Texas Almanac, 1941-1942 Page: 204

                                
204                      TEXAS ALMANAC -1941-42.

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Texas Cotton Crop-Statistics.
The cotton acreage of Texas in 1940 is
reported by the United States Departi ment
of Agriculture at 8,523,000 with a production
of 3,285.000 bales. The estimate for 1939 was
8,520,000 acres and 2,846,000 bales. (The cen-
sus report released subsequently indicates
that the 1939 crop was 2,724,442 bales from
8,105,711 acres ) These figures are the lowest
for cotton acreage in Texas since 1905 when
t was 8,018,000. They are about half of the
acreage of the peak period of cotton acreage
in Texas, 1924, 1925 and 1926, when the acre-
age was 17,049,000, 17,336,000 and 17,749,000,
respectively. The production of the last two
years, however, has averaged a little better
than 60 per cent of the production of the
peak period   Logically, production has de-
clined less than acreage since it has been the
marginal acres that have been diverted from
cotton to other purposes.
Valued at $147,825,000, the 1940 cotton crop
was 40 per cent of the total farm value of
$367,108,000 estimated for all crops. The cash
income from the cotton crop, $139,828,000, was
53 per cent of the total cash income from all
crops. It was 28 per cent of the total agricul-
tural cash income of the state (crops and
livestock combined). During the last two or
three years cotton has contributed only 11 to
15 per cent of the total income of the state
derived from its raw materials. Partly be-
cause of the decline in the cotton-growing
industry and partly because of the glowing
diversity of other raw materials industries-
crops, livestock, minerals and other-cotton
has dropped a long way from its once domi-
nant position in the Texas economy.
Still the Major Texas Industry.
Cotton is still the largest contributor to
Texans' livelihood, as measured by the num-
ber of persons making all or a maJor part of
their living from a single industry However,
there has been a swift decline in this number.
A few years ago it was estimated that 2,700,-
000 persons, or nearly half of the total popu-
lation of the state owed their livelihood in
major degree to cotton. Probably the number
is 40 per cent less today. It is noteworthy
that the farm  population of Texas declined
8 per cent between 1930 and 1940, while the
number of tenants dropped from 301 660 to
204 462, and sharecroppers from  105,122 to
39821. Obviously the bulk of the decline
was in the cotton-growing group. This radi-
cal shift in population can be accepted as the
most momentous development of any census
decennium since that of 1860-70 which wit-
nessed the freeing of the slaves
First Grown Around Spanish Missions.
Cotton has been a leading Texas industry
throughout its history. A report of the mis-
sions at San Antonio in 1745 showed that
sex eral thousand pounds of cotton were pro-
duced annually on the mission farms   (And
all of it was spun and woven by the mission
ci afts.)
Stephen F. Austin recognized the possibili-
ties for growing cotton and encouraged the
Industry. When the first census was taken
in 1850 following the annexation of Texas,
it showed that Texas in the preceding year
of 1849 had produced 58,073 bales. Theie was
a iapid increase in cotton acreage during the
following decade and the census of 1860
showed Texas cotton production in 1859 had
been 431,645 bales  The Civil War cut the
average Texas production to about 200.000
bales, but from the close of the Civil War
the course of Texas cotton acreage and pro-
duction was, for sixty years, steadily upward.
The record production was in 1926, when Tex-
as farms accounted for 5 628 000 bales from
17,749,000 acres which was also the all-time
state record for acres harvested. Since 1926

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