Chapter 1
Section 2
Railroads lead to ccommercial farming
Transportation Problems in Texas
After the Civil War…most farmers were subsistence farming (growing enough to feed their families)
Commercial farming required better, more reliable means of transportation to get goods to the markets…
• Rivers were reliable only about
50 miles inland
• The rest of the state was limited
To ox cart
***Texas was isolated from
commerce {buying and selling of
goods for transport form place to place}
Railroads Provide a Solution
Before the Civil War…railroads began to cross the United States providing a fast, efficient form of transportation…
…Texas allowed railroad companies to begin building tracks…provided land grants along the paths of the tracks to pay for the construction…
***only 100 miles of track at the beginning of the war
• War caused the government to focus on more urgent matters
• After was, Panic of 1873 (severe economic depression) closed banks…stock market crashed…railroad companies went out of business {1877 – citizens of Dallas voted to use city funds to continue work on the Dallas-Wichita Railroad}
1876-1885 – period of rapid growth
for railroads in Texas
• Almost half of the track in Texas
was built during this time
• 1890 – 8,000 miles of track in
Texas
• 1900 - Texas led the nation in
miles of railroad track constructed
Railroads Encourage Expansion
By the early 1900s, goods could be shipped to any place in the United States from almost anywhere in Texas…
• farmers bought more land for large commercial farms
• Railroad companies saw an opportunity to profit
o Divided land on either side of the railroad tracks and sold it at low prices to farmers and businesses
▪ Farms near railroads could easily ship goods to market
▪ Businesses could sell goods to farmers
▪ Cities grew up along Texas railroads
o Farming in West Texas expanded
▪ Railroads promoted farming in West Texas with brochures and fliers describing the soil and wide-open spaces…
▪ Demonstration farms were created to show state-of-the-art farming methods
▪ Odessa established by railroads…
Farmers Discover a Water Source
Land was cheap in West Texas
because rainfall was limited…
Underground water on the plains
(Ogallala Aquifer) could be pumped
to the surface by windmills
Water was used for…
▪ Drinking
▪ Bathing
▪ Washing
▪ Watering small gardens
Technology Revolutionizes Farming
Railroads…
Shipping by rail was cheap…
500 lb. bale of cotton
(Denison to Houston)
ox cart - $15.00…two weeks
railroad - $4.00…one day
Steel Plow…
▪ Stronger…longer lasting than iron
Plows
▪ “Blue Kelly” especially effective in
breaking the tough soil of the
Blackland Prairie
Cotton Gin…
…new method of separating seeds
from cotton
✓ quicker
✓ cheaper
***cottonseed became a very
profitable state industry with
markets in Europe…
Tractor…
…powered by steam
…pulled farm machinery behind it
(plow)
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