Ranching on the Open Range
 The first West Texas ranchers owned little or not land. Their cattle grazed on the open range.
The open range was undeveloped public land held by the state government for future sale.
 Since there were not fences, cattle from several ranches often intermingled. To identify their own cattle, ranchers branded the animals.
 Ranchers on the open range considered the water and grass to be resources that everyone could share.

Land Policies
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In the 1850s, the state government began offering free public land to encourage internal improvements. Those are changes that help boost the economy and population.
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Railroads received almost 90 percent of this land
Land and cattle companies
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Open-range ranchers began to buy up land right away, before someone else did.
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Huge privately owned ranches soon developed.
Range wars
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Ranchers began fencing in their land in the
1880s.
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Conflicts between ranchers and sheepherders worsened.
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A range war developed over fences and fence cutting.

Changes For Cowboys
 Cowboys found fewer jobs.
There were now fewer long trail drives or open-range roundups.
 Cowboys’ new responsibilities included setting fence posts and stringing barbed wire.
 In 1883, Texas Rangers broke a strike by Panhandle cowboys.
A strike is a work stoppage to force an employer to meet certain demands
The Big Die-Up
 In 1885, thousands of cattle froze to death trying to flee a huge blizzard. They were trapped by drift fences that ranchers had put up to keep infected cattle away from the healthy herds. This became known at the Big Die-Up.
 The Big Die-Up nearly wiped out the herds in the
Panhandle. It also marked the start of the modern ranching industry in Texas.

The building of rail lines in Texas changed the cattle business.
Nearly all of the early rail lines linked Houston to nearby towns.
In 1873, the Texas rail system linked to the nationwide rail network.
Ranchers began shipping their cattle by rail.
By the 1890s, Fort Worth had become a collection point for Texas cattle.

• Commercial agriculture – the growing of crops for sale to make a profit
• Texas farmers used the railroad to ship surplus crops to market. Railroads also brought seeds, plows, and other supplies.
• Railroads allowed people to begin farming the land in
West Texas. Growing crops in that dry region required water conservation.
• Railroads showed Texas farmers the power of machines.
They began using machines to help plant and harvest their crops.

• Railroads put Texans in contact with more distant markets quickly and cheaply.
• Towns did what they could to convince railroads to lay tracks in their area:
 Cash incentives
 Donated sites
• The growth of the railroad in Texas spurred other businesses:
• Lumber for bridges, stations, rail ties, and platforms
• Food service for railway workers
• Coal to power the trains

During the 1870s, a rancher could hire a cowboy to drive his cattle to market for about $1.25 a head.
How much will it cost to send 3000 cattle to market?
During the same decade, it cost about 2 ½ times that amount (or $3.13) to transport his cattle to market by train. How much would it cost to send 3000 cattle to market?
Which one is less expensive?

• Texas ran ads and placed articles in southern newspapers to attract settlers to Texas in the mid to late 1800s.
• Most new settlers during this time were farmers. Some arranged with local farmers to work their land and became tenant farmers. Others bought public land from the state or from the railroads.
• Tenant farmer – a person who rents a plot of land from its owner and pays for its use with a share of the crop

The Cycle of Debt
Tenant farmers almost always planted cotton. They had to buy food, often on credit. The farmer had to pay interest, which is additional money paid to a lender for the use of the money borrowed. This made it difficult for tenant farmers to break the cycle of debt.
Supply and Demand
For tenant farmers to succeed, the price of cotton had to be high and the amount of cotton produced had to be great.
Because of the principle of supply and demand, these two conditions rarely happened together.

• Much of West Texas could not support farming without irrigation. Irrigation brings water to land by artificial means.
• Railroads wanted to sell land and lure settlers to West Texas.
They hid the truth about the dry conditions in West Texas from settlers. They said that West Texas was simply “less humid” than other areas.
• The U.S. suffered three economic depressions between 1870 and 1890. A depression is a period during which business activity and prices drop and many workers lose their jobs.
• Crop prices and demand for cash crops fell. Thousands of farms failed.
• By 1900, half of all the farmers in Texas were tenant farmers.

The Grange
• The National Grange was a farmers’ organization. It helped farmers share knowledge about the latest farming techniques.
• It also set up stores where farmers could purchase goods at a lower cost.
• A branch of the National Grange formed in Texas in 1873.
• The grangers worked to improve many aspects of life for farming families, including education. They helped create an agricultural college in Texas in 1876. Grangers also called for the regulation of railroads.
• During hard times in the 1880s, many Texas farmers left the
Grange and joined the Texas Farmers’ Alliance.

Product
Cotton
Uses
The cotton gin removed the seeds from the cotton. Cotton was used to make cloth and thread.
Cottonseed Oil
Corn
This was oil made from the seeds left after the cotton was ginned. This oil was used in the production of margarine and vegetable oil.
Early Texans used corn for food, corncobs for fuel and tool handles, and corn husks for mattress stuffing and writing paper. Corn became a major source of food for Texans and their livestock in the late 1800s.

• Hog raising – Texas ranked fourth in the country in hog production in the late 1800s.
• Sheep ranching and the wool industry – Newspaper publisher George Wilkins Kendall used his paper to turn the emphasis of sheep raising from meat to wool production in the 1850s. The Civil War helped boost demand for wool.
• Goat ranching – Many sheep ranchers also raised goats. By 1900, Texas led the nation in mohair production.