical, 1964; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101197/m1/449/?q=%221777%22&rotate=270: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Texas State Historical Association.