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SOIL SURVEY OF KAUFMAN COUNTY, TEXAS 7
were hard surfaced through the county, and Texas Highway No. 34
was hard surfaced from Terrell to Kaufman. Most of the main
county roads serving the smaller towns are surfaced with gravel; the
rest of the roads are graded and are generally passable except for a
few days after heavy rains. Few farm homes have telephones, and
none except those immediately adjacent to towns are served with electric
power lines. Schools and churches are adequate.
Kaufman County has no manufacturing industries other than those
connected with the processing of agricultural products. The manufactories
are mainly cotton-oil mills and cotton gins. Immediately
after the discovery of the Powell oil field 30 miles southwest of Kaufman,
the county was the scene of intensive prospecting for oil. Many
landowners have received considerable incomes from the sale of oil
leases covering their lands, but' so far no producing oil fields have
been discovered.
CLIMATE
The climate is continental, warm, and humid. The precipitation
is somewhat variable, and much of it is in the form of torrential
showers. The relative humidity is low, and the rate of evaporation
is high.
The summers are long and moderately hot with, warm nights; the
winters are short, mild, and characterized by periods, a few days
long, of springlike weather suddenly followed by freezing or nearfreezing
temperatures, generally accompanied by north winds, which
are locally called northers. The difference between the mean temperatures
of the winter and summer seasons is 36 F. Temperatures
higher than 90 have been recorded in every month except November
and December.
The ground seldom freezes and never to a depth of more than 6
inches. The average annual snowfall is only 2.3 inches. Farm work
can be performed throughout the winter.
Kaufman County lies east of the part of Texas that has a pronounced
period of low rainfall during the winter, and there are no
manifest wet and drv seasons. The period of heaviest precipitationApril,
May, and June-is followed by the driest period-July,
August, and September-which receives about two-thirds as much
rainfall. Owing to the high rate of evaporation and the large demands
for moisture made by growing crops during the summer, late
summer stands out as a distinct dry period, and crops frequently
deteriorate because of lack of sufficient moisture during that time.
Fall is a secondary period of high rainfall. Although the winter
rainfall is about the same as that of late summer, as regards the
growth of crops winter is a wet season. This is the only time of the
year when the soils generally become very moist below a depth of
2 feet. August is the month of greatest variation in rainfall, followed
by November and December, and March is the month of most
uniform rainfall.
The average frost-free season is 243 days, extending from March 17
to November 15. Hardy vegetables, winter cereals, and winter legumes
make some growth throughout the winter, but winter oats are
sometimes destroyed by freezes. Local hailstorms occasionally occur