The Historic Black Lands of Texas, part 4

With the invention of plows capable of breaking through the “black waxy”, the prairie sods were turned and European-style farming came to the area. As R. T. Hill pointed out in 1901, “Large quantities of cotton, corn, and minor crops are annually raised upon these fertile lands.” The chief limiting factor for farming was the availability of water. Dams and small tanks were soon constructed to retain surface flows, and as Hill noted “for domestic purposes its inhabitants depend largely upon cisterns or ponds, the water from both of which is unwholesome”. Land not plowed for crops was mowed for hay, and a few of these old hayfields still stand open to the North Texas sun. Similarly, a few farmhouses built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries can still be found at historic sites in Dallas and smaller cities across the area.

Publicado el 08 de mayo de 2020 a las 03:33 AM por jbryant