Texas Almanac, 1939-1940 Page: 39

PHYSIOGRAPHY OF TEXAS. 39

ghum and wheat farmer has taken the
cattle raiser's place, yet there is much
land available for new cultivation in
this region, and its future total volume
of crop production will be increased.
The potentialities of the region for in-
tensive beef cattle raising on stock
farms, dairying and poultry and swine
raising are incalculable. Well watered,
but well drained and with a mild climate
and soils suited to feed crop production,
it is as well adapted to an intensified
livestock production as any region in the
United States.
The region also has future mineral
possibilities, aside from its great oil and
gas fields, which have been responsible
for a large part of the Texas petroleum
and gas production to date. Clays, coal,
gypsum for manufacture of building ma-
terials, salt, copper and building stone
are found in large quantities in this re-
gion. Some of the state's greatest water
conservation projects are along the Bra-
zos, Colorado, Red and Trinity, where
'they traverse the narrow belt of hilly
topography along the eastern border of
the North Central area. There will be
further agricultural expansion, and de-
velopment of industry will follow on its
heels. The largest industrial and com-
mercial center of the area is Fort Worth,
lying on its eastern border. In the in-
terior are Wichita Falls, Abilene, Sweet-
water, Brownwood, Big Spring, Cisco,
Breckenridge, Vernon, Ranger, Eastland
and a number of smaller cities, some of
which doubled their population between
1920 and 1930.
GREAT PLAINS.
The third great physiographic region,
which lies from beyond the border of
Texas to the great geological and physi-
ographic crossroads within the state, is
the Great Plains Province. It is some-
times classed with the lower western
plains mentioned in the preceding para-
graph, although . is different enough in
geologic and physiographic conditions to
be designated under a special heading.
The Great Plains come down from the
north and northwest into Texas on the
high ridge that lies between the head-
waters of the Canadian, Red, Brazos and
Colorado on the east and the Pecos Val-
ley in New Mexico on the west, and ex-
tend southward to the Balcones Escarp-
ment along that portion lying below
Austin.
The Great Plains extension into Tex-
as may be divided into two subdivisions,
the High Plains of the Panhandle region
and the Edwards Plateau of Southwest
Texas. Staked Plains.
The Staked Plains or the Llano Esta-
cado is that portion of Northwest Texas
lying above the Cap Rock Escarpment.
Extending from the northeastern corner
of the Panhandle in a zigzag line south-

ward to the Texas & Pacific Railroad in
Howard County where, with less dis-
tinct definition superficially, the line of
demarcation turns southwestward to the
southern part of Midland County and
thence to the southeast corner of New
Mexico. The Staked Plains of Texas are
usually divided into (1) the Panhandle
or North Plains, being that part lying in
the Texas Panhandle as the northern
extension of the state is called, and (2)
the South Plains, being that part of the
High Plains country extending from the
North Plains to the Texas & Pacific
Railroad.
The Plains region corresponds to the
Cenozoic geologically, while the breaks
lying just below the east facing escarp-
ment uncover the rocks of the Triassic.
The surface is a level to slightly undulat-
ing plain, broken only by the head-
water channels of the Canadian, Red,
Brazos and Colorado, which cut through
the plains in varying degree from deep
canyons, as at Palo Duro, to wide draws,
as in the upper course of the Colorado.
The native vegetation consists of
grasses, excepting for the brush of the
lower extension of this plain. The soils
vary from loams to sandy loams and
sands. The Amarillo sandy loams and
Pullman-Richfield group predominate.
In the southern extension the soil be-
comes coarser and sandier and less pro-
ductive. The rainfall varies from 17
inches in the extreme southwestern por-
tion to 20 inches along its eastern border.
Though this rainfall would usually
place the region in the semiarid classi-
fication, the fortunate distribution of the
precipitation through the year, and the
character of soils and terrain combine
to make it sufficient to sustain a great
crop growing industry.
Devoted entirely to cattle raising until
about twenty years ago, the Great Plains
of Texas have become one of the great-
est wheat and cotton producing regions
in the nation. The wheat belt extends
northward from Crosby through Floyd
and spreads out to include the entire
northern Panhandle. The cotton pro-
duction is centered in the South Plains
around Lubbock, Hockley and Lynn
Counties where production has reached
in recent years an intensity comparable
with the best section of the Blacklands
and the Corpus Christi region. The ter-
ritory in its sandy and sandy loam re-
gions is adaptable to the production of
a variety of fruits and vegetables, and
this industry has been expanding in re-
,cent years, especially in the shallow wa-
ter belt of Hale, Lamb and contiguous
counties. There is a large production of
milos, feterita, kafirs and other grain
sorghums for raising and fattening cat-
tle and swine.
Large scale ranching is still found
along the western border and in the